SALEM, Ore.—Seven varsity wrestlers took to the mat to start the McKay High School Wrestling Season this past Saturday.

What resulted was three wrestlers placed as the Royal Scots finished tied for 12^th in the Perry Burlison Tournament at Cascade High School.

“As a team with how few wrestlers we did, I felt like we did very well,” said Jarding.  “It’s a tough tournament.  Some people would like to call it harder than districts but that’s besides the point because we wrestled the hardest.  I never saw anyone give up and that’s what counts.”

Jarding was one of the placers, finishing fourth in the 170-weight class.  The other two were Adam Dryde who finished sixth at the 182 weight class and Salvado Camargo who finished fifth at the 285 weight class.

Royal Scots Head Coach Troy Thomas mentioned how the Perry Burlinson Tournament was a good experience builder for the end of the season for the team and for the young guys at the Junior Varsity level.

“I think we entered close to 16 kids on the JV Side and all of those guys go around four or five matches,” said Thomas.  “So that’s really good, we treated this weekend as kids getting experience in.

“Like any other sport you try to have live competition and scrimmages, whatever you call it in your individual sport is what kind of degrees of toughness, especially in wrestling.  Actually getting out there, getting that mat time against real competition really helps us.”

Moving forward to this week, they have their league opening dual versus West Albany at home Thursday before hosting the Herrin Holiday Classic this Saturday.

Before then, one major area of focus is technique for the young squad said Thomas.

“There is so much stuff you can teach a first-year wrestler,” said Thomas.  “We’ve only had three weeks of practice.  I’m really impressed how far they came just within those three weeks.”

Thomas also added that, even though they are one of the best teams in the state with conditioning, they will continue to improve on it entering later this week and heading forward.

“We will continue to improve on throughout the season,” said Thomas.  “If you’re lacking in technique, if you’re lacking in strength or any other area is, you can make up for it in that conditioning.

“There’s a lot of matches that gets into the third round and it’s the guy who’s in better shape who wants it more is whose going to win it.”

But there is one thing that one thing that McKay can they rest their hats on.

The McKay Way by never giving up.

“I’m really impressed with what I saw with the effort,” said Jarding.  “I didn’t see anyone give up in those tough matches and that’s something you can’t teach.”

The Scots Novice team will take to the mat at Sprague Wednesday night for a Greater Valley Conference Novice Meet that starts at 5pm.

As for the Varsity, they take to the Bulldogs of West Albany at 7pm in a dual Thursday and the Herrin Holiday Classic starts at 9am Saturday.  Both Varsity matches are at McKay.

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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