Santiam National Training Camp

My wrestlers and I had the opportunity to spend that last week in Sweet Home for the Santiam National Training Camp and while we were all exhausted, I can honestly say, this camp was worth every penny.

We started the week out with a pretty tough first practice and ended the camp with a pretty tough practice. Mixed in were morning runs. So, from start to finish, you either worked hard or you were quickly left behind.

Coaches Steve Lander of Roseburg, Steve Thorpe of Sweet Home, Neil Russo of Newberg, Mike Simons of Thurston, Lonnie Eggert of Tillamook and Luke Cleaver of Nyssa ran the sessions. I even managed to teach a session on leg rides and was much appreciated to be included. Each wrestling session was broken down into much detail, with tons of intense drilling in all styles as well as much live wrestling as you could handle.

One room consisted of the National Team members training for Fargo and anyone else man enough to train with the very best. These practices were intense from start to finish. The kids battled hard and got the opportunity to work with tons of state champs and placers from the state of OR. When you left this room, you were walking away knowing you went with the very best and you were better because of it.

In between each session, we had camp/team activities in which the champions received special t-shirts. While my team didn't win, we had the fastest obstacle course time ever known to mankind at .59 secs. Don't let any of those coaches or wrestlers tell you otherwise. Watching the hot dog eating contest was worth the wait, though. We were clearly outmatched in the Tug of War and in Ultimate Frisbee we got hosed.

During our down time, our Pirate wrestlers brought out one of our storied games we play on every road trip, Burro. Eventually, some other wrestlers from various teams, managed to get the stones necessary to play our game and it made it that much better. Kids were watching and it felt like a mini stadium as we battled throughout the game. I can honestly say I am still the Burro champ. Only the strongest survive in that game.

We had a special treat during the camp, as the South African National Team came through and stayed the night and worked out with us as well. However, before we could get started, we had by far the largest and roughest game of Rugby known to man. Those South Africans are quite the rugby players. If you don't know what rugby is, its the equivilent to our football and quite huge throughout the world. I've heard stories of stadiums of 150,000 plus watching the South Africans play. My kids and myself even managed to trade some shirts and coats with the team. My kids were pretty stoked.

Highlights from the camp from my point of view:

Hearing about Thorpe's son Travis going on a Sno Cone break.
Eating by far the best PFS stew I've ever ate in my entire life, courtesy of Mike Simons.
Eluding Bubba Owens for the entire camp so he wouldn't crush me.
Watching Sam Mechams warm up session.
Maintaining my title as World Champion in Burro.
Meeting the Sausage King of OR.
Shooting the breeze with all the coaches from varous teams.
Chatting with the South African coaching staff.
Chatting with former Cadet National Team kids I helped coach last year and seeing their progress.

I'm sure there are plenty of other highlights from others, but the bottom line is, this camp was a great experience for all my wrestlers and they can't wait to come back next year. I hope to see all of OR's up and comers at next years camp striving to become the very best.

Side note-Joey Chandler will be a state champ and AA before its all said and done. That kid is straight up nails on the mat. The only kid I couldn't score on.