Moses Lake's Frey enshrined in hall of fame

RENTON — For Gary Frey, induction into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame comes with a certain sense of irony.

Frey never wrestled a day in his life. When he took over Moses Lake High School's program in 1960, following in the footsteps of state champion coach Eric Beardsley, he was scared to death. He'd heard over and over again that if you hadn't wrestled, you didn't have what it takes to coach.

Fast forward 47 years and those notions look antiquated at best, downright silly at worst. Frey's Moses Lake teams won 129 of their 142 dual matches and collected three state team championships. He followed that up with an equally spectacular career at Grays Harbor College in Aberdeen, winning 11 state junior college team titles and compiling a 253-47 overall record.

Ironic might be the best word to describe a career that started with such trepidation and ended on Saturday with official induction into the Washington chapter of the national hall of fame.

Frey voiced his surprise to Jim Meyerhoff, vice president of the Western Washington state chapter, who nominated him for the hall.

"None of us who have been nominated ever did what we did with 'hall of fame' visions in our head," Frey wrote in a recent letter. "In my instance I had to dig hard because I didn't have much of a wrestling background. If anything I was background deficient. I was scared to death I couldn't show the boys what they had to know technique-wise to be winners."

Frey, who stays close to the sport through his wrestling-based business, Suplay Products and Wrestler's World, expressed his gratitude on Monday.

"At the induction, there were many, many Moses Lake boys there who remembered what happened. It was a very special time in my life," he said. "As far as my Moses Lake experience goes, it couldn't have been any better."

After assisting the Chiefs for three years, Frey was shocked when Beardsley handed him the reins and left for Central Washington University. Fortunately, Frey had some help from former Oklahoma State University assistant coach Myron Roderick, who took over OSU's program when he was 24 years old. Roderick took Frey under his wing, inviting Frey to his home in Oklahoma, and simply told him to stick with the basics.

"You can start from scratch and teach them what does work," Frey said of Roderick's tactics. "Wrestling is just like a religion. If you can get those you're coaching to believe, you'll be just fine."

"When I came back and started the (Moses Lake) program, I thought I had the answers," Frey added. "That really carried me in a big way in all the years I was here."

Perhaps a bigger help was Frey's natural instincts. He was constantly afraid of letting his wrestlers down.

"In truth, I ran scared most of the years I coached," he told Meyerhoff. "Looking back, running scared worked to my benefit. Because I felt technique deficient I read every book, went to every clinic and watched whatever was on film to learn about wrestling."

Frey's program was incredibly successful from top to bottom. Not only did the Chiefs win three state team titles in his five-year career, they had about 60 lettermen each year because they had three varsity squads. Frey said they drew more fans than any other sport and gained experience by wrestling at meets across the region.

"We just got everybody that we possibly could involved," he said, "and that made a big, big difference in getting the program going."

Frey's two basic keys for success were hard work and pride. Taking a few risks are important too, he said, because a wrestler's mistakes are more easily fixed than their motivation level.

"If you just commit and you're willing to take a risk, you're going to be OK," he said. "The people who aren't successful are the ones who don't take a risk."

That attitude rubbed off on many of his athletes. Meyerhoff, in his nomination letter, also said Frey's success stemmed from his straightforward personality.

"Maybe it was the fine line of deference Frey drew between himself and his students that made him so different and so special," Meyerhoff wrote. "He had a Holden Caulfield personality: a deep distaste for the necessary insincerities of educational politics."

Frey continues supporting the sport through his business, which sponsors youth and high school tournaments across the nation. His community-oriented approach helped Moses Lake become the first Washington city with a little guys program, and the high school was the first to have wrestling-specific cheerleaders.

"They loved it because they knew we were going to state every year," Frey said.

Meyerhoff noted Frey's "outlaw" personality in his nomination letter, which also touched his English students. Frey's classes had parties when school district policy prohibited them. He justified it by saying that his students worked so hard they deserved a party.

"Frey personified a little of the outlaw in all of us," Meyerhoff wrote, "but he also showed us that each of us was special and had an obligation to make the most of who we were and what we could do."