By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.– Just because school is not in session, doesn’t mean it’s a day off for the McKay Wrestling Team.

With Head Coach Troy Thomas splitting the team into their respective Varsity and Junior Varsity teams, the Royal Scots turn their focus to South Salem  on Thursday and the Tigard Tournament Saturday.

“I believe that today is one of the most crucial days of the winter sports athletic programs,” said Thomas.  “You have kids getting deep down, it’s not fun when your day-to-day, but everyone else is doing it too.  So we have to get after it because South is going to come after us with a vengeance.

“They’re going to be mad about their loss last year, and now that we’re at their house, they’re really going to turn it up.  So today was important to get back in here and get back to the grind.”

Live action wrestling after working on defending the single-leg move illustrated the end of practice as McKay look to continue their winning streak against South Thursday night at South.

To do that, said Salavador Camargo, it comes down to their conditioning to combat the Saxons vengeance from last year.

“We just have to keep our conditioning up and push through the fatigue that we have,” he said.  “As a team, we need to start pushing through and everything, showing up more because we have some absences.

“They’re going to want to have a vengeance on us. So we’re going to need to toughing up and we’re going to have to go through hell because they’re going to want to come back to us on their home court.”

Following their Greater Valley Conference dual versus South Thursday, the Scots will turn their focus on the Tigard Tournament at Tigard High School Saturday afternoon.

But for right now it’s about getting better and taking advantage of one of their three practice days to prepare for both events to help with keeping their endurance and conditioning up.

“Some schools, they’re probably on vacation right now,”  said Camargo.  “When we’re in here, we’re going to keep on getting better and better while they’re not doing anything, if they’re not doing anything.”

The dual match against the Saxons is slated for a 6pm JV start with Varsity to follow and the Tigard Tournament starts at 9am Saturday morning at Tigard High School.

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!