Myrtle Point’s Ryan Love, left, competes with Reedsport’s Justin Halstead during the recent Reedsport Invitational. World Photo by Susan Chambers.

All the painted houses, repaired bleachers, car washes and hours of yard work are finally going to pay off for Reedsport High School’s varsity wrestling team.  

It took a great deal of hard work and a little bit of help from the right people for the team to be able to travel to Denver, Colo., for the Top of the Rockies wrestling tournament this week.

“Anything people needed done, we did it,” explained head coach Philip Lopez of the work his grapplers put in during the summer to raise the funds for such a costly trip.

The Braves will head north to Portland where they will fly to Denver on Wednesday, two days before the tournament begins. On Thursday, they will take on a pair of Colorado schools — Broomfield (No. 3 at the 4A level) and Grand Valley (No. 3 at the 2A level) — in a double dual at Broomfield High School.

The Top of the Rockies is a nationally ranked tournament and will be a completely different atmosphere than what the small-town Braves are used to.

“We’ve never been to a tournament this big before,” said senior Nic Morris. “Not everyone gets a chance to do something like this.”

This will be the first year the boys have made the trip to Colorado, but for one assistant coach it will be a return home. Coach Matt Schmidt, a former wrestler at Broomfield High School, was talking to his father on the phone — an assistant wrestling coach at Broomfield — when his father asked if Reedsport would be interested in coming to the Top of the Rockies. And of course, he accepted the offer.

After all the time put in during the offseason, the boys finally are on their way.

The third-ranked Braves are in the midst of a strong season and intend to carry that successful attitude to Colorado.

“They’ve really bought into what our coaches have been trying to teach them,” said Lopez. “We teach them to get the pin from any position.”

And that’s exactly what they’ve done. Lopez also said that the team has an 88-percent pin ratio so far this season.

Morris, now in his fourth year of wrestling, also stated that if the team wrestles with as much effort as they have so far, they will be satisfied with the results.

“As a coach, I have high expectations for them to perform every time they’re on the mat,” reiterated Lopez.  

A large portion of the team is made up of first-and second-year wrestlers who have  experienced success in their early high school careers and are looking forward to the new experiences their trip has to offer, said senior Mike Casarro.

 Lopez will be taking his full varsity roster to the tournament, including: Chad and Mike Casarro, Kole Freestone, Eli Garner, John Gerber, Anthony and Justin Halstead, Tyler Hoffman, Cesar Lira, Cody Manues, Morris, Robert Olson, Brandon Neves, Tim Spangle and Blair Swanner.

“I know if I go in with confidence and wrestle as hard as I can, I’ll be proud of the outcome,” Morris said.