YELM, Wash — A few looks around Yelm High School and it seems everybody is wrestling with something.
The storied wrestling program is fresh off another undefeated season.
And the architect of it is wrestling with a decision that has him in a headlock.
"It was going to be earlier, but I kept getting urged on by my assistant coaches to stick it out," head coach Gaylord Strand said.
After 50 years at the helm, it's a retirement from wrestling for the 72-year-old Strand.
"A lot of guys, they're walking in canes at 72, and look at me," Strand said. "I'm lucky."
Wrestling has kept him refreshed and rejuvenated.
But after half a century, it's almost time to rest.
"The energy level that it takes to be a wrestling coach, to bring it every day and to be higher than the kids and your assistants and to push and push every day, it's taxing," Strand said.
It would be a pricey tax to most, but for Strand, it's a task that he's welcomed with open arms.
His first job out of college has turned into his only job.
Yet the legacy of the Hall of Fame coach is far more than longevity.
"For the last 20 years, I think we missed the top 10 one year," Strand said.
Yelm's wrestling reputation has reached the masses.
"We'd show up at a tournament and someone would ask where Yelm was (located)," Strand said. "Where the blank is Yelm?' they'd say, and I'd tell them. And after a few years, that question went away."
Only one question remains now for Strand.
How do you reflect on 50 years of coaching teenagers?
"This year is a reflection of every last match, every last bus ride, every last time I get to lead kids in a workout," Strand said. "The reflections of all the years come back and sometimes it kind of hits me and other times I'm very proud of what I've been able to do."
Strand couldn't forget these memories even if he tried.
He's traced the entire history of the Yelm wrestling program, starting in 1968, on his laptop.
"There was no history, I mean you got to have history of the program," Strand said.
Strand has a document for each year.
In his first year as the head coach in 1974, the team went 14-4-1 and was 5-1 in the league.
There was also the banner year of 1977.
"Our first state champion for Yelm High School, Paul Chance," Strand said. "It's just one of those memories. It's ingrained. It's part of my life."
The same can be said for another one of his individual champs in 1994.
"Of course Tim Beaudin was one of those state champions," Strand said.
"He's gotten softer," Beaudin said. "Definitely."
Beaudin has been Strand's assistant for 25 years, which started shortly after a four-year high school wrestling career where Strand was his coach.
"He loves the sport of wrestling, but I think the thing he loves the most is seeing everybody grow," Beaudin said.
That was the case for Beaudin back then.
"He was just a little guy when I met him," Strand said.
That growth is still happening now.
"I've always been interested in it," Beaudin said, implying the student may soon become the master. "I just never wanted to tell him I was interested because that signified him leaving."
"The program is going to be left in good hands when I'm gone," Strand said.
Good hands, but there are big shoes to fill.
Beaudin said he'll wrestle with that soon.
As for Strand, the emotional wrestling is no longer a struggle.
He knows tradition never graduates.
"You think I'm going to go away?" Strang said. "I'll be hanging around. I'll be coming to matches."
He knows he's pinned down a feeling of finality.