Ken Pelo: Forever A Pirate Leaving After 37 Years As Rogers’ Only Head Wrestling Coach

Ken Pelo says he is retiring, walking away from the wrestling mat, hanging up his whistle and releasing the stopwatch that is constantly in his hand.

Then he wants to get involved.

“We really don’t care about our kids as much as we could,” he said, adding that maybe he would try to help build programs for young people.

Of course, the people who know and love Ken Pelo believe that is exactly what he has been doing for the last 37 years as a teacher and coach at Rogers High School.

“I was born and raised in Hillyard,” said Paul Hamilton, class of ‘75 and state 158-pound champion that year. “I was a thug. This man grabbed me by the shoulder and I have a college education because of the man. I went through college on an athletic scholarship. I traveled the world from Hillyard, because of Ken Pelo.”

And that says more than his 12 Greater Spokane League championships, eight top-four finishes in state and 10 individual state champions.

Rogers principal Wallace Williams estimated Pelo had come in contact with more than 3,000 young men through wrestling.

“We talk about heroes. That truly is a hero,” Williams said. “You can’t mention John R. Rogers High School without mentioning Ken Pelo. You’re great, we’re grateful.”

And it’s not just wrestling.

“He’s been recognized as coach of the year and he’s been recognized as teacher of the year,” said Mike Kondo, state champion at 130 pounds his senior year of 1969. “To be recognized for his coaching ability and his classroom ability, you have a real exceptional person there.”

Pelo, who turns 64 this month, has been Rogers wrestling for 37 years - the Pirates’ only head wrestling coach.

“That probably won’t sink in until I come to a match and he’s not there,” said James Watkins, a state champion heavyweight in 1989. “It’s going to be devastating. I don’t think anybody can affect kids in this area like he has.”

That’s why old Pirates keep coming back.

“He’s a leader,” Hamilton emphasized. “He takes boys and makes men out of them, is what he does. Everyone … says the same thing. He taught them how to be proud of their community, proud of where they’re from, proud of what they’re doing.”

Kondo said, “Coach Pelo is very special because he’s not just coaching the kids for wrestling, he’s coaching them for a lifetime experience.”

Pelo graduated from high school in Red Lodge, Mont., in 1950 and bounced between the University of Montana, what is now Montana State University-Billings and the service during the Korean War. It was during graduate school in Missoula that he met his future wife, Carol Rometch, who was doing graduate work in journalism. She returned to her Spokane home to be a reporter for the now defunct Chronicle. Pelo followed and got a job at Rogers a week after interviewing.

“I think I got the job by default, maybe no one else was available,” Pelo joked, before adding, “Sometimes you find what you do in life is not by choice but by circumstance and situation.”Funny thing is, 37 years ago he thought he would go to law school after he got his feet on the ground.

“It was apparent early this is where he wanted to be and what he wanted to do,” his wife said. “I knew he was a good guy, but who would ever think it would go on this long?”

Pelo didn’t have a choice but to become a legendary coach. Those coaching at Rogers in the late 1950s, during the glory years of Rogers athletics, included Fred Brown (football) and Jim Forsyth (baseball), all working for athletic director Carl “Tuffy” Ellingsen.

“I was in awe,” Pelo admitted.

During the last week of his first season helping Forsyth with the JV football team, Ellingsen informed Pelo he would be coaching wrestling with Larry Coleman.

“I tried everything to get out of it,” Pelo recalled. Coleman managed to escape after one year; Pelo was told if he didn’t re-up, the program would die after just one season. “I tried to give the job away for three or four years. Then it grew on me. … It’s a magnificent sport. You get close to the kids. There’s something about coaching and teaching that is compatible. They help each other; they sure did for me.”

It took about 10 years before the numbers began to pile up. Pelo, after all, had to learn about the sport from scratch since he had never participated in his life.

“You just get on the mats with the the kids. They pound you … you pick it up. ..,” he said. “A lot of it is just experience in combat. Wrestling is funny. You don’t learn much about it from books, or watching on video. I must have 500 videos. It’s just matches and practice every night. It’s a lot of little things.”

One of the early tactics was to haul his team north to Mead, where the Panthers’ legendary coach and one of Pelo’s dearest friends, Cash Stone, would have his wrestlers work with the Pirates.

But Pelo developed his own style. Every time a Pirate takes the mat, Pelo pleads, admonishes, cheers and cautions with voice and gesture. Pelo follows his boys with body and soul as he pantomimes each hold, escape and takedown.

“One of the big strengths here at Rogers is our kids who graduate … they come back and help,” Pelo said. “You pick up a little more technique, just the finer points. It’s a long process … it’s ongoing … I still pick up a new wrinkle here and there.”

The little things are what Harry Laughery, Pelo’s assistant for more than 20 years into the early 90s, remembers.

“He taught us how to compete, how to respect opponents, how to like ourselves through hard work, how to get what’s within each of us,” Laughery said. “He has the spirit, I guess you could say. He still has the spirit. He’s quite a guy.

Randy Cloke, who made state at 115 pounds as a junior in 1978, said he learned more about wrestling in college, but the philosophy he uses as coach at North Central came from Pelo.

“Kenny taught us to scrap and taught us to be tough,” Cloke said. “He always told us wrestling was a way of life, but I don’t think it was so much a way of life as Ken Pelo was a way of life. They talk about bleeding purple and gold. I think he just bleeds kids. One of the things I’ve tried to steal from him is a love of the sport and love of the kids.”

Stan Strang, class of ‘77, never made it to state, but no one got more from an association with Pelo.

“There’s a lot of great coaches who have done a lot of great things for great kids who could wrestle well. Coach Pelo has done a lot of great things for all the kids. He doesn’t just help the good ones. That’s what he did for me,” said Strang, who was kicked out of his house and moved in with the Pelo family while in high school. “He took a risk. He’s done that kind of thing for a lot of kids. He’s the greatest guy I know.”

That’s typical, according to his wife.

“A lot of wrestlers have told him, ‘You’ve been like a father to me,”’ she said. “In his pensive moments, he’ll say, ‘I was more like a father to my wrestlers than to my own kids.’ But that’s when they (the wrestlers) had a crisis.”

And his own kids have done quite well.

Ann, 31, is a child-care trainer; John, 28, is a junior-college chemistry professor in Bellevue; and David, 26, is a drummer in the Seattle alternative rock band Steel Wool.Hamilton was just amazed, but that’s really what Pelo believes.Doesn’t sound like somebody on the verge of well-deserved retirement.

“I’ve been tremendously fortunate,” Pelo said. “I’m very grateful for everything that’s happened to me here. I’ve had a lot of success, but I’ve had a lot of help. I owe a lot to a lot of people who worked with me, who coached with me, my family.”

At his final home match a week ago, Pelo told the roaring, emotional crowd that included many former Pirate wrestlers: “I’m the luckiest guy in the world to be involved with a community like Hillyard. There’s not another place like it. … I’ll always be from Hillyard, I’ll always be from Rogers and I’ll always be a Pirate.”

There is only one thing missing from Pelo’s resume - a state championship.

“You always wish you had won one,” he said. “We were close a couple times. You wrestle those over and over. I don’t have any regrets; we had great seasons. We’ve always been up there with the good teams at state. You can’t ask for any more than that. I wouldn’t change a lineup, I wouldn’t trade any kids. That goes with high school athletics. You can’t always stake your destiny.”

So it’s time to move on.

“This is a young man’s game,” Pelo said. “It really needs dynamic, charismatic guys to seize the opportunity. It’s time for me to move on and let that happen. I owe it to my wife and my whole family. My wife has made some great sacrifices for me. It’s time to do the things we like to do together.”

There will, however, always be a Pelo legacy at Rogers.

“So many coaches don’t know how to give the things he gives,” Laughery said. “People talk about community, family. The wrestling program here really is a community. People learn how to love each other, how to respect each other. Coach Pelo taught us all how to do that. He’s been an inspiration. He’s like a father figure for all of us.

Watkins said, “The biggest thing with Mr. Pelo is he believes in kids more than they believe in themselves. That’s probably the biggest problem he’s faced, trying to get the kids to have as much faith in themselves as he had in them. That was with me, too.”

Retiring will take adjustment, Pelo concedes: “I thought when the time came, it would be easy to just walk away. It isn’t. It’s hard to walk away from the people.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 Color)

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: The Pelo file Achievements during Ken Pelo’s 37-year coaching career at Rogers High School: League titles: 12 (record) Top five team state finishes: 9 Individual state placers: 58 Individual state champions: 10 Movies: 1 (Coach in Vision Quest)