By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

TURNER, Ore.–  Gervais’ Peter McKinley was the lone Cougar wrestling on the Varsity level Saturday at Cascade High School, but that’s what leaders do.

The senior 220 pound wrestler open his senior season with a fourth-place finish at the Perry Burelson Tournament as he reflects on his journey to team captain.

“It’s senior year, team captain, it’s pretty special for me,” “A sophomore who won one match the whole season and here I am with five, six, seven, eight guys looking at me, ‘how do I do this move? How you do that?’ so it’s really a neat experience for me and I just love it.”

He points to the two leaders of the Gervais teams in the past that helped mold him to not to quit and keep fighting no matter the circumstance as he leads this squad and help them use this tournament as a stepping stone for great things to come this season for the Blue and Gold.

And McKinley points to it as a learning process, even for him.

“We’re still learning,” he said.   “For me personally, I got to learn not to make stop mistakes and that’s most of us.  That’s what kills wrestlers in matches is awkward mistakes…and for a lot of those young guys, it’s the first time getting any competition, so they’re taking away from it as, ‘that’s what real, live competition is all about.  Both guys going in there and trying to beat the hell out of each other’.

“And so I think they’re going to come away from this and go into Scio a little more prepared.  Have a better week of practice because there’s going to be more into it, ‘I want to win now and I don’t want to be on that losing side’.  So I think it’ll build a lot, me and them, we’re all going to take a lot of experience from this.”

On the JV Bracket, Zamair Cortez went 0-2 in the 138 bracket, Johnatho Cruz won two of his four matches at 145 while Ceasar Tuijla, Daniel Burkoff won a match apiece in their bracket while Jose Ruiz finished 0-2 at 285 for the Cougars against some tough competition from 4A, 5A and 6A schools in the Greater Salem area.