By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

OREGON CITY, Ore.–  Vacation was nice, but it’s back to work for the Clackamas Community College Wrestling Team.

“It was good, we’ve been going since mid-September,” said 197-Pounder John Morin.  “So to get a week break of no wrestling, it was good.  We got everybody coming back and doing a really good job now.

“Everyone’s refreshed and I feel like there’s more energy in the room.”

For Cougars Head Coach Josh Rhoden, Tuesday’s practice was one of the few practices that he had his full roster of wrestlers on the mat for practice where he credits the Thanksgiving Break for the help.

“It’s nice that have guys back in the room,” said Rhoden. “(There’s) plenty of options for people partners, giving guys different looks is always helpful.  Guys spirits are good, they actually took care of themselves over the break.  Their conditioning looked good.

“So I thought the break did what it was suppose to do.”

The big challenge this week for CCC is the daunting task at hand of back-to-back matches.

Friday is a league match against Southwestern Oregon Community College at home, then they’ll turn and burn the next morning with weigh-ins followed by a three hours to compete against Highline College Saturday in Washington.

But it’s all in practice for the ultimate goal:  The National Championship.

“It’s to practice getting those back-to-back weigh-ins in for the National Championships,” said Rhoden.  “It’s always been something we’ve thought about when we schedule

“I like putting them through the adversity.  Hopefully they respond to what we want them to do and I think they will.”

For Morin, the sophomore is all too familiar to this over the past few years of his career as a Cougar, but he said that the hardest thing is the weight cutting and the wrestling is the easy part.

“It is hard with the whole weight cutting thing.  The wrestling isn’t too hard because we’re used to wrestling everyday,” said Morin.  “But it’s just the weight cut, people after the first dual have to keep their weight down in order to wrestle properly on the next day.

“But everyone has been training hard enough that their weight is down and is doing alright.”

Having seen bits and pieces of the two squads from varies tournaments.  Southwest is the Cougs in-state rival and Highline is in their conference, so expectations are high.

Not to win and compete well, but it matters in terms of regional seedings as well.

“Our expectations is always to win,” said Rhoden.  “(But) our expectations on both of these, this matters for these guys for seedings at regional’s.

“It’s important for them, emotionally and competitively to set the tone for our year in conference duals and it starts this weekend.”

Through it all, there is just excitement for having a home match and not having to worried about the hustle and bustle of an away match or open.

“It’s nice for these guys to compete in front of friends and family,” said Rhoden “It’s nice for all of us not to travel, be here in the mat room, work out at our own pace, (and) do our things on our own time and not feel rushed.”

The CCC/SOCC match Friday night is slatted at 7pm at Clackamas Community College and the Highline match will also start at 7pm at Highline College.

MATCHES TO WATCH

SOUTHWESTERN OREGON (Friday)

-133

-157

HIGHLINE COLLEGE (Saturday)

-125

-133

-141

-197

PHOTO GALLERY (BY JEREMY MCDONALD)

Jeremy McDonald is a professional sports journalist in the Salem/Portland area and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalist in Oregon with B.S. degrees from Southern Oregon University in Journalism (2011) and Health/PE (2013).  Got a story idea? Email him at jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com or on Twitter at @J_McDonald81!

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