Scott Swanson
It’s a tradition in Sweet Home for senior wrestlers who have finished their last home match to take off their shoes and leave them on the mat.
Though Tim Boatwright didn’t exit that way, it may have been appropriate after a distinguished career spanning three decades in the Huskies wrestling room.
Boatwright wasn’t really expecting to spend a lot of time in Sweet Home when he arrived in 1980 to teach math and coach at Sweet Home High School.
The new graduate from Willamette University was simply looking for a job and Sweet Home had one.
But after 33 straight years as a coach with the Husky wrestling program, he’s finally calling it quits.
He’s steered many wrestlers, particularly in the upper weights, to state championships and trophies, the last Zach Gill, who took third place in the heavyweight division at state the last two years.
“He’s part of that old-school intensity, and that is going to be hard to replace,” said current Head Coach Steve Thorpe.
Boatwright, 56, actually retired from teaching two years ago, but held out for a while as a coach. He said he’s been waiting for his wife, Jean, to retire from nursing.
He plans to do a lot of fishing, especially fly fishing, but everything else is up in the air until Jean is “ready to go.”
“Then we’ll decide,” he said. “We’ll throw things around.”
Born in Bremerton, Wash., Boatwright was raised in Lompoc, Calif., near Vandenberg Air Force Base, where his dad worked in aerospace.
He graduated from Lompoc High School, a central California football power, and moved on to Allan Hancock College, then transferred to the College of Idaho, playing football and wrestling at each stop.
When College of Idaho killed its sports programs, he made his last move – to Willamette.
“I played the last game of football and wrestled in the last wrestling match at College of Idaho,” he noted.
He was sitting on the hill behind the baseball field at Willamette in the spring of 1980 when the athletic director walked up and asked Boatwright if he had a job yet.
“I’d had two interviews and they were going to get back to me,” he said. “He asked if I’d heard of Sweet Home. They needed a math teacher and someone who could coach. The rest is history.”
He arrived at Sweet Home along with Rob Younger, another recruit who would eventually become the Huskies longtime head football coach.
“We were the new kids on the block,” he said.
Boatwright coached football, baseball and wrestling for the Huskies, in the early 1980s, eventually focusing on wrestling – in which he worked under legendary Coach Norm Davis. He coached the offensive line, where he’d played himself, and the defensive secondary for 18 years.
“It was sort of strange, but I liked it because I got to see different kids on both sides of the ball,” he said.
He became a varsity coach in 1987, the year the Huskies won the state football title under Coach Rod Rumrey.
During Boatwright’s years with the wrestling team, Sweet Home has won numerous district titles and four state championships, one of the highlights of his career, he said.
“I’ve never known Sweet Home wrestling without Tim Boatwright,” said Thorpe, who has led the Huskies since 1997. “From the time I was in junior high till when I came back from college, and became coach, he was a constant. He’s the last connection to Norm Davis. That speaks volumes.”
Wrestling has been Boatwright’s favorite sport to coach.
“It’s a one-on-one sport,” he said. “If you can’t beat your opponent, you don’t wrestle varsity. Parents can’t say anything about why their kid isn’t getting playing time. It’s cut and dried.”
He said that, although he’s enjoyed the titles, there have been plenty of smaller triumphs.
“There have been so many good memories,” Boatwright said. “Seeing a kid who hasn’t won a match all year finally get a win – that’s almost as exciting as seeing a kid win a state championship. You don’t always have to be a winner to win in life. Just seeing the kids work hard year in or year out, no matter whether we do well or not. It’s just the spirit the kids of Sweet Home have, competing in something.
Thorpe said Boatwright’s loyalty was something he taught to his athletes and students.
“He held the kids accountable. He’s been responsible for a lot of our success. He was an upper-weight wrestler and he knew better than I do how to coach that, though he worked with the lighter weights too. He’s always been a valued part of our program.”
Boatwright said he believes wrestling has been a success in Sweet Home because of the strength of local residents.
“It’s the hard-working mentality of the people in the community,” he said. “If you look throughout the state, a lot of other small towns have good wrestling programs because they have the same kind of people we have.”