After Jake Wilcox took over the Pacific Coast Championships wrestling tournament last year, he received plenty of positive feedback from other coaches.
Well, those coaches are about to be really impressed.
After years of being held in high school gymnasiums, the Pac Coast Championships will be held at the Clark County Event Center at the fairgrounds, attracting about 140 boys and girls teams from 78 high schools across the Pacific Northwest.
“It was just a matter of reaching out to high schools saying ‘Hey, we have a larger venue. We have more mats than we’ve ever had,” Wilcox said. “ ‘Come on, come on.’ ”
Wilcox was named the head coach of wrestling at Evergreen last year school. And with that title came the responsibility of running the Pac Coast, the annual wrestling showcase held over the winter break.
“I’m a loan officer by trade and marketing is in my background,” Wilcox said. “So I just marketed it like I thought it was supposed to be. … And every single coach who reached out to me afterwards told me how much they loved the event.”
Then came an idea from a friend who also had a marketing background.
“Hey man, you could market it, get sponsors to move this to a bigger venue and the sponsors will pay for the venue,” the friend told Wilcox. “I was in the crowd (last year), and I could see how the people were engaged. And I’m telling you, you could move this to a bigger, better place.”
So Wilcox started making calls. That led to Waste Connections stepping up to be the main sponsor, allowing Wilcox to move the event to Clark County Event Centers.
Out at the fairgrounds, the event will have 12 mats running — up from eight mats that were used last year at Hudson’s Bay. That also allows the Pac Coast to have a girls tournament for the first time.
At each mat, there will be a bleacher that can hold up to 125 people. That will be the biggest change fans will notice.
“Typically, in the past, wrestlers would take their gear and sit in the bleachers,” Wilcox said. “That’s why I rented a separate room for the wrestlers with tables and bleachers, so they can put their stuff in there and have a place to be while they wait for their next match. That will allow our spectators with plenty of room to watch the matches.”
Wilcox said Mark Matthias, owner of Beaches restaurant, will be running the concessions stand, and there will be food trucks and coffee carts outside the facility for fans to visit.
Spectators will get all of this and pay the same ticket price they paid last year — $12 for one day, or $20 for both days.
Wrestling will start Thursday at 9:30 a.m. and run throughout the day. Wilcox hopes to have Day 1 matches done by about 5 p.m., instead of lingering deep into the night as in past years.
Friday’s matches will start at 10 a.m. and run until 4 p.m. Then the tournament will take a break so that the facility can be reconfigured around two mats, so that the finals in the boys and girls tournaments can be held concurrently starting at 5 p.m.
Prior to the finals, Donnie McPherson, a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame who coached Heritage to 4A state team title in 2003, will be honored with a lifetime achievement award.
The event is scheduled to attract some of the top teams in the region. The boys 175-pound division could feature the reigning Washington state champions in Class 4A, 3A, 2A, 1A and 2B.
Wilcox said he opted to move the dates of the tournament up one week, from its traditional date over the final days of December, because it allows wrestlers to enjoy the Christmas holiday without having to worry about making weight a couple of days later.
Wilcox has his new event site, and he has wrestlers coming. Now, the only thing left is having people coming to watch.
“You know, when it comes to marketing, getting the butts in the seats is always the hardest part, right,” he said. “Luckily, I have that already covered. It’s just the nature of wrestling.”
Wilcox said with the number of schools coming, the high level of talent expected to come and a great new venue, spectators are sure to follow.
“We’re already hearing from so many people who plan on coming, and that’s just from word-of-mouth,” he said. “I’m excited about what this new venue can provide, and I’m really looking forward to making it even better next year.”
