Wrestlers have new home
Ramona’s wrestlers will have another new practice place on campus at Ramona High School.
Last season, Ramona’s wrestling teams switched practice facilities in the middle of the season and moved off-campus to the old Ramona Community School on Montecito Road.
Coach Steve Koch has called Ramona High School his home for 17 years, but he has had to call several different places the homes of the Bulldog wrestling team.
Unlike many schools, Ramona High School does not have a wrestling room or workout facility in the gym or PE department. Few if any schools have a Taj Mahal type area like Poway High School, but many have wrestling practice facilities as part of their physical education and athletic facilities.
“We have practiced at several different venues on campus and off campus,” said Koch. “It is always better to practice on campus for several reasons. An on-campus facility gives the student athletes easy access to the weight room, the track for conditioning, the trainer and training room, and it is more convenient for students to stay on campus after school to attend practice, and transportation to practice doesn’t have to be arranged.”
The on-campus locations that Koch and his team have used for practice in the past are: the stage in the old gym, the old gym, a barn in the agriculture area, and one year the team practiced outdoors on the tennis courts. The off-campus facilities are: the cafeteria at Ramona Elementary School, a room at Montecito High School, Wilson Gym in the district office building, a trailer at Montecito High School and the multipurpose room at the old Ramona Community School.
The new facility is in the agriculture department at Ramona High School. It is a 95-by-18-foot room that has been used as a welding room, classrooms and a ceramics room. Two walls had to be taken down, as it was previously three rooms.
“The district has done a lot of work for us and we have put in about 200 hours getting it ready for practice,” said Koch. “We had to move some pallets of paper, tables and kilns and lots of clay. We have practice mats and match mats, so we won’t have to move our mats for every home match like we have done in the past. We raised $7,000 for our new mats and that really helps.
The team will share the space with the middle school and the youth wrestling club, said Koch.
For more information about the new practice location and Ramona wrestling in general, go to www.ramonawrestling.com.
When asked how long he hopes to be practicing in the new facility, Koch jokingly replied, “Until a wrestling room is built at Ramona High School.”
He apparently plans to be practicing at the ag department for a long time.