Heart and Hustle clinic steers grapplers toward success
IMPERIAL — The Ricochet Rec Center on Aten Road is a real potpourri of a place. Part bounce house, part arcade, part R.C. track — it wears many hats.
For the past three days, it’s also been home to the second annual Heart and Hustle wrestling clinic organized by the Imperial Junior Wrestling Club.
The clinic, which concluded Thursday, saw 30 participants hunker down in the northeast corner of the center each day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (less an hour for lunch) with guest coach Ronnie Bresser, to study up on the finer points of the various takedowns, reversals and pinning combinations that are the meat and potatoes
of the wrestler’s art.
According to Adam Avila — for the last seven years an Imperial Junior Wrestling coach and a former Calexico High School grappler who played a major role in organizing the event — the clinic was put on the books not long after last year’s initial success.
Avila said he sees wrestling as something that “really does build individuals of character, and shows them hard work, integrity … all the essential attributes someone needs to succeed,” and he wants to give the blueprint to as many local kids as possible. He sees local clinics like Heart and Hustle as a way to eliminate some of the familiar obstacles that are native to high-level athletics in the Imperial Valley.
“Most wrestling camps or clinics are offered out of the Valley — three or four hours, maybe more — and you have to drive to get there. And with that comes hotels, food, gas … and we’re just trying to limit that spending and bring quality coaching down here,” he said.
In Bresser — a Portland, Ore. native with three state championships at the high school level, three Pac-12 championships while wrestling at Oregon State and two NCAA All-American selections — Avila and company identified someone with plenty of high-level experience and “a very unique style” to help give this year’s camp some pizzazz.
The general format of this year’s clinic was one of group instruction, with Bresser demonstrating a move and breaking it down, before participants split off into pairs and working at it one-on-one while he and the volunteer instructors observed and corrected as necessary.
Bresser’s coaching style attempts to co-mingle the nuts and bolts of wrestling with broader life lessons.
“I try to show them as much as I can and help them out on the mat,” he said, “But I think the biggest thing for me is trying to help them be good people and true people, with respect [who have that drive] to help people out and be positive towards others. … It’s a lot bigger than just showing them moves.”
A stranger to the Valley, Bresser said he found the clinic to be well-organized, and thanked the coaching staff for their hospitality.
“Everything’s gone great. I didn’t know who these people were before this clinic, and now they’re like another family,” he said, adding, in praise of the local cuisine. “We’ve had some great carne asada … the Mexican food down here is bomb.”
With this year’s clinic wrapped up, the team at Imperial Junior Wrestling already has eyes on making next year’s event bigger and better.
“Our ultimate goal is to have a yearly clinic in the summer and to bring down top-notch wrestlers and clinicians to help improve our wrestling here in the Imperial Valley,” said Avila, “(Eventually) we want to do a five-day camp with multiple clinicians … and to end it with a tournament. Whether it’s next year or 10 years from now, that’s what we’re gonna reach.”