Some laughed and some just stared as former Olympic wrestler and storied coach Ken Chertow screamed and did flips on the mats in front of nearly 90 young grapplers at Southwestern Oregon Community College on Tuesday.

Soon, Chertow had his rapt audience of young wrestlers, who ranged from age 6 to college athletes, doing flips of their own.

The dynamic Chertow poured sweat and energy Tuesday as he worked with wrestlers from the Pacific Northwest and as far away as Colorado for his Ken Chertow’s Gold Medal Training Camp, which made its only stop in the Pacific Northwest in Coos Bay from Sunday through today.

“I’ve worked with kids all of my life,” Chertow said of his students after the wrestlers and instructors took a break.  “I want them to leave motivated to excel in school, wrestling and life.”

Chertow, whose resume includes seven seasons as a U.S. National Team competitor, two junior world champion crowns and an NCAA title as a coach at Penn State, is celebrating the 20th year of his popular traveling wrestling camp. The only other West Coast stop on Chertow’s 23-city tour was at Fresno State University the first week of June. He chose Coos Bay instead of a larger market like Portland because of a connection with Southwestern Oregon Community College head wrestling coach Adam Whitlach.

Whitlach attended one of Chertow’s camps nearly two decades ago, and worked with the Olympian privately for perhaps an hour, gaining valuable advice on a move known as an inside trip.

Almost 20 years later, Whitlach contacted Chertow to see about bringing his camp to Coos Bay. Whitlach didn’t expect Chertow, who’s coached countless kids, to remember him.

“He said, ‘Yeah, I know you. You still using the inside trip?’” recalled Whitlach. “He takes a lot of interest in the athletes and gets to know them. ... He’s a huge motivator and a promoter of the sport of wrestling.”

The 86 enrollees for this week’s camp was what Chertow called a “good first-year turnout,” and those in attendance had access to some of the best coaching available; Chertow’s staff included former University of Oregon head wrestling coach Chuck Kearney and Oklahoma State standout Obenson Blanc, a member of the U.S. Senior National Team.

“I’m always learning. Chertow’s a great guy,” said Fernando Pedraza, who wrestled at Southwestern before moving on to Jamestown College to wrestle in 2008. “I’m glad he finally came out west.”

The camp had a lot to offer the younger age groups of wrestlers as well, as Chertow and his staff — along with Whitlach and hand-picked local coaches and counselors — moved youth grapplers through the basics of wrestling and worked on conditioning.

“We’re learning a whole bunch of moves and stuff,” said Tyler Campbell, 12, of Coos Bay, after he finished sparring with Cole Smith, 11, also of Coos Bay. “And we’re getting lots of conditioning. We’re working out butts off.”

Reedsport wrestler Emily Lichte, 10, agreed.

“I’m getting to learn new stuff, and I get to try my hardest at wrestling,” she said.

By 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, wrestlers were hunched over their knees with exhaustion after sparring, running laps and doing sit-ups and push-ups under the relentless tutelage of Chertow and his team. But that, the Olympian said, is the point.

“You have to be tough when you’re tired. There’s that old saying, ‘Fatigue makes cowards of us all.’ We can’t let that happen,” Chertow said. “If you’re tough when you’re tired in practice, it carries over in competition.”

Both Whitlach and Chertow said they’d like to see the camp back in Coos Bay again next year; Whitlach thought it was great for the local wrestling community, and Chertow was pleasantly surprised by the quality of Southwestern’s facilities. He said he’d like to grow the event into a 100-plus-person camp.

“Eighty-six grows to 120,” he said.

Whitlach said he’d like to see that happen, too.

“We hope we can get (Chertow) back here,” he said. “This is huge, and it’s huge for our sport of wrestling.”