The Camp of the Century

The Last Camp of The Century

The camp was set, it was to take place between the Last week of July and the first week of August. The Clinicians were nothing but spectacular, the lead clinician was the head assistant at the local University, along with his assistant, and 4 members of their team, 2 of which were D1 All Americans. The Camp would also consist of a 1-day session with a Russian national Champion, who defected to the states, Rolan Sabanatov. The Camp would draw numbers that Lloyd never even imagined.

Day 1:

The first day began at 9 am for signups and the 1st session would start at 10 am. There were 52 campers already pre-registered, but Lloyd didn’t foresee tagalongs who would pay the day of camp. The tagalong crew ended up fueling 72 participants 49 of which were camping and 23 which were commuting. The level of talent at the camp ranged from High school state champions to grade school beginners, which if using my hindsight I would have made the camp only for advanced wrestlers as it was rather intense. Kids would hide in the woods and miss the beta bus Lloyd rented just to get out of the 8-hour hell that was being provided uptown at the rec hall. Hell doesn’t even resemble the torturous day that Rolan Sabanatov endured upon the campers during his 1-day session. He was out there doing backflips then hitting double legs. He was throwing his partner in throws that we in the states would use a blue bean bag mat just to soften the hit. Not Rolan though, he said those mats are for the weak and only the strong can survive in wrestling. One time he even grabbed the D3 High school state champion Nived Wynn and chose to toss him in two headlocks, 1 lateral drop, and then collar tied him and dragged him around with the tie explaining to the rest of the campers in his thick Russian accent, that “The USA is garbage at wrestling, look what I can do to the Mr. State Champion,” then Rolan proceeded to foot sweep Nived so hard his head would bounce off the mat like a basketball. Nived was only 17 at the time and this angered many of the other clinicians, campers, and spectators. Rolan would leave in a rage throwing his camp shirt in the streets as he drove on by Lloyd who was trying to salvage whatever relationship they had left. It only became clear to me years later on what in fact happened. Rolan, who after he arrived at the house the night before by doing a summersault dive off a 20ft high tree limb while screaming I'm not afraid to die, had impressed Lloyds Oldest daughter Victoria so much that she went out to the local pub with him. So needless to say Lloyd found out and confronted Roland that night, thus leading to a day of hell for the campers.

Well now with Rolan gone the camp got hit with another bombardment. Poor Louise and Landon’s mother Retta-Jean were stuck on meal duty every day 3 times a day for the campers. Retta-Jean wasn’t as kitchen savvy Louise and happened to accidentally sour the macaroni salad she made. The next day campers and clinicians were suffering the stomach pains eating it had brought. The worse thing was that night it was now midway through camp, 50% of campers and staff are sick. So what possibly could make this worse? Well, it just so happened to be the worst rainstorm the county had seen in 20years would be next in line.

The rainstorm from hell was what came next. Turning tents over, leaving the 2 stories and 3 bedroom house of the Holmes family as the sleeping grounds for nearly 30 campers. The ones who brought a camper were the lone survivors outside. The next morning the clinicians went around in big trucks and loaded up the camper's clothes that got wet in the storm and brought them into town to a wash and dry. Those quarters came out their wages so I’m guessing smiles were not present during the laundry stop. Well, the camp finally came to its conclusion with the Friday night war games where the campers who had survived the week, which was now down to about 24, would play capture the flag. This is was the lone bright spot from the camp, and Lloyd would only do one 1more while I was in High school, but I ran 1 for him while in college, but it was commute only. The actual last camp came when West Virginia University's assistant, Taloc Cary, also considered one of the greatest American wrestlers and was an Olympic bronze medalist who came into town for a week, basically to recruit Landon and see what else our area had. He got Landon to commit, but only for a week or two, as college wrestling wasn’t Landon's passion even though to this day I say he's the 2nd best I ever rolled with. The best I ever went with was the 3x New Mexico State Champ who was supposed to be Blair's new 133 when I went in as the 141. Guy Lleyba sure was a beast, he was like flash lightning on his feet. However his career was derailed at 19 after he suffered career-ending knee injuries, but I’m getting way ahead of myself.