National champion Chris Pendleton appears before 200-plus wrestling youngsters

Maybe he just wants to instill some of the drive that he had to succeed into the young minds of maybe a few of the 200 or so kids who showed up this week’s wrestling camp. Maybe he thinks there is a camper who may had the kind of drive he had that led him to win two NCAA championships in 2004 and 2005 as a wrestler for Oklahoma State. He was recently hired at Arizona State to help the Wildcats recruit the nation’s best wrestlers and compete for a team national title.

“I just finished up my first season there as an assistant coach and we’re looking forward to bringing back wrestling to the west coast,” he said.

Pendleton credits the program at Lemoore High and Coach Olson for much of his success. “One of the things I know that for myself, one of the things that we learned coming from Lemoore was hard work, a blue collar mentality. You just get out there and roll your sleeves up. A lot of problems can be solved by just getting down and dirty and working hard.”

Why did he come back to Lemoore? “You never know where the next Isaiah Martinez is coming from,” he said. “I remember him coming to this camp when I was in college. I think it’s very important, no matter how successfully you are; it’s always important to remember your roots and remember the people that helped you out and helped you come up. I will come out and do this camp for as long as I am able to. I love working with the kids and this is giving back to the community of Lemoore.”

Campers, in addition to one two-time national champion in Pendleton, on Wednesday, will get a visit from Lemoore High’s other national champion, Isaiah Martinez, who will appear here fresh off the national title he won just last spring, completing an undefeated freshman season.

The camp’s director, Kent Olson, who coached Lemoore High School to 15 West Yosemite League championships, including Pendleton’s state title, is pleased with this year’s turnout. About 200 kids, ages five to 18 showed up for a glimpse and pep talk from two of the nation’s best wrestlers ever.

Pendleton still looks like he could win a national title 15 years later, but he’s more or less just happy attending camps like West Hills College and maybe finding another Martinez or Chris Pendleton.

Other attendees this week include Jamill Kelly, a Stanford assistant coach who took second in the Olympics and four-time All-American Zach Sanders, from Minnesota, who will visit the camp on Friday. “We try to bring in some college coaches and athletes,” said Olson who hopes to instill the drive to compete in some of the kids who participate in the camp. “These kids, from Tulare and Kings Counties, need to know that they can do it also and that’s what we’re trying to do here. The main thing is to get these kids to think they can go to college after high school.”

There might be a Chris or and Isaiah in the 200 or so campers who attended. “There are some little kids out here who are tremendous and they’re getting better and better,” he said, adding that the region holds some real promise for wrestling.

Olson coached at Lemoore High for 21 years and his teams won 15 WYL titles including sending several athletes on to state title bouts. He’s been at West Hills College for the past eight years and has three conference championships, winning the Regionals twice.

“We’ve always been very competitive. Last year was probably not the best year we’ve had” but things will be better next year, he said.