On Wednesday, December 6th, 2023, North Salem hosted Harrisburg High School for our annual Hall of Fame Dual. We were excited to induct a living legend and a great man named Bob Buzzard into our North Salem wrestling Hall of Fame! Coach Buzzard had great success at North Salem in the 1970's and 80's. Bob had tremendous athletic success before his coaching days and is credited with bringing Iowa-style wrestling to the Pacific Northwest. Before he got to college, he wrestled at East Waterloo in high school, were he accumulated a record of 50 wins with only 4 losses on his way to winning two individual state titles. While in college as an Iowa State Cyclone, he was a two-time Big 8 Champion, a Midlands champion and a two-time All-American at the NCAA championships. After college, Buzzard became a National Freestyle Champion (1967). Among many other accomplishments after college, Buzzard was an Olympic team member in 1972.
Bob also enjoyed the outdoors, so made his way to Oregon. After coming to the Pacific Northwest, he coached at North Salem and Cascade High Schools. He was named Oregon Coach of the year (1978) while at North Salem. He also coached multiple state champions and had teams place in the top 10 at the state tournament 9 different times.
Bob also enjoyed the outdoors, so made his way to Oregon. After coming to the Pacific Northwest, he coached at North Salem and Cascade High Schools. He was named Oregon Coach of the year (1978) while at North Salem. He also coached multiple state champions and had teams place in the top 10 at the state tournament 9 different times.
2023-2024 Season updates The link to sign-up for winter sports is now live and ready to go. Must sign up in FamilyID (for Winter Sports) before you are eligible to begin attending regular season practices. Here is the link to sign-up for winter sports at North Salem HS: FamilyID link to register https://students.arbitersports.com/organizations/north-salem-high-school GO VIKS! Our official season practices begin on November 13th. The season will conclude in February. The girls state qualifying tournament will be on February 9th/10th. The boys state qualifying tournament will be on February 16th/17th. Top 3 placing wrestlers in each weight class will earn a spot in the state tournament on February 22nd/23rd for both boys and girls. This year's state tournament will be held at the Portland Coliseum! All wrestlers will need to be assessed sometime during first two weeks of practice. You will need to sign up on family ID app in order to be eligible for participation in practice. Please make sure you also have an updated physical so you can complete registration on FamilyID. Coaches are encouraging wrestlers to attend pre-season workouts and get as much exercise as possible before the official season practices begin. We are having pre-season practices Mondays through Thursdays 6:30pm-8pm. We have created a Youtube channel where athletes can view some of our favorite high school techniques on video. Links to a few videos are below. You should be able to click on any of the videos and subscribe to the channel in order to gain access to the rest of videos. Please like and subscribe to our channel! Basic Drills https://youtu.be/vOxiZj5HOW4 Single Leg Takedown https://youtu.be/xC-U4GHfAJ4 Stand-up https://youtu.be/EX_aw5YBdlk Down-block Series https://youtu.be/wSHVIjZX_3w Arm-Bar series https://youtu.be/N-Ay0e4z2io Please respond with any questions, comments or concerns. We are excited to get back to business! Coach Pickett's cell phone number is 503-881-4634. Send him a text with your name and he will put you in appropriate contacts list (wrestler group, parent group, etc) so that you can keep updated with information as soon as it is available. If you are aware of any new recruits or students interested in wrestling, please pass along their contact information to me so that we can reach out to them. Other ways to get updated information is through our social media sites. Instagram Handle @NS_wrestling Twitter handle @NSalemWrestling Senior captains Tyson Turner, Andres Alvarez, Mariko Sonis and Telsa Walter lead a young group of talented grapplers into the 2023-2024 wrestling season. Tyson Turner looks to build on his performances from last year. Narrowly missing the podium at regionals, he has steadily worked throughout the summer to perfect his craft and improve his wrestling technique. He is going to be a force to be reckoned with at this year's regional tournament. Andres Alvarez won the regional tournament last year (defeating a teammate in the finals)! He looks to take his state tournament experience from last year and build on that by bringing home a state medal this season. Sammie Davis is hungry to get back on the mat as his 2022-2023 season was cut short due to a shoulder dislocation at the South Salem dual. As a sophomore, he placed and narrowly missing the state tournament. Senior Brady Valet was also held out last year due to an injury sustained during the football season. He had surgery to repair it last year and is hungry to get on the mat! He will certainly be turning heads his first year in a Vikings singlet. Who else will continue putting in that work and remain standing after the dust settles? Junior RJ Chacon is also ready to lead a hungry group of young wrestlers this year. As a freshman, RJ lead his class in number of pins. As a sophomore, RJ increased his number of arm bar pins on his way to winning the regional title at 126 pounds. The freshmen group comes in with a hungry group of young talent led by freshmen Francisco Ordaz, Julian Brambila and Eduardo (Cruz) Caballero. Cruz has dedicated hours throughout the summer to develop himself into a serious contender for his high school debut. Julian Brambila was this year's freshmen team quarterback who led the freshmen football team to an undefeated season. Francisco Ordaz-Mejia was another tough Parrish Middle School wrestler who is excited eager to jump into the high school line-ups this year. Our lady Viking grapplers are led by team captains senior Mariko Sonis, and senior Telsa Walters. All three of these wrestlers competed at the state tournament last year and are ready to make their bids at state championship gold this season! Mia Chacon and Jazlin Tavares both still have sour feelings after narrowly missing the state tournament last year and are ready for vengeance this year! Charlotte Bales is another returning girl grappler looking for retribution this season and to build on our 2nd place team finish at last year's regional tournament. Jennifer (Priscilla) Soto is another returning girl who looks to elevate her performance in hopes of bringing a team championship back home to the Vikings in 2023 !! A whole plethora of other talent surrounds these Viking Veterans to create a serious recipe for excitement around the North Salem wrestling 2023-2024 campaign!! Keep an eye out for the Vikings on the mat! The North Salem wrestling program is a very historic one that the school is very proud of. The tradition continues as North Salem has steadily risen up the team ranks since coach Pickett took over the program in 2009. He brought in many talented assistants to create one of best coaching staffs in the state. With decades of experience, this coaching staff has created a winning formula for developing champions. |
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We would like to send a big shout out to VenueSmart for helping us prepare for last season! Our wrestlers and coaches worked at the 2019 Clackamas County Fair to raise money for the 2019-2020 season. The North Salem Viking wrestling team partnered with VenueSmart to raise over $2,400 !!! This money helped our wrestlers travel to Reno, Nevada to compete in the prestigious Reno Tournament of Champions. In that same season, then junior Antonio Garcia brought home a 7th place medal and finally broke into the national rankings for the first time! He is now in college at Corban University and starts the season ranked in nation for NAIA heavyweight wrestlers!!
VenueSmart is easily the best event cleaning company around and they are a company filled with amazing groups of people and our program is so grateful for the support they have shown us in recent years. Thank you VenueSmart!
We appreciate all our donors and fundraising events! If you have an idea for a fundraiser for our wrestling program, please reach out to Coach Pickett or another staff member for more details.
VenueSmart is easily the best event cleaning company around and they are a company filled with amazing groups of people and our program is so grateful for the support they have shown us in recent years. Thank you VenueSmart!
We appreciate all our donors and fundraising events! If you have an idea for a fundraiser for our wrestling program, please reach out to Coach Pickett or another staff member for more details.
Our youth club (Capital City Mat Club) will continue to workout at North Salem High School throughout the remainder of school year. Stop in during practice or contact Coach Pickett for more information.
Congratulations to Eric Rodriguez for being the winner of a 43inch HD TV!!! Mr. Rodriguez bought raffle tickets from wrestlers and won this TV at the last home wrestling dual of the 2016-2017 season. We have raffled off a large TV each year since that season and plan to raffle off another large SmartTV during the upcoming wrestling season. To purchase raffle tickets or for more details, talk to a wrestler or coach.
****************** Dates of raffle and more details will be released soon!! ******************
****************** Dates of raffle and more details will be released soon!! ******************