DATE: Tuesday, February 25, 1997            TAG: 9702250347

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ROBIN BRINKLEY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   38 lines

BRUCE FOWLER: FRIDAY'S TOURNAMENT CAN'T COME SOON ENOUGH FOR UNDEFEATED WRESTLER

When you are 40-0 with 26 pins, the next match can't come quickly enough.

``I can go another match right now,'' Great Bridge's Bruce Fowler said after trouncing Western Branch's Willie Evans 15-0 in Saturday's Eastern Region finals. ``I'm ready for next week right now.''

``Next week'' officially starts Friday when Fowler enters the state tournament at Oscar Smith as one of the the favorites at 119 pounds.

``I'm not scared,'' he said. ``But I can't slack off.''

Slack off? Fowler's Sunday plans included a six-mile run.

Fowler, a junior, was the only wrestler in the region tournament without a close match. He scored two pins, a technical fall and a major decision.

It was a golden performance highlighted by golden hair.

``I went to a hairdresser and told her I wanted it golden blond,'' he said.

Fowler has favored blond tresses over his natural brown hair all season, but usually he dyes it himself.

``Every now and then I go to a hairdresser,'' he said. ``It's healthier.''

Fowler's hair, while hardly in a league with Dennis Rodman's, still commands attention.

``I like it glowing,'' he said. ``I like the spotlight.''

Fowler has helped restore Great Bridge to the spotlight in a season in which the Wildcats were expected to contend but not win. Great Bridge won its 13th consecutive Southeastern District tournament two weeks ago, then added its seventh straight region title.

``We owe it all to our coach,'' he said of Steve Martin. ``It's his training. He knows how to have us at our peak at the right time.

``We're wrestling to our potential now and if we keep it up we'll win this thing.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

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