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GAINING A TOEHOLD ON A NEW JOB AS COACH : FORMER WRESTLER'S UNTARNISHED RECORD, LOVE FOR SPORT UNDERPINS HIS ABILITIES.


Byline: Danny Schumacher Daily News Staff Writer

Andy Falk first wanted to be a musician For the popular-music magazine, see .

“Instrumentalist” redirects here. For followers of the philosophy, see instrumentalism.

A musician is a person who plays or composes music.
. After graduating from high school in Florida he came to California California (kăl'ĭfôr`nyə), most populous state in the United States, located in the Far West; bordered by Oregon (N), Nevada and, across the Colorado River, Arizona (E), Mexico (S), and the Pacific Ocean (W).  in 1979 with dreams of becoming a star.

But years later Falk finds himself in the challenging position as the wrestling wrestling, sport in which two unarmed opponents grapple with one another. The object is to secure a fall, i.e., cause the opponent to lose balance and fall to the floor, and ultimately to pin the supine opponent's shoulders to the floor, through the use of body  coach at Calabasas High School Calabasas High School is a four-year high school, freshman-senior, in Calabasas, California, United States.

Calabasas High School, which serves portions of Calabasas and the West Hills, Los Angeles, California section of Los Angeles, is one of three high schools in the Las
.

It wasn't something he planned on doing. He was hired this fall as a special education teacher at Calabasas and was just settling into his new position when he was approached about coaching the school's wrestling team.

Someone had heard that Falk had a wrestling background. That was true. Falk was 17-0 as a high school senior but he had never coached wrestling.

However, Calabasas needed a coach. For the past couple of years coaches had come and gone at Calabasas with none failing to stick with it for more than a year.

``There would be no program, is the impression I got,'' Falk said.

So he took the job. He wasn't prepared at first but is loving every minute of coaching now.

But it took a while for Falk, who lives in Calabasas with his wife Angie and his daughters Jackie and Janie, to get used to.

``Even the idea of being called `coach' was funny,'' Falk said.

He also had to deal with other complications. He was challenged by poor attitudes from athletes who were getting used to a new coach for the third straight year.

Falk had to establish his authority. During early meetings with his team some wrestlers See
  • list of amateur wrestlers
  • list of professional wrestlers
  • list of independent circuit, non-affiliated or retired professional wrestlers
and
 would talk while he was trying to speak, and running practice was difficult.

``The craziest thing about it is that you got to start from scratch to start (again) from the very beginning; also, to start without resources.
- Thackeray.

See also: Scratch
 as far as credibility,'' Falk said. ``I think the kids' question was `Who are you?' We've seen three of you already and we'll probably see another one of you next year.''

Fortunately the wrestlers have gotten used to their new coach.

Despite competing with nine sophomores in his starting lineup For the line of action figures, see .
A starting lineup in sports refers to the set of players actively participating in the event when the game begins. The players in the starting lineup are commonly referred to as starters, whereas the others are substitutes
, Falk has guided his team to a 2-1 dual meet record and several athletes have prospered individually.

He has been helped greatly by Jason Books, who is one of the few seniors on the team.

Brooks (125 pounds), was sixth last year at the Southern Section Division IV finals and is 13-3 this year. He took second at the Moorpark tournament last week.

But Brooks has been mostly instrumental in providing leadership for the Coyotes' young team.

``Jason, he leads by example,'' Falk said. ``He doesn't try to create a pecking order pecking order

Basic pattern of social organization within a flock of poultry in which each bird pecks another lower in the scale without fear of retaliation and submits to pecking by one of higher rank. For groups of mammals (e.g.
.''

Calabasas also has several other talented wrestlers including Randy Rosenthal (112), Kevin Tominaga (152), Sam Nosrati (171) and Kevin Curran Kevin Curran is the name of:
  • Kevin Curran (cricketer)
  • Kevin Curran (actor)
  • Kevin Curran (trade unionist)
  • Kevin Curran (writer)
See also
  • Kevin Curren
 (135).

And with each passing meet Falk is getting used to the idea of being the coach. He wants to build a program now, hoping to get more kids out for the team so he can build on the current squad of just over 20 kids.

``I had to get up to speed and get myself up to their level,'' Falk said. ``That wasn't easy.''
COPYRIGHT 1997 Daily News
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 1997, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Publication:Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
Date:Jan 30, 1997
Words:507
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