Ex chief deputy pursues bodybuilding in retirement
— A 58-year-old retired Imperial County chief deputy sheriff, which is the highest appointed rank possible, recently proved he can still cut it as a bodybuilder.
Coming off of four surgeries and a 24-year hiatus from the sport, Steven Gutierrez won three gold medals at the Patriot’s Challenge Muscle Contest on July 11 in Las Vegas.
This qualified him to compete in the USA Championships, which will take place in December in the downtown area here. Gutierrez will win a pro card — which he needs to become a professional bodybuilder — if he wins in the championships.
An LA native, Gutierrez has lived in Yuma since 1990. He served at ICSO for 26 years, from Oct. 1, 1991 to March 31, 2017.
Michael Hackett, a retired ICSO assistant sheriff (second in command behind sheriff), fondly remembers Chief Deputy Gutierrez.
“I found him to be one of the most disciplined athletes I’ve ever known,” Hackett said of his former colleague. Gutierrez, for most of his career, worked for Hackett.
ICSO maintains a gym in its headquarters in El Centro.
Hackett recalled commending his chief deputy for working out there during his off-duty time for years.
“While that was commendable, he also acted as a coach for any of the department who wished to improve their physical welfare,” Hackett said. “Over the years, there were many members who improved their health in part because of Steve.”
Gutierrez was the first took an interest in bodybuilding when he was 14 years old and realized weighing 90 pounds would not help him become a good athlete.
“I had a major need to try to improve my game,” Gutierrez recalled.
When he was 34 years old, he competed in the annual Police and Fire Bodybuilding Championships in Calgary, Canada. This is a National Physique Committee-sanctioned event.
Gutierrez won three years (four gold medals total) at this “police Olympics” event during the mid-1990s.
He said it was the first and only time an ICSO deputy has won a gold medal at these championships.
However pumping iron wasn’t moving Gutierrez up the ladder professionally within the Sheriff’s Office, so he decided to shift his focus and enrolled in Northern Arizona University in Yuma. Gutierrez redirected the time and energy he spent to bodybuilding to classwork.
“I chose my career over my bodybuilding,” he said. “That was more important to me.”
He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice in 2000, and his master’s degree in educational leadership in 2003 from NAU.
As he and his wife, Stacy, had a family to raise, his break from bodybuilding stretched over 24 years.
After Gutierrez retired in 2017, he underwent four major surgeries (on his back, prostate and shoulder area) within a year.
He recalled that he was “pretty much” recovered from them by 2019 and he was thinking about resuming training. Meanwhile, his 18-year-old son, Cole Gutierrez, was steadily at work inside their home gym.
Cole has been working out alongside his father since eighth grade. He entered his first bodybuilding competition about two years ago.
“My whole family is active in general,” Cole said. “My dad, especially -- he used to be a bodybuilder. I always looked up to that.”
Last year, while preparing to compete in his second show, Cole suggested to his father that they should both compete in a show.
“I thought he’d be able to do it because he’s a big tough guy, and he’s been through more than that,” Cole said of his dad. “It’s definitely not an easy task, especially not at his age. It’s extremely hard on his body. It’s definitely not easy — at all.”
“I said, ‘Let’s do a show,’” Gutierrez said. “I thought it would be good for him and good for me.”
So Cole continued working for his show, which was coming up before the end of 2019, while Steven Gutierrez took his first steps in preparing for a show on a later date.
However, as COVID-19 continued shutting down events, Cole’s competition never happened. It turned out that the soonest event that the two could compete in was the Patriot’s Challenge (a NPC-sanction event).
So, with the Patriot’s Challenge in sight, the father and son in January began working on three things: Working out, meal preparation and posing.
Cole and his dad mostly worked out at their home gym, which Gutierrez has been building the past 30 years.
The two devised a sixmonth training program that consisted of cardio and lifting weights twice a day, seven days a week.
“It was incredible how much time it took to actually do this the right way,” Steven Gutierrez said.
The training program was also design with Gutierrez’s recent surgeries in mind.
“My training program was modified to protect myself,” he said. “So, basically, I worked out smarter.”
Father and son worked with San Diego-based pro bodybuilding coach Pete Ciccone; with Dave, Justin and Ryan Hale, of the 4th Avenue Gym in Yuma, and with their workout partners Ferine Rivas, Alex Moreno and Andre Harper.
The two did have to adjust to the scarcity of certain foods and supplements the pandemic wrought. For example, they would substitute chicken for turkey or fish if chicken wasn’t available for a certain meal.
Nonetheless, by the time the Patriot’s Challenge arrived July. 11, the Gutierrez men were ready.
Steven Gutierrez won gold in the three categories he entered: Masters Classic Physique (35 years or older); Novice Classic Physique (for competitors up to 5 feet, 9 inches tall) and Classic Physique Open.
The open category included competitors starting from the age of 20.
“That was not expected, that’s for sure,” Cole said of his dad. “It was definitely a surprise. It was really cool to see that he even competed again. Not a lot of people can say they’ve competed with their dad in this industry.”
Cole also saw an age difference between himself and his own competitors. He originally intended to compete in a category specifically for teenagers; however, as there were so few teenage competitors, there was no such category.
So, he was moved up to compete against five others in the Novice Men’s Physique category, which featured men up to 28 years old. He finished sixth.
“I compete mainly to better myself every year,” Cole said. “I do the shows just to keep myself goal-orientated and what not.”
The 18-year-old currently attends Arizona State University, where he is studying to be an environmental engineer.
“Like his mom,” Steven Gutierrez said of his son.
Dad, meanwhile, has been spending plenty of time in the classroom himself. He’s currently employed as associate faculty at NAU and Arizona Western College, where he teaches criminal justice courses.
Outside the classroom, Steven Gutierrez has been putting plenty of time into training with Cole as his spotter, as the USA Championships will take place Dec. 11 to 13.
“So I’m going to try to take the next step forward,” Gutierrez said of possibly winning a pro card.
Winning a card is the first step in becoming a professional bodybuilder.
The card is a certification that proves the cardholder has won amateur level competitions. Pro bodybuilders then go on to compete around the world, build their status and gain endorsements.
“I could care less about that stuff,” Gutierrez, who will compete in the 50-and-older category at the USA Championships, said. “I’m just doing it because I want to stay fit.”