KCC Wrestling Coach of the Year: Batavia enjoys record-setting season
By KEVIN DRULEY
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kdruley@kcchronicle.com
A shot to the groin sent Batavia senior 171-pounder Danny Watson scrambling to his back at this past weekend's IHSA State Wrestling Tournament.
Cue Bulldogs coach Tom Arlis.
Between queries of "Are you all right?" and other customary checkup procedures, Arlis made the most of his visit. Waving his arms and shuffling his feet, he appeared to be wrestling Watson's third-place match himself.
"Yeah, coach is active, and you can definitely hear him," Bulldogs senior 160-pounder Andrew Rudd said. "I think it helps, especially when you need that last bit of extra advice at a key point in the match."
Colleagues kidded Arlis, the Chronicle's Wrestling Coach of the Year, earlier last month about the possibility of having a heart attack at regionals. He leans back and forth in his chair and barks out commands nearly as fast as the Bulldogs shoot and sprawl.
Arlis grins, nods and remarks that it beats selling cars.
"He loves the sport just as much as anyone else," said Logan Arlis, the coach's son, state runner-up at 112 pounds and the Chronicle's Wrestler of the Year. "If it wasn't for him, a lot of us wouldn't be nearly as good as we are."
Batavia enjoyed historical success this season, as a program-best three wrestlers placed at state. Watson would return to his feet and take third, joining Rudd (sixth) and Logan Arlis. Senior Charlie Ryan also competed at 130 pounds, giving the Bulldogs a school record-tying four qualifiers.
Each were team captains.
While Logan Arlis saw his unbeaten season end with a loss in the finals and Watson suffered a semifinal defeat, Tom Arlis was glad to be part of the breakthrough. After coaching 12 individual state champions at Naperville North in the late 1980s and 1990s, he presided over his best season since joining Batavia in 2003-04.
"When you go down to state, you always say, 'Oh, this is the year.' Everybody's going to place this year,'" Tom Arlis said. "To get close to that, having four down and having three places ... I've been in the business a long time, and it's rare."
Arlis has coached another son at Batavia, Clint, who wrestles at the University of Illinois. The Illinois High School Wrestling Coaches Hall of Famer has spent 31 years as either an assistant or head coach.
Before that, he placed twice at state for Montini and wrestled at NCAA nationals three times for Western Illinois.
"He just really knows a lot about wrestling," Rudd said. "He's a nice guy and he can be, you know, strict, but he knows how to have a good time."
Arlis, who remains a teacher at Naperville North, says he enjoys getting home when it still is light out now that the season is through. But there still is work to do, namely organizing dates and times for Batavia's summer camp and getting things in order for the team banquet.
"After the banquet is when I can take a deep breath and kind of relax," Arlis said. "So in about three weeks."
