FHS hires high-profile mat coach Davis
A beautiful area, family in the semi-vicinity, and an opportunity to coach wrestling in a town that has won seven of the last nine Class AA state wrestling championships.
Those were all among the reasons the all-time national wins leader (984-149-4) in high school wrestling applied for the Flathead High School head wrestling job.
Last week Flathead hired Scot Davis, formerly the head coach at Owatonna, Minn.
Davis found the Flathead job while surfing the internet one night.
“I typed into Google ‘head wrestling coach,’” he said.
The Flathead job popped up and “I remembered Flathead, that they had a good program and I know it’s beautiful country,” Davis said.
An added bonus is that Davis’ wife Mary has family in both Sandpoint, Idaho and Spokane, Wash.
“She’s never really had much opportunity to see her side of the family. We’d driven through Kalispell. We just really liked what we saw.”
So he sent an email to both Flathead athletic director Bryce Wilson and principal Peter Fusaro.
“The next morning I got phone calls from each one,” he said.
Davis was one of about five applicants, Wilson said.
So far, he’s been out twice, has toured the facilities, chatted on the phone with each Flathead wrestler, and attended the recent Kalispell Wrestling Club banquet.
“I sure am high on the people out there. It blew me away, my visit there. The people were so friendly. The opportunity just seemed like a good thing all the way around. I’m so motivated to get that program back on top.
“The whole town has done well. It just seemed like a no-brainer (to apply).”
The one snag is that Davis is in the midst of a two-year suspension from prep activities in the state of Minnesota for recruiting.
“I knew this was coming and I have nothing to hide with what happened,” Davis said when asked about the suspension during a telephone interview on Wednesday.
According to Davis, the 2008 incident involved a California boy who attended one of Davis’ camps, he said.
“He had a great time.”
Davis said he was told the family was going to move to Owatonna and that the electrician father had asked if he could get work.
“I sent out some emails, just to see if there was any. I felt like I was just trying to help a family out.”
And he shared his emails with other members of the community.
“I didn’t think anything of it,” he said.
Another family — one with which Davis said the Owatonna wrestling program was having trouble — sent those emails to the Minnesota State High School League.
“The boy never stepped into an Owatonna school building. He never came here,” he said.
But the Minnesota State High School League “just felt my letters ... by helping look for a job and looking for moving help, that was recruiting.”
The first year of the suspension was self-imposed by the Owatonna school. The second year Davis said was added by the high school league.
Davis was dumbfounded by the second year.
“Nobody has ever gotten that. Our superintendent was really upset,” he said.
“I put my heart and soul into the program there. I’m a guy of integrity. I’ve never hidden anything.”
Wilson said he checked with Davis’ former administrators at the Owatonna school district.
“Not one of them will say a bad thing. I’ve gotten nothing but the highest praise,” he said.
The number of good comments Wilson got “just spoke volumes of the man. He is very down to earth,” he said.
“He has the utmost ethics and morals. He’s a good person through and through,” Wilson said.
“He really has been about kids from Day 1,” he added.
Davis has already asked for — and gotten — a copy of the Montana High School rule book, Wilson said.
“He’s not going to do something that’s against a rule he’s aware of.”
Meanwhile, Davis said he can’t wait to get started at Flathead.
He has some lofty plans — starting with refinishing the mats and turning the storage room/office off the wrestling room into an office.
“I want a place where kids can come in and see me. I want to be available. There’s so much stuff that happens during the day. But they’ll always know where I am,” he said.
He also plans to do some decorating in the wrestling room — with pictures of former champions, etc.
“I really want to embrace the tradition they have.”
Beyond that, he has thoughts of trying to get more kids out and doing some promotions and fundraising.
“I’d like to do some traveling and go to some major tournaments in the country,” he said.
Those could include a trip to a Pennsylvania, to Minnesota (to The Clash, the first tournament where he initially saw the Flathead team of 2005). There is also the Disney Duals in Orlando, Fla., that he hopes to take a team to in the summer of 2013.
“We’re going to have to raise some money, but those are the types of things that kids remember.”
Scot Davis File
• All-Time National wins leader in high school wrestling with a record of 984-149-4
• 2009 Master of Wrestling Award presented by Wrestling USA Magazine
• 2009 Honorary “USA Dream Team Coach for the 13th annual Dream Team High School Wrestling Classic in Stillwater, Okla.
• 2007 National Wrestling Coach of the Year presented by Wrestling USA Magazine.
• 2006 National Wrestling Coach of the Year runner-up
• 2005 Minnesota High School Wrestling Coach of the Year presented by Minnesota Wrestling Coaches Association
• Wrestling USA Magazine Minnesota Wrestling Man of the Year
•1998 National Wrestling Coach of the Year
• 1986 Named one of the Top Rookie College Wrestling Coaches in the USA.
• Member of six Halls of Fame.