Renegade Rip Issue 1 Feb. 10, 2021

Features
Page 6
The Renegade Rip www.therip.com
Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021
Bakersfield College welcomes new
head wrestling coach Marcos Austin
PHOTO COURTESY OF MARCOS AUSTIN
BC’s recently announced head wrestling
coach Marcos Austin (left) with former BC
athlete Keithen Estrada (right) during the
2019 State Championship.
By Razan Makhlouf
Reporter
Marcos Austin is no stranger to coaching, as
he was a co-head Coach at BC for the past seven
years.
He started wrestling at the age of ten and was
fortunate to be part of the Bakersfield College
wrestling team as a student, assistant, and has
been promoted as the Head Wrestling Coach on
Jan. 6 after the resignation of Brett Clarkin last
December.
Austin was welcomed as a wrestling coach with
confidence that he will bring energy and enthusiasm
to the team.
According to the Bakersfield athletics website
the BC Athletic Director Reggie Bolton, “He is
more than qualified to lead the program and will
bring plenty of energy and enthusiasm in leading,
mentoring, and coaching our student-athletes.”
While Austin’s new role as a coach requires him
to do more paperwork than before, his approach
to the students and the wrestling philosophy will
stay the same.
He is surrounded by an incredible coaching staff
all of whom have been with the program since he
began as the co-head coach.
It is no surprise that the covid-19 has taken its
toll on all sports programs, and with wrestling being
the ultimate contact sport, one would ask how
a wrestling program would move forward.
For Austin the answer is simple, “Wrestling as a
sport must adapt. I have and continue to be challenged
this year. I will continue to adjust to meet
those challenges,” he said.
Austin’s goal is to put the team in a better and
stronger position than previous years.
For him, success is not about the immediate
gratification of winning, or the dissatisfaction of
losing, it is about growth, development, and having
a good mindset.
“It is about the journey, not just the immediate
outcome” he said.
Austin is confident with his team of young athletes
this season he said the “team has ten returners,
including five state qualifiers coming back.”
Austin shared he is “hopeful that life will go
back to normal, and students will go back to
school soon, rough times, as well as good times,
do not last.”
He is aware though, that it is important to keep
students safe while staff continually work to motivate
and enhance their learning environment
within those protocols.
Local vendors came together for the
Bakersfield Underground Collectors
By Charr Davenport
Reporter
The Bakersfield Underground Collectors Outdoor Monthly Meetup was
held Saturday, Jan. 30, outside of Downtown Toys-N-Comics despite COVID
19 concerns.
The gathering went from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and featured various local collectors
and vendors.
Funko Pops, Hot Wheels,
action figures, and tamarind
based rim dips were
just some of the items being
sold.
Crystal Quintero, owner
of the food-based business
Lenguas Venenosas, was
among the vendors, selling
and giving away free
samples of her homemade
tamarind based rim dips.
While she had sold at other
events, this was her first
time at the Bakersfield Underground
Collectors Outdoor
Monthly meetup.
Among the vendors was
also Devin Radney, a “collector
of everything” for the
past 27 years and a vendor
for the past year. Radney
stated that he liked the purpose
of the monthly meetup.
“Everybody is into the same
stuff, so it works.”
PHOTO COURTSEY OF CHARR DAVENPORT
Father-daughter duo Mario Saldana and Maria Saldana sell their Hot
Wheel collection.
Javier Bautista, the organizer of the monthly event, is also a collector and
vendor.
“We’ve been doing this for 6 to 7 months,” according to Bautista. To abide
by guidelines, the event was held outside and every vendor was required to
wear a mask, Bautista explained.
Though not every vendor actually wore a mask, the majority of vendors
practiced forms of COVID 19 safety precautions. “As long as we’re safe, we’re
okay,” said Steven Trejo, who shares a
vending booth with Victoria Briano. David
Juarez, an employee for Bakersfield
Underground & Collectables, explained
that as long as he wears a mask and carries
hand sanitizer, he is not too worried.
Chris Guadarrama, another vendor,
said he was not worried at all about
COVID 19. “Most people wear a mask
and most vendors have hand sanitizer,”
he explained.
However, Jim Gillis, owner of the new
collectible shop KRRJ Collectables, expressed
concern over COVID 19 but
also felt the event was needed despite
concerns. “We are outdoors and that
helps out. People need to feel like they’re
human beings.”
According to the Kern County Public
Health Department as of Feb. 2, there
have been 94, 467 total resident cases in
Kern County, with 32,229 of them being
recorded as recovered.
There have been 624 resident deaths.