Though a tragic drowning dampened the aftermath of the annual Santiam Wrestling Camp this year (page 1), Sweet Home Coach Steve Thorpe said the camp, which brought some 200 young wrestlers to Sweet Home High School last week, was a success.
“This camp is a great camp,” Thorpe said. “It has evolved into one of the best camps in the state.”
He said he had to turn some prospective participants away in the final days leading up to the event, which has become a regular occurance as demand exceeds supply.
This year’s camp, which ran July 4-8, included wrestlers from Florida, Hawaii and Alaska, as well as a few dozen national team members from Oregon who are headed for Fargo, N.D. for the 2010 Cadet and Junior National Championships July 18-24.
They included triple crown winners Seth Thomas of Roseburg, who will be a senior next year; Zach Brunson of Churchill, who will be a junior; Sweet Home’s Colton Schilling, who will be a sophomore and Josh Reyes of Portland, who will be a freshman at David Douglas.
“We have those elites, but we also have some first-year kids,” Thorpe said. “Just training with those elite wrestlers will make younger wrestlers better.”
The national team members have moved on to the national training camps, the juniors at Oregon State University and the cadets at Southern Oregon University.
Schilling, along with fellow sophomores-to-be Tyler Cowger, Colby DeCleave and Trever Olson, are all at the cadet camp at SOU.
Thorpe was joined at the Santiam camp by several other coaches of leading wrestling programs around the state including Neil Russo of Newberg, Mike Simons of Thurston and Steve Lander of Roseburg.
“This camp, I’ll tell you, the quality of coach that is at this camp right now and the quality of athlete, even if you’re not elite, you’re getting expectations and training that can carry into next year,” he said. “It’s not about learning a bunch of moves. It’s about learning how to train.”