Travel By Coach by Coach Glynn Leyshon

Geat stories about my father in this book!!

Travel by Coach

Canadian National Wrestling coach Glynn Leyshon

as he travels the world with his band of wrestlers,

to whom he dedicates his book. It is also the story

of Leyshon's passion to promote the sport he loves

best in his native Canada, and his grappling with in-

competent wrestling o cials, bored bureaucrats and

indi
erent organizations.

The book is a journal of Leyshon's twenty- ve

year career starting with his rst high school coach-

ing/teaching job in 1956 and nishing in 1980. It is,

in Leyshon's words, not really about wrestling but the

\human comedy." There are some cultural insights:

Leyshon's respect for Russian training methods, their

passion, work ethic and spirit; his appreciation for

the exuberance of the Cubans; and his admiration

for a savvy Soviet tour guide named Lena. Lena ulti-

mately is invited to the Leyshon home in Canada and

is a less-than-gracious house guest, primarily intent

on making a capitalist killing before returning home

to Russia. The coach, in the book's nal chapter,

reveals his greatest disappointment{never getting a

shot at coaching the Canadian Olympic team, his -

nal chance quashed by the Western-Bloc boycott in

the 1980 Olympics.

But it's the anecdotes on almost every page that

keeps the journal from getting tedious. Leyshon and

his wrestlers are constantly strapped for money, are

traveling 'by coach' and housed in less than adequate

facilities. Every trip has its share of human hilar-

ity as clacking crustaceans invade their outdoor din-

ing digs in Cuba, creepy crones and drunken \inter-

preters" turn up on a trip to Dracula's castle in Ro-

mania, and the Coach is caught atop a pole trying

to lch a banner in Teheran while menacing thugs

and their Persian pin-up girl friends circle below in

pre-Ayatollah Iran.

Through it all the reader gets to know this com-

bative coach with a wry eye for humor and high

expectations for his wrestlers. He doesn't pull any

punches here either, and his assessments of his

wrestler's performances will make some of them wince

if they didn't measure up to his expectations. But

if humor is evidence of heart, there is much heart

abounding in this small chronicle from the crusty

Canadian coach. Even after the Russian tour guide

doesn't charm them after being invited to visit in

Canada, the Leyshon family, nding out years later

how bad things were in Russia, still send her a care

package. And, although his career in wrestling neces-

sitates \travel by coach," it's evident that the coach

knows that there's no place like home.chronicles the travails of feisty