Wolfe Finds Safe Harbor, Away From Titan Turmoil : Gymnastics: After a successful but tumultuous 23 years at Cal State Fullerton, he discovers a life after coaching that’s closer to home.

Dick Wolfe sat on a bluff overlooking the ocean. The Pacific surf lapped at the beach below. It was Southern California wearing its best dress. The Laguna coast, basking in July’s warmth, was a gleaming backdrop.

Wolfe remembers the day three years ago when he was at that same spot, looking out to sea. “I remember seeing a boat go by,” he said. “This may sound crazy, but you know what I thought? I had a strange feeling the people on that boat were coaches. Very soon they would go back into the gym and spend five or six hours a day coaching gymnastics. Don’t ask me why I thought that, but that’s what I thought. And I knew then I had to make myself realize that there are things in life other than coaching.”

Wolfe, who is 55 today, said he had made up his mind at that point that his days coaching gymnastics at Cal State Fullerton were over. Until then, a big part of his life had revolved around that career. And, like other coaches, he was driven by an insatiable desire for his teams to succeed.

They did. In his 23 years at Fullerton, the Titans won three college division national titles. They also won 10 consecutive conference championships. And when the program moved to the Division I level, Wolfe still produced top teams. He was nationally regarded as one of the sport’s top coaches.

But the job became increasingly difficult because of budget cuts, and Wolfe was embroiled in one battle after another with school officials, resisting plans to eliminate the program entirely. Finally, he decided to throw in the towel. A year later, the school dropped the sport unceremoniously.

By then, however, Wolfe had found that there is, indeed, life after coaching. And he said he was determined to not look back.

“It took almost a full year for him to totally realize that,” said his wife, Charlotte, a teacher at Irvine High. “I’m sure a lot of coaches don’t think there really is another life when they stop coaching. I don’t think he felt there was another person. His whole persona was tied to it. There’s a transition period where they have to learn to let it go.”

Wolfe said he had no interest in finding a job that would require him to move away from Laguna Beach.

“I love Laguna, and I love the ocean,” he said. “I’m one of those people who feel they have to be by the water. The ocean has a calming effect on me, and it helps me center myself.”

It wasn’t long before he found a new career as a personal trainer at a Laguna Beach gym and health club. It is something he enjoys, he said, and it has none of the time demands, pressures and emotional strain that frequently comes with coaching, whatever the sport.

“I still feel as though I’m helping people develop themselves physically, even though the people I’m working with now are almost all over 40, instead of the young athletes I worked with as a coach,” Wolfe said.

He still lives in the brown-shingled house built in 1910 that he moved into 18 years ago. But there is a big difference now.

“My commute now is 0.9 miles,” he said, smiling. “I don’t even have to turn any corners to get to work. When I worked at Fullerton, I had a commute of almost an hour each way.

“Some of my friends tell me that I’ve probably added four or five years to my life by all this. Well, I think I’ve probably added at least 45 minutes to it. What I mean is that I don’t worry much about those kinds of things.”

He has more time for his young sons, and he’s delighted about that. Tyler is 13, Ryan, 10.

“They’re both talented young athletes, and I’m glad I have more time to spend with them,” Wolfe said. “When I was coaching I didn’t have that kind of time to spend with my older son, Troy, who is 24 now. I tried to give him quality time, but I know now that was limited by coaching. I remember getting back from trips and waking him up in the night to play with him for a little while before I had to leave again early the next morning.”

Wolfe says he avoids getting too involved in any coaching of his sons. Both are promising soccer players and compete in other sports, as well.

“The only goals I have for them is that they learn from their day-to-day sports experiences,” Wolfe said. “I want them to learn personal integrity and honor and to be straight forward with their friends. I encourage them to do what they want to do and don’t push them to certain sports. I support them, but I won’t drive them.”

A few months ago, the National Assn. of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches presented Wolfe their Honor Coach Award at the group’s national convention in Lincoln, Neb. The ceremony brought back a lot of memories.

“I went and took my family,” he said. “It was pretty emotional. There’s a real fraternity among those coaches, all of us competing and trying to develop our programs. And I knew what I missed about coaching was the camaraderie and working with the athletes. No one really coaches for the money or the glory. You do it for the kids. It’s a group commitment. When one person has a problem, everyone has a problem.”

Wolfe said receiving the award “closed the book” on his days as a coach, leaving him with no regrets. And a life with more balance. “If I were still coaching and sitting here today, I’d have my clipboard with me, ready to write down something I might think of about gymnastics or my team,” Wolfe said. “I’d take it with me sometimes when my wife and I would go to a movie. I don’t carry it at all anymore.”

As he looks back, he knows that clipboard was a symbol of his unbridled intensity.

“When I was coaching, it was life and death, and I’d do anything to accomplish my goals,” he said. “I don’t define myself now in the kinds of ways that I did then. There’s a life after coaching, and it’s a good one.”

The ocean behind him seemed calm.