Practice Makes Perfect for Gary Bowden

A busy day for Gary Bowden was about to get busier.

Bowden, the Canyon High School wrestling coach, had just returned to school from a meeting at the CIF Southern Section offices in Cerritos, and was preparing to begin wrestling practice.

“We should get started with practice at, oh, about 2:12,” Bowden said, as he unlocked the training room in the Canyon boys locker room, so his wrestlers could weigh themselves before practice.

It was 1:30 p.m., and the first of 80 wrestlers on the three Canyon wrestling teams, varsity, junior varsity and sophomore, began trickling in from their last classes.

Bowden, who teaches courses in comparative political systems, American history, and American government, had five classes himself before rushing to the Southern Section meeting and then back to the school for practice.

This year, Bowden is the president of the Orange County Wrestling Coaches Assn. As such, he devotes much time to the sport’s promotion, including participation on the CIF Advisory Committee, which oversees general rules changes for wrestling.

The Canyon wrestling program is considered one of the county’s most successful. The Comanches are defending 4-A Southern Section champions and are going for their fifth consecutive Century League title. It took, however, from the time the school opened in 1973-74 until the 1980s for Bowden to achieve that level of success.

After getting dressed in wrestling gear--most wrestling coaches will wrestle against their team members to demonstrate techniques--Bowden begins a daily practice routine that he’s refined in the past 12 years.

The first order for Bowden is paperwork, and for him that means updating the team’s pin chart posted on the locker room wall and clipping newspaper articles about wrestling to post for his team’s interest.

Next comes a more unseemly task: cooking up a concoction of cleansers in a bucket to be used for sanitizing the wrestling mats before practice begins. With 80 sweating wrestlers using the mats daily, the mats must be cleansed before all practices.

It is while mixing some powerful-looking green stuff into his cauldron that the line of teen-agers forms at the door with today’s problems, heartaches and excuses.

Bowden is typical of popular coaches in that his team is dependent on him beyond normal expectations. At once, Bowden becomes teacher, parent, cheerleader, confidante, and psychologist to his wrestlers.

First wrestler: “I’ve got some bad news, coach. I have to leave early today to sign up for night school.”

Second wrestler: “Bad news, coach--the dentist doesn’t want me to practice until I get my stitches out.”

Bowden laughed. “My favorite all-time excuse is the guy who told me he had to go home and baby-sit the dog,” he said. “And just the other day a kid told me he couldn’t practice because they might have to cut off his toe because of frostbite. He ran up to me when he said it.”

Coach, can I use your phone? See, I forgot my wrestling equipment at this guy’s house and I gotta call my mom to have her go pick it up.

Another wrestler spoke to Bowden about quitting the team because of bad grades. Bowden advised him to come to his classroom the next day to discuss the matter.

Practice was about ready to begin. After rolling the mats out of some coffin-sized boxes, the wrestling team then went about the task of cleaning the mats.

An auxiliary gym serves as home for the Canyon wrestling team. Besides pictures of former all-league and All-CIF wrestlers in the Comanche Hall of Fame, there are posters exhorting the team on: YOU CAN DO IT!! . . . CANYON WRESTLING CONQUERS ALL . . . NO PAIN, NO GAIN . . . CANYON WRESTLERS HAVE ALL THE RIGHT MOVES.

True to his word, practice for Bowden’s team began at 2:12 p.m. For the next 2 1/2 hours, the team would exercise, drill, run, wrestle and sweat their way through a practice that one of the injured wrestlers watching said was average for the day before a meet.

With Bowden orchestrating, the prectice moves swiftly.

Having 80 wrestlers to worry about, however, means there isn’t much individual attention. Bowden or one of his assistants usually will demonstrate a particular move to the team, and then the wrestlers pair off to practice using that move on each other.

Bowden manages to keep the team loose with witty comments such as “you’re supposed to be loosening up your legs and backs, not your mouths” or, while on his back demonstrating another exercise, “next time you go to a party, try this--it’ll impress everybody.”

If it seems that Bowden’s practices are creative, there’s a reason for it. He used to work at Disneyland (on the jungle cruise), and that background is reflected in his coaching.

“I think that to a certain extent a coach has to be part drill instructor and part stand up comedian,” Bowden said. “You can’t really drive kids these days--you’ve got to make them want to drive themselves.”

Bowden, 37, wrestled at Orange Coast College after graduating from Sunny Hills in 1965. He uses some of the same methods he learned from his Orange Coast coach.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in 12 years as a coach,” Bowden said, “is that I hardly ever yell (at them) anymore. It’s an absolute waste of energy. I think a coach yells from frustration--he doesn’t know what to do.”

Bowden, apparently, doesn’t yell as much as he did in his younger days because he’s learned what to do to motivate his wrestlers, and that motivation has been reflected in the team’s record.

Tired and sweaty after practice, Bowden is burrowing through the refrigerator in the coaches office, looking for relief. “You know,” he said, shaking his head, “there’s never a Dr. Pepper around when you need one.”

Even if there was, it was far too late for that--the line has already formed at the door again to see Dr. Bowden.

Bad news, coach. I don’t think I can wrestle in tomorrow’s meet . . .

Hey coach, you got change for a dollar? . . .