Wrestling With Priorities in Life

Clint Coulter will always be able to say he is a state wrestling champion.

He earned that right last season, when he captured the 189-pound title at the Class 3A tournament in the Tacoma Dome in February.

But he won’t be a defending champion. After much thought, Coulter — now a junior at Union High School — has decided not to defend that title.

Coulter loves wrestling.

He speaks wonders about the sport’s attributes, and all that it has provided for him.

He just loves baseball more.

Considered one of the best prospects in the nation for his class and a player who likely will have to make a decision between turning professional out of high school or accepting a Division I scholarship, Coulter has opted to specialize year-round on the diamond.

Which means that Clark County boys wrestling will be missing out on its lone state champion from the 2010 Mat Classic.

“As much as I love wrestling and the benefits of wrestling, my future isn’t wrestling,” Coulter said.

Coulter, a catcher, excelled this summer at several showcase events, including the prestigious Area Code Games in Long Beach, Calif. Of the 200 players from across the nation, only 22 from the Class of 2012 were invited. Coulter was featured in an ESPN Rise article for his performance.

Later this month, he is headed to Arizona to represent Washington in the Power Showcase International High School Home Run Derby.

With so much baseball in his life, he said he did not think it would be fair to his wrestling team. He also acknowledged he is not the type of person who is able to give a part-time effort to one endeavor over another.

“Wrestling is harder than any other sport, hands down,” he said.

If he decided to wrestle, he would have committed to that sport 100 percent for the winter season. And that, he said, would take away from his baseball priorities.

“I love wrestling. I wish you could see my room, with hundreds of medals and trophies. Every one of those trophies is a weekend, is from all the work I put into it,” Coulter said. “I’ve got the work ethic and the mind-set of a wrestler. It’s helped me in my other sport. I’d recommend wrestling to anybody. It’s a great sport. It’s taught me mental toughness, work ethic, and time commitment.”

All of those qualities are needed in baseball, too.

With the attention Coulter is receiving in baseball, it seems likely he will be drafted out of high school. At 6-foot-3, 205 pounds of muscle, with a strong bat and a strong reputation as a catcher, he has the scouts lined up, taking notes. If he waits to go pro, he will have his pick of colleges.

Yeah, he’s that good.

But you know what?

He is — or was — also that good in wrestling.

Coulter went 39-1 in the 2009-10 season, his lone hiccup coming in the regional tournament. He more than made up for that at the state tournament, becoming Union’s first champion in the sport.

But it was at Mat Classic when Coulter suffered a serious injury. He damaged ligaments in his left ankle during his quarterfinal match.

“I was on one leg the next two matches,” he said.

That was only after a night of therapy and enduring an excruciating test administered by tournament medical officials in order to be cleared to continue.

Coulter was already feeling the sting of missing time in the batting cage because of his commitment to wrestling.

“I hadn’t done anything with baseball. With wrestling, there was no time,” he said.

Then the injury happened on the penultimate day of wrestling season.

“That set me back in baseball,” Coulter said. “It took me a while to get in the swing of things.”

It also got him thinking about his future.

He told his wrestling coach, John Godinho, in August that he would not be competing for the Titans this winter.

“I invited him over, pulled out my binder of all my (college) letters,” Coulter recalled. “He nodded and understood. I have an obligation to chase my dream. He understood. He supports me all the way. Obviously it’s going to hurt our team, the wrestling team, but he supports me all the way. It takes a pretty big man to do that.”

Godinho said Coulter also is showing his maturity by declining an offer to join the team after some of his baseball commitments this month. Coulter told Godinho that it would not be fair to the wrestlers who will have been working hard for more than a month for someone to just join the team in January.

“I’ve made a decision,” Coulter said. “I’ve got to live with my decision.”

That does not mean he hasn’t thought about wrestling.

“I’ve looked in the mirror and pictured myself on the wrestling mat,” he said. “But I’ve also come to an understanding that I made the right decision.”

Clint Coulter wrestled for 12 years, winning at every level. He was, quite simply, one of the best.

But he also is one of the best on the baseball field.

Wrestling, as glorious as it was, is in his past now.

His present, his future, is baseball.

Paul Valencia covers high school sports for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4557 or e-mail at paul.valencia@columbian.com.