Look beyond the brilliant purple mat, past the inspirational quotes on the wall and past the deafening roar of hard rock that rains down on the wrestlers.

Then, and only then, will you see the last noticeable item inside the tiny room at College Park High School that the Pleasant Hill Wrestling Club calls home.

It’s the row of laminated pictures that lines one wall of the room and extends all the way up a staircase.

There are shots of College Park coach Jim Keck as a collegiate wrestler, legendary Falcons wrestler Casey Strand raising his arm as a state champion and even Las Lomas standout Jason Welch when he was 7 years old.

They all had to start somewhere and, for most, the building blocks for success were crafted in the heat of summer.

For Keck and the Pleasant Hill faithful, summer afternoons are spent pouring sweet into their own purple mat, welcoming all corners and anyone who wants to put in the time and effort to improve.

“If you want to wrestle, summer wrestling is big,” Keck said.

Practice is one thing, getting matches is another.  To that end, the Community Youth Center in Concord hosts several Match Nights throughout the summer.  Wrestlers from across the state come to CYC to get match experience and wrestle against top competition.

“At this point in the year, there aren’t many tournaments,” De La Salle wrestler and CYC member Tyler Sheridan said.  “(Match Night) is good for younger and more inexperienced wrestlers to take what they’ve learned in practice and try it in a match.”

Much of the success that De La Salle has enjoyed over the past few years can be traced directly to the infrastructures for success that Mark Halvorson has laid at the CYC.  Through summer wrestling and Match Night experiences, Halvorson, head coach at both De La Salle and the CYC, has found several Spartans who have become key contributors during the high school season.

“This is good for the young kids.” Halvorson said.  “They get to wrestle all skill levels.”

“I had several kids who did the summer-league stuff.” Halvorson said of his De La Salle team. “And they competed at the varsity level just because of that.”

A prime example of the lengths that wrestlers will go to get match experience came when CYC hosted a Match Night primarily for those gearing up to compete in the Junior National tournament in early July.  San Leandro’s Markjay Acosta, Alhambra’s Aaron Westphal and Sheridan were among the notable persons who not only worked on their own skills but also helped with younger wrestlers hoping to improve.

“Even though I’m wrestling guys who might be bigger or stronger, my technique still has to be very fine-tuned.” Sheridan said.  “It helps you point out where your flaws are.

The Delta Wrestling Club in Brentwood has hosted Match Nights for several years, but it hosted only one this summer because of a low turnout.  But that doesn’t mean that the wrestlers pack up and go home.

It simply means they hit the road.

The wrestling community truly is a community.  Maybe that’s because of the nature of the sport – the pain endured and the work needed to excel in a sport that demands total focus and extreme resolve.

When wrestlers come from Los Gatos to Concord or they travel from Pleasant Hill to Chico just to get match time, the familial ties that bond wrestlers are accentuated.  The kids who take those links and expand them sometimes become state champions.

“One of the biggest reasons Jayson (Welch) is so good is he‘ll go anywhere, anyplace, anytime and wrestle people.” Keck said.  “(Wrestlers) get a family in here  ... It’s a family outside of your family.”

When the high school wrestling community reconvenes in March to crown state champions, the results of a summer spent having a craft will be there for all to see.