When you wrestle and your last name is Gutches, expectations of greatness are almost inevitable.<\/p>\n
But the latest Gutches to grapple at the high school level ” freshman Brock ” has a refreshing perspective about the sport and where he fits in.<\/p>\n
Brock’s older brother, Bryson, and his cousin, Les, were three-time state champions and Les was a three-time NCAA champion and a two-time Olympian.<\/p>\n
Les’ younger brothers, Jason and Chad, were also state-caliber wrestlers.<\/p>\n
“I just try to fill my own shoes, not the ones that were made in my name, “Brock Gutches says.<\/p>\n
The younger Gutches, who carries a No. 2 state ranking at 103 pounds, scored a mild upset in the championship finals of the Southern Oregon Conference district tournament last Saturday when he posted a 7-3 victory over No. 1 ranked Mitchell Lofstedt of Roseburg.<\/p>\n
Brock Gutches, who started the season at Churchill High in Eugene before his family moved back to the Rogue Valley, has won 37 of 38 matches. His only loss was a 6-5 decision to Lofsted at the Coast Classic in December.<\/p>\n
Brock Gutches has attended several clinics with Les Gutches, most recently in Burns last summer.<\/p>\n
“He doesn’t put any burdens or expectations on me ” he just wants me to wrestle my best, “Brock Gutches says.<\/p>\n
Grants Pass High basketball coach Bill Cowell doesn’t pretend to know much about wrestling, but he knows a pin when he sees one, especially when it’s his son doing the pinning.<\/p>\n
Sophomore Mike Cowell put the squeeze to Klamath Union’s Brandon Ray in the final period of their 119-pound, third-place match at the district tournament. The victory earned the younger Cowell, who trailed 11-6 when he got the fall, a trip to the Class 4A state tournament.<\/p>\n
Bill Cowell’s oldest son, Matt, plays basketball for Southern Oregon University and his middle son, Billy, is a senior on this season’s GP hoop team. How did Mike Cowell migrate to wrestling?<\/p>\n
“He just wasn’t interested in basketball, “Bill Cowell says. “The other two would be out in the driveway shooting, but Mike was always doing something else.”<\/p>\n
Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail dhunt@mailtribune.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When you wrestle and your last name is Gutches, expectations of greatness are almost inevitable. But the latest Gutches to grapple at the high school level ” freshman Brock ” has a refreshing perspective about the sport and where he fits in. Brock’s older brother, Bryson, and his cousin, Les, were three-time state champions and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2B7Di-wf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}