Wrestling To Lose Twin Towers -- Influential Cook Brothers To Leave Coaching After Their 30Th Seasons

Bruce Cook says he doesn't understand all the fuss.

Cook is entering his 30th and final season as wrestling coach at Meadowdale High School. But he insists he's approaching it the same way he approached the first 29.

His twin brother, Bryce, is stepping down after this season as head coach at Edmonds-Woodway High, also after three decades of coaching high-school wrestling.

"I'm just at the end of the line, that's all," Bruce Cook insists. "I'm not going to treat it any differently than I've treated every other season. It doesn't change my outlook."

But that feeling is not shared by Cook's colleagues.

"We've set aside the last match of the (regular) season for the Edmonds-Woodway-versus-Meadowdale match," said Kevin Judkins, head coach at Lynnwood High and a former wrestler and assistant coach under Bryce Cook at Woodway High.

"It's a big deal to all of us. I'm going to miss them both, and it's going to be strange next season to not have them both there."

Both Cook brothers are certain to be inducted into the state's wrestling Hall of Fame after retirement, and for good reason.

Both brothers, graduates of Burlington-Edison High, wrestled on the Washington State University varsity (both Class of 1963). Bruce was hired at Meadowdale when the school opened the same fall; Bryce was hired as an assistant coach at Edmonds High before shifting to Woodway when it opened.

In his career, Bruce has had eight individual state champions, including his son, Brad, who spearheaded Meadowdale's Class AA state-title teams in 1984 and '85. His oldest son, Scott, was an All-American at Utah State after finishing seventh in the nation in 1987 among college wrestlers.

Bryce has had almost as many state champions - "I can't really remember them all right now," he said. He also coached his son Mark, who won the 1984 state title at 141 pounds and is now an assistant for No. 1-ranked Burlington-Edison.

"Our sons never wrestled in competition, but they wrestled each other a lot in the practice room and in freestyle," Bryce said. "They were always either a weight up from or a weight down from their cousins. If they had wrestled, it would have been a real donnybrook, because they all had a lot of pride in their programs."

Perhaps most impressive, Bruce Cook has failed to take a wrestler to the state tournament only once since 1963, and that was his first season at the school, when he had just sophomores and juniors.

After all those years - almost 75 years in the sport of wrestling as participants and coaches - the farewell tour promises to be fond, as well as competitive.

"I know I've never beaten Bryce as a coach, and I would love to be able to do it, but at the same time, I'm in awe of what he does and what he's done for the sport of wrestling," Judkins said.

Both coaches have relatively inexperienced squads to begin their final seasons, but both promise to have their charges ready to battle for spots in the state tournaments.

Most of all, both say, there are no regrets.

"If I had it to do all over again, I'd do it the same," Bruce said. "I wouldn't change a single thing."