By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

OREGON CITY, Ore.— For Josh Rhoden, entering his 11^th season as Cougar Head Coach, he’s accomplished so much in his tenure:  National Championship (2011), five West Region Titles, three straight NWCA National Duals; the list goings on and on that the question becomes:  What’s bringing him back year-after-year?

The love of the adventure, the support around him, the kids and wanting to better the sport in the classroom and on the mats.

“I love it, I love the sport, I really like the area.  I like the people I work with and so that makes it easier.  We have a good support staff that supports the kids,” he said.  “And I’m motivated, I want to try to make it better here as much as I can.

“Working on trying to figure out a new space at the college for us, which if we could get, that will kind of secure everything we’ve been doing; just the idea of moving forward with wrestling and the idea of wrestling impacting kids to help them get degrees.  I mean that’s been the whole mission that we’ve kind of set out on 10-years ago.  The kids help keep you young, I like the group we have this year.”

One of the new additions to the staff is Tarrence Williams, member of that 2011 National Title winning class at as a sophomore before going to Colorado State-Pueblo following the Championship win and is still active in the sport of wrestling to this day.

And there’s excitement there for the seasoned wrestler as he returns to Clack as a coach instead of the pupil as he draws from personal experience to be a younger voice in the room that isn’t Coach Rhoden or Coach Rich Vigitorio.

“I feel like I learned a lot of stuff and I feel like that I can show these guys a lot of stuff and what not and be a younger role-model for them,” said Williams.  “As far as coaching, Rhoden has that dialed in.  he can really show these guys  and give these guys  the tools that they need in order to beat some of the best wrestlers in the country.

“But some of the things I’ve been trying to help these guys with is just making the right decisions outside of the wrestling room because I’ve always been a athlete who always had my head on straight.  I wasn’t really into the partying and all the stuff, just really focused on being the Best that I can be and showing them with hard work, a lot of things are obtainable.”

Not to mention that Williams gets to watch his cousin (Haszell “BamBam” West) and his younger brother (Jasiah Williams, a freshman and graduate of Jefferson of Portland) perform and evolve as athletes and as individuals.

As Rhoden mentioned slightly above, the team is slowly building a new area for the team as the Cougars team has 37 athletes on roster this year, up from 28 from last year as they practice at Oregon City High School as they work out the details for that.

But as Jefferson (of Portland) grad and third-year wrestler in West alluded to, it just speaks volumes of the credibility of the program that’s finished no worse than eighth and having at least three All-Americans at that stage in each of Rhoden’s years coaching at the National Tournament.

“That speaks to how good we are as a team because we have guys who are State Champions in their respective States and they come here be a second-, or third-guy on the depth chart,” said West.  “That tells you how deep we are and how good we are as a team.”

“It’s cool because people want to represent our program to get kids from all around the country to represent the program,” added Colt Doyle of Poway High School (Lakeside, CA).  “But you also get kids that want to compete so you get guys that the competition in the room is a whole another level. So you get better guys, better competition within the whole team itself.”

Rhoden also adds, the depth is nice for when injuries occur as it did last year late, but it also allows for the friendly competition at practice for spots come Match Night.

“The depth helps,” said Rhoden.  “We’re deeper in a lot of weights, so it gives us more opportunities for guys to get matches and get time.  It helps us rest guys better when guys are legitimately hurt, it helps us stay solid as a program.

“And it keeps these guys sharp knowing that there’s guys around them that are going to be hunting for their spot.  So I think those all are going to be bonus’ to have a little bit larger group and I think we have a good group overall.  It’s going to be interesting to see how they respond to the year starting.”

Doyle is one of those hungry guys especially.  The redshirt frosh is excited to get back to wrestling after not seeing live action last year at the 174 class.

“You could say pretty hungry,” said Doyle.  “I’m pretty anxious…I’m pretty nervous at first but I’m ready to see the work we’ve been putting in is to withstand our opponents.”

Doyle and West are some of the athletes that Rhoden is expecting to step up in 2016/2017 and West wants to be a leader of his team entering his sophomore campaign in the Navy and Scarlet as they try to improve upon their sixth-place finish from last season in the National tournament.

“Coming back for my third year here, I want to be a leader for the team.  Put our best foot forward for every time we step on the mats,” said West.  “That’s really important for me, nobody like losing especially like a sport like this, we’re going to come here, work hard every day and do what we can to win.”

The season starts on October 20 with a little fun exhibition in the annual ‘Navy and Scarlet’ intersquad meet that gives everyone an opportunity to perform in front of the home crowd for the first time this season.

“It’s fun because everybody’s going to wrestle that’s healthy,” So that all their friends, family, everybody gets to come out and watch them and feel a part of what we’re doing.  It’s really cool for us to showcase the work your putting in.”

That event starts at 7pm in Randall Hall.  For the full schedule, visit:  http://depts.clackamas.edu/athletics/wrestling/schedule.asp