Trials A Triumph For Local Promoter

As an alternate member of the 1984 U.S. weightlifting team, Toby Steward was proficient at getting things off the ground.

He’s still pretty good at it. As president of Star USA, Steward is the man largely responsible for bringing the U.S. Olympic freestyle wrestling trials to Spokane. The two-day event, which concluded Saturday night at the Arena, drew 24,578 fans - a record for a U.S. wrestling trials.

It also served as a reward to Steward and his staff.

“We worked seven days a week for over a month,” said Steward, whose Trials team included his co-event director and wife Barb Beddor, chairman Mike Mettam, two interns and 250 volunteers.

Since moving here from Colorado Springs in May 1990, Steward, 34, has made a living bringing sporting events to the Northwest, starting with a USA-Cuba wrestling dual here in 1991. He also organizes the Senior PGA Classic golf event.

“I ran Bloomsday two or three days after I lived here and we’ve been doing events up here ever since,” said Steward. “We’ve done over 25 Olympic sporting events in the Northwest, primarily in the last five years - boxing, volleyball, basketball, wrestling.”

The weekend’s wrestling trials provided Star USA with its highest profile, most successful event. Proven performers like Kenny Monday and Bruce Baumgartner earned spots on the Olympic team, as did Oregon State senior Les Gutches, who emerged as a crowd favorite.

In addition, the trials provided Spokane with a link to the Games that begin next month in Atlanta.

A few images remain fresh:

The contrast between a triumphant Kendall Cross, seemingly squeezing tears from his father with a forceful embrace, and a disconsolate Terry Brands, unable to accept his narrow defeat. Cross made the U.S. team at 114.5 pounds by winning two of their three matches, although Brands outscored him 20-18 overall.

The transformation of Gutches from a quiet, almost evasive subject to the effusive Olympian who hammed it up with reporters from the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, among others, after Saturday night’s convincing performance against nemesis Kevin Jackson.

Fielding questions like a pro, Gutches explained that he minored in German to help him communicate better at international tournaments.

“I can definitely get my point across (in German),” he said. “I couldn’t tell you how to take apart a tractor and all the parts, but I can tell you what I wanted to eat.”

Gutches was then asked about the color of his hair, which is several shades lighter than it was when he won the national championship in April.

“My girlfriend said she wanted to go out with a blond, so that was the only alternative I could see,” he said, adding that he had recently finished reading Dennis Rodman’s popular literary work.

The clincher came when Gutches, in the tradition of so many elite athletes, referred to himself in the first person.

“A lot of people have helped me,” the 180.5-pound rep said. “You know, this isn’t just something that Les Gutches has done. It’s kind of a culmination of a lot of people’s efforts.”

According to Gutches, Les Gutches couldn’t have put it any better.

Bruce Baumgartner, after defeating Tom Erikson in Saturday night’s heavyweight final, recounting the family sacrifices that allowed him to make a fourth Olympic teams. Baumgartner, 35, is head wrestling coach at Edinboro (Pa.) University and is married with two young sons.

“They sacrifice so I can go out and reach my goals and aspirations,” he said. “Time spent with their father and husband. Wrestling is dang near a full-time job, coaching is a full-time job, being a father and a husband is a full-time job.

“How many full-time jobs can one person have?”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 Color)