One-Man Team : With No Wrestling Program at Glendale High, Bagramyan Gains His Independence and Goes Solo

What do a high school art teacher, a United States congressman, the Armenian wife of a college wrestling coach and a barrage of television commercial jingles have in common?

Answer: All have figured in the wrestling fortunes of Glendale High’s Armik Bagramyan.

As the Southern Section’s only wrestler competing as an independent, Bagramyan, 18, a 125-pound senior and a former Armenian national champion, quietly has emerged as one of the region’s best wrestlers in pursuit of a Southern Section championship. And he has sliced through a ream of red tape to do so.

Since Glendale has no wrestling team, Bagramyan (bog-ROM-ian) has been forced to wrestle under the supervision of his art teacher, schedule his own matches and search for a coach.

So far this season, Bagramyan has competed in only the Harvard-Westlake tournament, but while his matches might be short in supply, they are long on success. Bagramyan won the 125-pound championship of the 15-team tournament in January with three easy victories. He was seeded first based on last season’s sixth-place finish at 112 pounds in the Southern Section finals and skills that have coaches raving. “Armik is unbelievably good,” La Canada Coach Mark Ewoldsen said. “Any coach in California would like to have him.”

Bagramyan pinned La Canada’s Eric Chang in 39 seconds and recorded a 15-0 technical pin in the second round over Harvard-Westlake’s Josh Rodine, a two-time defending San Fernando League champion.

Harvard Coach Lew Roberts said he turned his back for a moment on the match between Bagramyan and Rodine. The next thing he knew, the match was over.

“Rodine came up to me afterward and said, ‘Coach, he’s good,’ ” Roberts said. “I said, ‘That’s it? It’s over?’ ”

Not for Bagramyan. On Friday, he and about 130 wrestlers from 12 schools will compete in the Southern Section free-lance tournament at Highland High. The tournament is designed for schools--in Bagramyan’s case, competitors--that have no league affiliation.

The top two qualifiers from each weight class will advance to the individual championship preliminaries Feb. 21. “I love wrestling very much,” said Bagramyan in halting but politely enunciated English. “I planned on wrestling right when I got here.”

Bagramyan’s parents and their three children moved to Glendale from Masis, Armenia, 2 1/2 years ago in a search of a better life. As a 14-year-old, Bagramyan had won a national title at 75 pounds, but a funny thing happened to him on the way to the Glendale High wrestling room: He didn’t find one.

Glendale has never offered wrestling and, because of a dwindling athletic budget, has no plans to add it.

For his part, Bagramyan was more immediately concerned with overcoming shyness and a language barrier. A communication breakthrough came only after hours in front of the television set and a semester in Jo Willoughby-Butcher’s introductory art class during his junior year.

“He had a cute sense of humor and I could see that he wanted to learn English really bad,” Willoughby-Butcher said. “He would come into class and, out of the clear-blue sky, recite television commercials that he had heard, trying to show everybody that he was learning English. He did Coke commercials, Pepsi, Mr. Clean. I would be expecting one every week.

“Finally, in broken English, he said, ‘Why no wrestling?’ ”

Willoughby-Butcher was as curious about her pupil’s inquiry as she was amused by his TV tutoring. She made phone calls in his behalf and soon introduced him to Ewoldsen with hopes of arranging a transfer to La Canada.

Ewoldsen worked briefly with Bagramyan during the off-season and liked what he saw. However, he soon was forced to sever their relationship because Southern Section rules prohibit contact between a coach and an athlete from different schools during the season. Bagramyan’s request for a transfer was denied by Glendale.

Further attempts to arrange a transfer failed. Then, Bagramyan discovered another custom as American as watching television: an appeal to his congressman.

In this case, Bagramyan called the office of Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale). With Glendale the home of about 40,000 Armenians--the largest Armenian population of any community in the world outside Armenia, the office staff felt compelled to help.

“The congressman is apprised of these things from time to time and sports-related matters have come to us in the past,” said Bob Cochran, executive assistant to Moorhead. “Part of what our office does is try to assist immigrants who come to this country.”

Glendale Athletic Director Bruce Dalton said the school initially was reluctant to permit Bagramyan to compete for fear of establishing a precedent. Moreover, no coach or supervisor was available to represent him at matches, a Southern Section requirement.

“We were not trying to cause him any undue harm,” Dalton said. “We just cannot afford to offer some sports and we can’t go out of our way to accommodate every athlete who is interested in playing any sport.”

The political influence paid off. A Moorhead aide contacted the Glendale Unified School District, which in turn persuaded Glendale to make an exception in Bagramyan’s case. He was permitted to wrestle if he supplied his own equipment and paid his tournament entry fees.

Willoughby-Butcher gladly agreed to represent him. His $130 entry fee at the Harvard tournament was waived.

“I never knew anything about wrestling before, but I have a lot more respect for it now,” Willoughby-Butcher said. “I’m learning by watching. I bring him Gatorade and carry a first-aid kit.”

Said Bagramyan: “It’s sad wrestling alone. You don’t have your friends. But Mrs. Butcher has been like a second mother to me.”

Bagramyan’s first match came last season at the Harvard tournament, where he finished 0-2. His difficulty there was learning collegiate-style wrestling (more rules, more regimented) as opposed to the freestyle format followed throughout the world. “It was hard at first, unusual,” Bagramyan said. “I hated it.”

He was granted entry to the Southern Section individual tournament and finished sixth.

Finding a bona fide coach, however, still was a problem. That was resolved when Alhambra wrestling Coach Mike Williams, the former brother-in-law of Willoughby-Butcher, introduced Bagramyan to Grace Bohlander, an Armenian native who befriended Bagramyan.

Bohlander didn’t know much about wrestling, but her husband did. Ben Bohlander is the wrestling coach at East L. A. College and the coach of a freestyle wrestling club called the High Flyers. Bagramyan began working out with the High Flyers last spring and made the All-Southern California Freestyle team, finishing eighth in the national freestyle tournament in Las Vegas in May.

Bagramyan continues to practice with Bohlander and wrestle under the watchful eye of Willoughby-Butcher. His tentative plans are to attend East L. A. in the fall.

“I’m looking forward to having him on the team next year,” Bohlander said. “He’ll probably get a scholarship within a year.”

That, Bagramyan concedes, is the most appealing aspect of wrestling in the United States.

“If you show your talent here,” he said, “you can move up and up.”