By Morgan Armitage
Sports Editor 

There’s a lot of debate about student-athletes and which part comes first — the student or the athlete? College athletics are incredibly time-consuming, and so is being a student. 

So are the sports worth the time-suck? Or are they getting in the way of these students’ future careers?

Corbin Allen, cross country and track & field athlete seems to think playing sports is well worth the time, and can even help him in his future. 

Corbin Allen. Photo by Jordan Fitchman

Allen wants to be an urban planner after he finishes the rest of his schooling at Portland State University after CCC. 

“As an urban planner, I’d look at housing policies and try to help the local community by making a more sustainable and better future for the local environment,” said Allen. He said he supports the city of Portland, and wants to give back however he can. 

He said that sports gave him skills to help him with this goal. 

“I think the sport helps my career goal, as it keeps me in a social environment. Part of being an urban planner is having to convince people that policies are for the good. It’s always hard to get thousands of people to agree on one thing,” said Allen.

Allen believes that sports are a social environment, where he’s learned to be a leader and advocate for himself. 

“In sports, people aren’t always going to like the things they hear. And as a leader, you got to step up and sometimes say the unpopular thing, the thing people don’t want to hear,” said Allen. “And to be better, you don’t always look at what’s easy, you look at what’s necessary.”

Though Allen is not the only athlete who believes his sport is helping him outside of college. 

Henry Dillingham is a current wrestler at CCC. He recently committed to Oregon State to continue wrestling, where he plans to study business marketing.

Wrestling poster of team awards. Photo by Jordan Fitchman

Dillingham said that wrestling has helped him in many ways, including providing him with new opportunities. 

“I’d definitely say it helps me, because it’s opened a lot of new doors and opportunities that I probably wouldn’t have if I, you know, wasn’t competing,” said Dillingham.

This includes playing at the university level. 

“Coming out of high school, I might not have as many offers, but then like coming here to Clackamas and continue wrestling, I’m able to go to the Division I level and get a higher education and get paid for that,” said Dillingham. 

Dillingham said that wrestling has helped him gain leadership skills, as well as skills he deems necessary to go into business, such as discipline and decision making. That, and social skills. 

“You definitely get out and meet new people and, you know, create new friendships that will last forever,” Dillingham said.

To him, wrestling is a net positive in his life and career.

This appears to be the general consensus, as Chase Dennis, former CCC wrestler and current EMT, agreed.

Chase Dennis. Photo by Wesley Northcote

Dennis went to CCC to get his EMT certification, and he wrestled while attending. He didn’t originally know where his career would go, until his mom suggested he do a ride-along with a firefighter, and his passion began there. Then he discovered he could go further with this passion at CCC.

“And then when I found out Clackamas had an EMT program, fell in love with that,” said Dennis.

He too thinks that the skills he’s learned from wrestling are going to help him as he furthers his career. 

“Also being here at Clackamas, being in like, the environment of the wrestling program, it’s like, hey, you’re on the mat, you go out there to score points, score first, attack first mindset pretty much,” Dennis said. “And I kind of try to correlate that the same way that I do at Clackamas Fire because they kind of call themselves an aggressive company, like, they’re going to fight a fire.”

Dennis believes that these skills translate well into his goal of becoming a paramedic. Dennis says he is still very passionate about wrestling, even though it’s not part of his current routine.

“I think wrestling here gave me the mindset to get into my career pretty much,” said Dennis.