SULTAN — When someone like Wes Fischer starts a discussion by saying, “Let me tell you about wrestling,” it’s wise to listen closely.
Fischer, 61, has lived and breathed the sport nearly 50 total years as a competitor, referee and coach. He knows plenty about rules and tactics, but he got hooked for other reasons.
“It starts with the premise that anyone can compete. You can have the lightest guy down to 96 pounds and he can wrestle. A guy that’s blind can wrestle. A guy that’s missing limbs can wrestle. A guy who can’t hear can wrestle. A guy that’s 285 pounds can wrestle,” Fischer said last month.
Fischer recently announced this season, his 17th as Sultan High School’s head wrestling coach, will be his final year guiding the Turks. This weekend’s Mat Classic, the state championships at the Tacoma Dome, will be his last hurrah.
“It’s one of those things that you’re going along and everything’s the same except all of the sudden you go, ‘Oh wow! This is winding down,’” Fischer, a 1964 Snohomish High graduate, said Wednesday.
“It gets emotional,” he added.
Fischer, whose team has three Class 2A state-tournament qualifiers, received a heartwarming gift from his team Wednesday. After running his final practice as head coach, he got a card from the Turks. It was covered with written messages from the teenagers.
Abe Bray, one of Sultan’s Mat Classic qualifiers, said he wrote about how thankful he is to have learned a variety of lessons from Fischer.
“I really respect Wes,” Bray said, “because he’s taught me so much in the sport of wrestling but also in life and about the way I should carry myself.”
Others who know Fischer echoed similar sentiments.
“He doesn’t just teach kids how to be good wrestlers. He teaches them to be good young men,” said Scott Sifferman, Sultan’s athletic director and assistant principal.
Said Mike Pine, Sultan assistant wrestling coach, “He teaches the kids that it’s about character, about doing the right thing and being able to handle wins as graciously as losses.”
Over the years Fischer endured more than his fair share of losses off the mat.
During a stretch of about 17 years starting in the mid-1980s, Fischer was jarred by the deaths of his dad, one of his sons, his first wife and a Sultan wrestler. Fischer’s dad died of cancer. The other three deaths were caused by tragic accidents.
Fischer said his son Jim was killed after Jim had been drinking alcohol and was struck by a train while walking on the railroad tracks late at night between Gold Bar and Startup. A talented wrestler, Jim qualified three times for the state championships.
About 10 years later, Wes Fischer’s first wife, Donna Fischer, was killed in an auto collision on U.S. 2, Wes said. Wes was seriously injured, suffering a broken nose, cracked ribs and torn wrist ligaments.
The next tragedy occurred less than five years after that: In December 2002 Sultan wrestler Bryan Claussen died after his vehicle crashed into a truck carrying cinder blocks on Highway 522 near Monroe.
“This is just too much,” Fischer recalled thinking about the seemingly endless string of misfortunes.
Fischer took a year off from coaching and officiating after his son died. But he eventually returned and stayed, even during the other painful times, because of unwavering support from coaches and friends in the wrestling community.
“You stay with it,” Fischer said, “because there’s love there.”
Fischer, longtime owner and head coach of the Snohomish County Vikings semi-pro football team, looks forward to lots of affection this weekend at the Tacoma Dome. He’s known many current head coaches since they were wrestlers and he was an official.
It’s always difficult to stay focused at Mat Classic, Fischer said, because he’s constantly bumping into old friends.
“My god,” he said. “With a history like that, you kind of fall in love with it.”
Writer Mike Cane: mcane@heraldnet.com. Check out the prep sports blog Double Team at www.heraldnet.com/doubleteam.
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