<div id="subtitle">Northwest is CoutureÕs home turf, where his wrestling career began</div><div><p> Most UFC fans remember the first time they saw Randy Couture.</p><p>Casual fans probably saw one of his three bouts with Chuck Liddell. Newer fans glimpsed the 45-year-old when he stood up to Brock Lesnar in November. The most dedicated mixed martial arts followers might have seen his earliest fights in Japan or perhaps remember when he was an alternate for the U.S. Olympic wrestling team in 1988.</p><p>Shay Thoelke first saw Couture compete in 1977, when he was a freshman at Lynnwood High, north of Seattle.</p><p>ÒThe first time I saw him was as a high school wrestler. I know it sounds strange for a history teacher,Ó said Thoelke, whoÕs now retired. ÒBut I was a fan of wrestling and what I saw was so much incredible heart in a young man, I canÕt even put it into words.</p><p>ÒThey always say that men donÕt cry, but when he got his white letterman jacket in high school, he got tears in his eyes. I wonÕt ever forget that.Ó</p><p>She even made the trip to Concord, Calif., to watch him at the Olympic wrestling trials in 1992 and 1996, and still swears poor officiating kept Couture from representing the United States as more than an alternate.</p><p>Thoelke and other fans in the Northwest will get a chance to see Couture fight Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira on Saturday at UFC 102 in the organizationÕs first event in Portland, Ore.</p><p>ItÕs been 28 years since CoutureÕs last championship fight in the Northwest, when he won the 1981 state wrestling championship. A framed picture of the senior state champion still hangs on a wall of Lynnwood High School and has become one of the main attractions on campus, according to athletic director assistant Lisa Gordon.</p><p>His legacy looms large in the Pacific Northwest, where he spent his adolescence and later moved from wrestling to mixed martial arts.</p><p>Couture was the assistant wrestling coach at Oregon State when he first saw tape of the UFC.</p><p>ÒLess than a year later I got the opportunity to fight at UFC 13,Ó he said. ÒIt caused kind of an uproar with the head coach. He thought it was bad for the university. He kind of forced me to make the decision between being a coach or being a fighter.Ó</p><p>Once he saw CoutureÕs interest in the new sport, then-Oregon State head coach Joe Wells knew he had lost his assistant coach.</p><p>ÒHe was a smart guy, he understood what he was getting himself into,Ó Wells said. ÒWho was I to tell him he couldnÕt do it? He thought it was a valuable entity — all it needed was some organization and a thought process behind it. He really had ideas on how it would work and the safety of it.</p><p>ÒI didnÕt know if it was a good deal to have an MMA fighter sitting there with Mom and Dad trying to convince them their son needed to come work with us.Ó</p><p>CoutureÕs accomplishments in the UFC — particularly his decision to come out of retirement at age 43 — have only pushed his popularity in the Pacific Northwest.</p><p>ÒWhen you look at it, you tend to think that heroes know when to retire,Ó Thoelke said. ÒWhen he went back again, that surprised everybody. Once youÕve had that championship belt, itÕs pretty easy to sit back on your laurels. I canÕt tell you how much that meant to everyone when he went back at that age. It was remarkable.Ó</p><p>Brett Okamoto can be reached at 948-7817 or at brett.okamoto@lasvegassun.com.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=57523320&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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