MOUNT VERNON — Cash Stone has the look of a wrestler.

His body is chiseled — even at age 73. His grip is vise-like and his eyes steely. He has a calculating look about him as if he is always searching for that next move — a head-and-arm or maybe belly-to-back.

Yet his laugh is infectious, his smile continuous and broad.

Let’s just say he leaves an impression. That is something he’s been doing since graduating from Burlington-Edison High School in 1954.

More recently, Stone was recognized by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association for his 38 years of coaching wrestling at Spokane’s Mead High School.

“I have enjoyed each and every minute of it,” Stone said. “It was a great career. I was so fortunate to have such good coaches and to have been able to coach so many outstanding athletes.”

It is another accolade in a long list.

Stone is in six halls of fame.

Stone wrestled for Burlington-Edison, then Skagit Valley College for a year before moving on to Washington State University on scholarship. While wrestling for the Cougars as a senior in 1958, Stone won the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate championship at 130 pounds, going 18-0.

After graduating from Washington State, Stone was hired as a teacher and wrestling coach at Mead. He taught history and physical education, and led the wrestling team to state 4A championships in 1983 and 1993.

He retired in 1997.

Stone didn’t begin his athletic career as a wrestler. No, he was a boxer.

He fondly recalls the day a cousin came into the Burlington-Edison boxing room and invited him to come down into the wrestling room.

“I never went back to the boxing room,” Stone said with a laugh. “From then on, I was a wrestler.”

Wrestling in the early 50s was a little different than today. For starters, there were about 10 schools in the state that fielded wrestling squads.

In the Skagit Valley, schools participated in “smokers,” a combination of boxing and wrestling. That was the norm until Stone’s senior year — 1954 — when Washington State held its first state wrestling tournament.

“It was a lot different back then,” Stone explained. “We had these smokers where there would be two boxing matches and then two wrestling matches. It alternated like that back and forth. We wrestled in raised boxing rings with ropes and all. We’d roll out of the ring onto the floor and then climb back in. When I tell people that, they can’t believe it. Back then, people were a lot more interested in the boxing. They put up with the wrestling.”

Bellingham, Sedro-Woolley, Mount Vernon, Burlington-Edison and Anacortes boasted wrestling and boxing teams.

“We wrestled and boxed three schools twice each and that was league,” Stone said. “Then we also had some non-league matches.”

Rivalries also developed. None was larger than that between Burlington-Edison and Sedro-Woolley.

“It was always Burlington-Edison and Sedro-Woolley battling for the league title,” Stone recalled. “We’d invariably split our matches during the season. It was also back and forth.”

And when the teams collided, it was a well-attended event.

“The gyms were always packed,” Stone said.

When it came to boxing, it was a different story.

“Usually Mount Vernon had the team to beat. Us (Burlington-Edison) and Sedro-Woolley wound up behind them in the standings. But just like that, boxing was gone.”

Boxing all but disappeared in 1953. Bursting onto the scene, however, was the first state wrestling invitational. The tournament, held in Pullman, boasted 10 schools, with 60 wrestlers competing in 11 weight classes.

While Sedro-Woolley won the first team title, Burlington-Edison never got the chance to contend.

Burlington-Edison, which had beaten Sedro-Woolley earlier that season, was told by its administration that only seniors could attend the tournament. The coach said either the entire team went or no one went.

“So we didn’t go,” Stone said. “For us, it was all go or nobody goes.”

After hearing Sedro-Woolley won the tournament, the Burlington community was irate. The school’s principal fired the coach.

“It’s really ironic,” Stone said. “We never had the chance to wrestle that third match (against Sedro-Woolley that season). I think we could have been a very strong opponent for them. We would have given them all they could have handled.”

Despite a bitter end to his prep wrestling career, Stone continued on the mat at the college level. He said it took some getting used to.

“It was way different than what I was used to in the Skagit Valley,” Stone admitted. “First, there weren’t any ropes. Second, it was tough competition. Either I was going to get better as a wrestler or they were going to kill me.
“We traveled all over. Oregon, Oregon State. Those were real rivals. At Washington State, we were just getting started. We had to take some long road trips and you weren’t eating three meals a day because you were always weight conscious.”

Stone said attending WSU really set his future in motion. It allowed him to compete in a sport he loved while punching his ticket into the field of education.

The wrestling program at Mead was in its infancy when Stone arrived, a mere two years old. Seeing that as a positive, Stone shaped a program he’d nurture for the next 37 years. Mead was the beneficiary of a coach with a great deal of experience. That wasn’t always the case in those days.

“A lot of guys coached that had never wrestled before,” he said. “I had wrestled in high school and college and that was really a great advantage.

“I was able to build the program up. I was lucky in the fact that I had a lot of good, young kids to build a program around. That first year was great. We sent seven kids to districts.”

Stone recognized right away the importance of junior programs, beginning a program for younger kids. The Greater Spokane League would never be the same.

The 1993 state title stands out for Stone. Not only did his team win a title at Mat Classic IV — so did his alma mater. Mead won the 4A team title and Burlington-Edison the 3A.

“That was a real thrill for me,” he said. “That was special. We should have repeated the next year, but our No. 1 kid dislocated his shoulder.

“Mat Classic really changed wrestling in Washington. That’s a real event.”

Stone didn’t believe in having his wrestlers “cut” weight in order to make a particular weight class. Rather, he encouraged them to wrestle up.

“I always discouraged my kids to cut weight,” he said. “I know how demanding it is to cut weight. Our workouts were very demanding. It was my belief that the weight you’d lose during turnout was the weight you wrestled. The system they have now is great.”

A lot has changed in wrestling in the past 40 years, and Stone has seen the good and the bad. He calls what is happening today at the college level criminal.

“Washington State’s wrestling program was dropped in 1986,” Stone said. “It’s really ironic now that the only programs left are high school programs. College wrestling programs are simply disappearing. That is really a crime because the most capable kids work so hard to get better. There aren’t many places to wrestle after high school at the college level.”

Stone doesn’t necessarily miss coaching. He still manages to spend time in wrestling rooms between vacationing with his wife of 38 years, Dorothy, their five kids and 14 grandchildren.

“I have so many former wrestlers who are now coaching,” Stone said. “I spend plenty of time at practices and meets and I still get out on the mats myself. I give wrestling all the credit for my good health. It just gives you that extra mental part to stay fit.”

And it all started in the Skagit Valley.

“People love their wrestling,” Stone said. “Their enthusiasm has never waned and there is a definite bond there. Wrestling in the valley is something special.”

And that’s partly because of hall of fame wrestlers and coaches such as Stone.

Vince Richardson can be reached at 360-416-2181 or by e-mail at .