EUGENE - Kyle Bounds and Trevor Hall planned to be college wrestling teammates.The two Clark County high school graduates worked out for most of their youth at the revered Peninsula Wrestling Club in north Portland. When they weren't at Peninsula, they could often be found in Hall's Battle Ground home, wrestling on a mat in the garage.
Bounds, of Columbia River, was two years older and went to the University of Oregon on a near-full-ride scholarship. The two former Washington prep state champions remained close, as Hall would often drive to Eugene and stay the weekend at Bounds' house.
"I owe a lot of my success to where I am today because of Trevor," Bounds said.
Hall signed a letter of intent at Oregon last year and intended to join Bounds last fall. So, in a scene that Hall described as "weird and awkward," Bounds and Hall wrestled each other in a 157-pound match on Friday during a dual meet between Oregon and Cal State Bakersfield.
Huh?
Their dream to wrestle as college teammates blew up last summer when Oregon announced that it planned to drop wrestling at the end of the 2007-08 season and restore the school's baseball program.
It was a bombshell announcement that had a direct impact on Hall and Bounds.
Oregon coach Chuck Kearney was frank while visiting with Hall and his family two days after the announcement.
"I told him the bottom line is, the University of Oregon made a deal with him," Kearney said, "and welshed."
In part, anyway. The school said it would fulfill the wrestlers' scholarships, but as for wrestling, that would end at the conclusion of upcoming school year.
Which for a wrestler, leaves no choice at all. There are few sports that match wrestling for work and sacrifice. Yet the best, like Bounds and Hall, are willing to endure the constant dieting and daily combat for the seven-minute rush of a college wrestling match.
"It takes a different kind of breed to be a wrestler," said Bounds, a redshirt sophomore who is 24-25 during his Duck career.
So as much as he wanted to be close to home, as much as he wanted to become a teammate of Bounds, Hall didn't see much fun in college without wrestling. He asked Oregon for a release, found a school interested in his wrestling ability at Cal State Bakersfield, and jumped.
Bounds remains a Duck. And a true believer.
"I think what we have here is pretty stable," Bounds said. "I believe that the program will be saved."
It would take a stark change of heart from Oregon athletic director Pat Kilkenny to make that happen. Kilkenny, dubbed by some Oregon wrestling backers as "Pat Kilwrestling," recently told the Portland Tribune that "We're not going to wrestle after this year. It's done."
Compelling arguments can be made on both sides.
On one hand, high school wrestling remains a popular sport. Though participation numbers in high school wrestling are nowhere their peak of the mid-1970s, they are on the rise. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, nationwide participation in high school wrestling has increased 11 percent during the past decade, to 251,534. High school wrestling is particularly vibrant in the Northwest, where Washington ranks seventh nationally in participation.
On the other hand, the group Save Oregon Wrestling, which is getting out its message in part through T-shirts, buttons and bumper stickers, isn't exactly convincing thousands to support the cause by showing up for home matches.
At last week's Bakersfield-Oregon match, about 200 people were in the stands at McArthur Court. At one point, a football recruit, his family, an escort and a coach walked into the gym to have a look. The escort talked long and proud about the basketball tradition of Mac Court, that it is a "special place," that the school's basketball and football players are very supportive of each other.
They left after about five minutes, with little mention of wrestling.
What appears to be the final year of Oregon wrestling could have been a circus for Bounds. But he chooses to look only at the present, and presently, he is part of a team at a school that's competitive in matches and will host the Pacific-10 Conference tournament in March.
"We worry about performing in the matches and the rest will take care of itself," Bounds said. "If we have success on the mat, it's going to be hard to cut us if we come back and we're Pac-10 champions.
"How are you going to cut a successful team?"
Bounds admits some of this is hopeful, because of his feelings for Oregon.
"I love this team. I love the coaches. I love this place. It's a place where my family and my grandparents can watch me," he said. "That means a lot to them, and it means a lot to me."
Unless Kilkenny and Oregon's administration have a 11th-hour change of mind, Bounds will have to make a decision once this season ends. He has two years of athletic eligibility remaining, and odds are, won't be able to achieve it in Eugene.
If Bounds' optimism toward Oregon's wrestling future isn't fulfilled, like Hall, he'll go elsewhere.
"I don't want to wake up one day when I'm 40 and say, man, I wish I had wrestled those last two years," he said. "No matter what, I'm going to continue my wrestling. Hopefully, it's here at the University of Oregon.
"Kyle Bounds is going to wrestle."
Nick Daschel is a sportswriter for The Columbian. Reach him by telephone at 360-759-8056 or e-mail at nick.daschel@columbian.com.
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