The little engine that could

This past Saturday, the fifth annual Bill Combs Junior Varsity Invitational Wrestling Tournament was held at Hernando High School. And the person whose name is on the top of each trophy, Hernando High assistant wrestling coach Bill Combs Sr., was up at 6:30 a.m. Saturday doing what he normally does, that is spend almost all of his spare time working at something that has to do with wrestling.

Combs, who wrestled in high school for Venice before moving to Brooksville in 1978, has spent that entire 29 years working in some capacity with the Leopards' mat program.

"I enjoy it, it's fun," said the low-key Combs. "Obviously I don't do it for the money, I'm just helping the kids out, I do it because I enjoy helping these kids."

Combs 101

The owner of Combs Service in Brooksville, Combs has been the head coach of Hernando's wrestling program twice.

In 1991, he was the head coach for one year before going back to being an assistant. Then last year, Head Coach Matt Smith resigned during the summer to concentrate on football and the school hired Brian Flanagan as the new coach. Later Flanagan was let go and Smith returned as coach.

But for one week in December during the Gulf Duals Tournament, Combs ran the team.

"I was head coach in 1991 and didn't like it and then last year I ran the team for a week and didn't like it then either," declared Combs. "There's too much paper work and responsibility and I have enough of that with my job. Besides, I just want to be around the kids and help them with coaching."

In his nearly three years of service with Hernando wrestling, Combs has worked under seven different head coaches, the last one being current coach Joe McLain.

"He is the Hernando High program," McLain said Saturday. "He makes it work. He coached me when I was in high school here and he's a technician, a motivator and he just cares extremely. He has a lot of passion for wrestling and the program."

When someone asks him how many hours a week he works on wrestling, Combs will say about 30 hours a week. But his wife Melanie says something different. "What does he mean by 30 hours a week? Does he mean how many hours he's actually here or how many hours overall he spends working on it? He probably spends as much time on wrestling as he does his other job."

Combs has had three sons go through the Hernando program in his time in Brooksville but Coach McLain says that unlike a lot of parents who work with the school when they have kids in school and then drop it when they graduate, Combs has been at Hernando through thick and thin.

"His boys have been through the program already but he's still here," said McLain. "This program would not have the kind of success it has had over the years without Bill Combs."

Even with 29 years experience and a current stint as the coach of Team Florida for USA Wrestling, Combs says he wants no part of a head coaching position, even though he is more than qualified.

"I never really want to be a head coach. You've got too much paper work, for one thing," insists Combs. "You have to work on setting up tournaments and worry about this, this and this. Instead I can spend my time working with the kids."

The best part of his job is being able to assist prep athletes with improving themselves.

"Each one of the kids today is different," Combs declared. "Some of them just want to a part of something and some of them want to be state champs and you have to figure that out.

"Now with the ones who want to be state champs, you have to work with them a little longer. With the others, you could be mean and send them away, but it's nice to see those kids later in life," he added. "They ended up losing weight and getting focused and later they come up to you and tell you wrestling benefited them. And that's the best part of the job."