Community College Notebook / Steve Kresal : Rancho Santiago’s Chad Sessions Is Mr. Shy . . . Until He Hits the Mat

Chad Sessions walked into the Rancho Santiago College wrestling room for the first time last spring with an introduction and no hint of a reputation.

Rancho Santiago Coach Gary de Beaubien knew nothing about Sessions except that a former wrestler had met him at work and learned that he had wrestled “a little” in high school.

Sessions wasn’t asked a lot of questions and he didn’t offer much. But after Sessions easily won his first few matches during “open gym”--the wrestling version of a pickup game--there was no doubt about his skills.

Curious about Sessions’ background, the coach approached slowly.

“When you get a kid that looks that good, you don’t want to scare him off with a lot of questions right away,” said de Beaubien, who hoped to convince Sessions to join his team.

As it turned out, the Rancho Santiago coach had little trouble getting Sessions to wrestle. Finding out about his past was a bit more difficult.

Sessions, who is 14-2 and also team captain, isn’t one to boast, even though he deserves some bragging rights.

He was the Washington state champion at 168 pounds as a senior at Columbia River High School after finishing sixth as a junior. He received a wrestling scholarship to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the fall of 1986, but returned home after 4 days because his father became ill with cancer.

Back home, Sessions attended Clark Community College and worked as an assistant coach at his old high school. Last January, his father’s disease went into remission, so he returned to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

He got there for the start of the spring semester only to discover he would have to sit out a season because of a low Scholastic Aptitude Test score.

“I couldn’t sit and wait,” Sessions said. “I had to get on with my life. I just sat and thought for a while about my options.”

After talking with a friend who lived in Costa Mesa, Sessions decided to move to Southern California. He arrived by train at the Santa Ana station, and got an apartment and a job selling shoes.

Then he called his parents, who thought he was still at San Luis Obispo, and told them what he had done. “They we’re really supportive. . . . they always are,” Sessions said.

Sessions met former Rancho Santiago wrestler Scott Pryer at work and soon decided to return to school and wrestling. With his parents’ support, he quit his job this fall to devote his time to class work and mat work.

He hopes to earn a scholarship to a 4-year school after this season.

“It was never really something I gave a lot of thought to,” Sessions said about coming to Southern California.

“It was an unexpected adventure.”

Only a game separates the top three teams in the Orange Empire Conference men’s soccer standings. Rancho Santiago leads with a 3-0-1 record, OCC is second at 2-0-2, and Golden West is in third at 2-1-1.

OCC and Golden West played to a 1-1 tie Tuesday. OCC rallied for a 3-3 tie Friday at Rancho Santiago.

Rancho Santiago opened a 3-0 lead at halftime but OCC’s Pat Merrell scored 3 goals in the second half. Merrell leads OCC with 11 goals this season.

Jersey of a giant. Mahmoud Al-Khalili of Cypress, 6-feet 5-inches and 235 pounds, is bigger than most soccer players. Al-Khalili, who was cut from the basketball team in October, decided to try out for the soccer team next.

Coach Tony Baca, knowing a soccer jersey would not fit him, went to the equipment room and asked for the biggest basketball jersey Cypress had.

So Baca was handed No. 35, once worn by Mark Eaton, who played at Cypress in 1978 and ’79.

Eaton, now the starting center for the Utah Jazz, stands 7-4 and weighs 290.

The jersey is a little big on Al-Khalili.

Community College Notes

Todd Johnson, a defensive lineman for Saddleback, set a school single-game record with 5 sacks in the Gauchos’ 19-17 victory over OCC Saturday. Johnson’s sacks resulted in minus-54 yards and he had a total of 8 tackles in the game. . . . Tyler Riddell returned a kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown for OCC Saturday. It was his second of the season to set a single-season school record. He had an 89-yard return for a score in the season opener against Rio Hondo. Riddell is averaging 63 yards in 5 returns. He missed 3 games this season with a broken hand.