Joe Aiken: Wrestling guru with a cause

Here’s a little story that tells a lot about Joe Aiken.

We called him to schedule a photo shoot for this story, and here’s what he said:

“You wanna take my picture? Ain’t gonna happen.”

That’s Barry Joe Aiken. He’s slavishly devoted to the sport of wrestling and stupendously superstitious when it comes to any sort of notoriety.

He ain’t no ordinary Joe.

How many ordinary Joes would, at the waist-expanding age of 53, cut 65 pounds from his compressed frame to compete in the 150.5-pound class for a masters-level tourney in Las Vegas?

Joe Aiken did that last year.

Aiken left Mount Tahoma High School in 1966 on course to become a teacher and coach. He wrestled and played football in college, first at Olympic College and then at Pacific Lutheran University.

The trajectory of life shifted soon after he earned his degree in history. He still remembers the name of Barbara M. Smith, the person who signed his draft notice. So he became an Airborne Ranger in the Army instead of a social studies teacher.

At 54, Aiken has the bearing of a bull-necked drill sergeant. His hair is cropped close to his skull, his eyes radiate meaning. He’s stubborn when he believes his cause is worthy and just, which apparently is most of the time.

Always, he’s a man with a cause. It might be Title IX’s devastating effect on collegiate wrestling (only four Washington schools maintain programs), it might be dangerous weight-loss abuses in the sport. You might hear him assail, lips forming a sly half-grin, budgetary fat in local public schools. He now crusades for improved safety along the drydocks at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, where he is waterfront safety supervisor.

Beyond the tough-guy exterior, say those who know him, he’s inflexible as water. When it dissolves, all that’s left is a spacious reservoir of goodwill.

He is, say those who know him, a “big Teddy bear.”

Aiken testimonials are easy to find as ill words for Osama bin Laden.

“Without somebody like Joe, I don’t know that the program would flop, but it wouldn’t be near as good a program for kids,” said Craig Webster, who grappled at Central Kitsap High before graduating in 1976 and who now heads Poulsbo Thunder, a sister club to Aiken’s Bremerton Blue and Gold youth outfit. “Joe puts his heart and soul into the whole thing, and he’s very modest. He’s not a person that’s out there for Joe Aiken; he’s out there for all those kids.”

Aiken and Chuck Bullard of Kingston are two among a handful of USA Wrestling silver level coaches in Washington. To earn his silver wrist watch bearing the USA Wrestling logo, Aiken completed eight written theses totaling more than 200 pages, an investment of two years.

In his spare time, Aiken officiates freestyle and Greco-Roman matches and conducts six-hour clinics across the region to certify bronze-level coaches.

Money earned in the latter avocation goes into a USA Wrestling scholarship fund, one that enabled Justin Breckel to spend a week at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., during the summer prior to his senior year at Olympic High.

“He’s pretty much the person I look up to,” said Breckel, who earned a scholarship to Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Mo. “He has given me a lot of opportunities to excel in wrestling. I don’t think I’d be where I am now if Joe wasn’t part of my wrestling career.”

Superstitious

and humble

Aiken exudes a blue-collar ethos. His father, Dave Aiken, was a pipefitter by trade and a general maintenance worker at Hooker Chemical in Tacoma. Joe Aiken was union steward for the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners Local 2317 and remains president of that union.

He’ll speak in the hoary tones of an old-time coach (“It’s one thing to talk the talk about cutting weight, another thing to walk the walk.”), but there is deep feeling embedded in his words.

“I don’t accept the words ‘I can’t,’” Aiken said.

“Those words do not exist.”

Ask him about Joe Aiken and he’ll reply by ticking off the names of other area wrestling coaches like Brad Hamblet, Chuck Bullard, Craig Webster, Ron Coppinger, Bret Winslow and more.

“If you’re going to put somebody’s name in an article, they all need to be identified,” Aiken said. “It’s not just one person that’s out there.”

Superstitious? Well, his byline appears in a USA Wrestling periodical under a story concerning coaching philosophy. A half-dozen other articles include mug shots of the individual authors. Aiken’s piece is the only one minus a photograph.

(To confirm the logical underpinnings for his superstition, Aiken reports that he lost his USA Wrestling watch subsequent to the interview for this story. Oh, and Carol, his wife, hurt her back. And there’s a laundry list of other calamities too numerous to mention.)

As a kid in Tacoma, he played football with Bobby Moore, who later achieved NFL fame under the name Ahmad Rashad, and with future Los Angeles Dodger Ron Cey. But he met his most influential sports figure at South End Boys Club in a charismatic coach named Jack Murphy.

“He gave until he couldn’t give anymore,” Aiken said. “He told me, ‘Aiken, make sure you give back to those who gave to you.’ Until they put me six feet in the ground, I’m going to give back to those kids. Maybe I can make a difference.”

To that end, Aiken served as coaches’ director for the state wrestling association. About five years ago (he’s not much for dates or spellings), USA Wrestling named Aiken man of the year for this region.

“He’s one of the few guys who is willing to spend time for the young kids to work and develop the sport at the youngest age levels,” said Hamblet, former head wrestling coach at Ridgetop, assistant wrestling coach at Olympic and now head football coach at Klahowya. “And he didn’t work with just kids that were going to Olympic. If there was another kid from Central Kitsap High or North Kitsap or Bremerton, Joe spent time counseling the kid and working on his technique.”

From the pool

to the mat

It ranks as a fortunate accident that Aiken got into coaching wrestling.

After his time in the Army, Aiken ended up in Bremerton and married to Central Kitsap grad Carol Campbell. (“We’ve been married 33 years,” Aiken said. “I’m proud of that. Marriage, like wrestling, takes commitment, too.”) First came a daughter, Starr, then sons David, John, Mat and Tim. Swimming was the family sport.

“We all used to swim,” said John Aiken, now in his fourth year as head wrestling coach at PLU. “One day I brought home a notice about Chief Kitsap (youth wrestling program) in the Central Kitsap Community Schools newsletter. I didn’t know he wrestled.”

John Aiken asked if he might give the sport a try, but his parents were hesitant to say yes. They already had a consuming investment in swimming.

“I was told we could go to the first practice to check it out,” John said. “I really had the impression I wasn’t going to get the opportunity to wrestle.”

Soon the Aikens were on the mat, with Joe in the role of coach, teacher and father confessor.

“He has coached so many youth programs and given so much to kids,” John said. “It’s just kind of give and give and give. To quote (PLU football coach) Frosty Westering, ‘he’s a servant warrior, a tough-minded optimist.’”

The Aiken touch

Eric Rotondo, now a language arts teacher at Fairview Junior High, was among the first wave of wrestlers to come under Aiken’s sway. Rotondo graduated from Olympic in 1989 then went on to wrestle at Lower Columbia Community College. After a 6-18 freshman season, a disillusioned Rotondo sought Aiken’s help.

He worked out with Aiken that summer, returned to Lower Columbia and moved to Central Washington University the following year. He earned NAIA All-American honors in both years at Ellensburg, placing third at nationals as a senior.

“I really think it came down to Joe’s influence and his mentality,” Rotondo said. “He makes champions. If you can stay on the same wavelength with him, then you can succeed.”

Aiken assisted Hamblet at Ridgetop for eight years, then stayed for another two with Doug Pecha. The Raiders never lost a dual meet in that decade. He also assisted Darryl Smith at Oly.

Brent Rotondo, Eric’s twin brother, also earned All-America honors at Central Washington. So did Layton Smiley of North Kitsap, another product of Aiken’s Kitsap Ironman freestyle and Greco-Roman club.

John Aiken placed second at nationals for PLU. Former Oly standouts Ozzie Saxon (North Idaho JC) and Breckel are wrestling in college.

“If you look at everyone who has gone on to do something after high school, it was due in large part to Joe’s influence,” Rotondo said. “I remember Darryl Smith telling us when we went to college we should try to come back and give something back to the wrestling program. That’s what Joe does.

“To this day I don’t know if he’s ever been paid for his coaching. Who knows why he does it? He loves kids. He’s just Joe.”

Teaching the right stuff

Aiken insists that academics and life skills are his priorities. Veterinarian Brent Yeik, whose sons Brandon (9) and Cody (7) wrestle with Aiken’s Blue and Gold is a believer. (Two years ago, upset that the CK School District hiked its fees for using its facilities, Aiken moved to Bremerton High. Thus “Chief Kitsap” got a new name.)

“Academics are first and foremost, that’s why we cherish him,” Yeik said. “When you get through Joe, you’re a better person, no matter how you look at it. He definitely teaches you to balance life out and not to get caught up in all the little things. I love the old cuss and respect him. We’re bonded to him.”

For Aiken, coaching is teaching, and teaching is the process of becoming.

“Win, lose or draw, it doesn’t make any difference,” Aiken said. “When I look back and see that this person is gainfully employed at Kelly Moore Paints; this person is teaching in the Central Kitsap School District; and this person is stationed at Fort Lewis right now ... it gives me a sense of accomplishment.

“And just one of those ‘thank yous’ is worth all the money in the world.”

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