Scot Davis
Owatonna High School
Impact Statement
“In the sport of wrestling you’re going to lose sometimes and you learn to deal with that, pick up your bootstraps and keep pushing on. That just simulates life.” -Scot Davis
Biography
Scot’s Owatonna team won its first Class AAA dual state title this year, posting a 41-1 overall record and a final # 8 national ranking. He has led Owatonna to the state dual tournament three consecutive years.
A coach who promoted the sport of wrestling like no other is Scot Davis. That promotion helped produce many successful teams (State Champions in 1998- ranked #8 in USA, and 2005- ranked #6 in USA) and ten teams ranked in “Top 25” in the USA. He coached 12 State Tournament teams and 18 Conference Championship Teams.
In 2010, Rob Sherrill-WIN Magazine wrote in his column the “Top 10” Hotbeds of Wrestling in the United States.” At #8, Sherrill said: “The clear winner of the one-town, one-team hotbed sweepstakes, Owatonna’s inclusion on this list is a tribute to Owatonna High School coach Scot Davis, the undisputed leader in program promotion.”
Great promotion and a philosophy of participation and asking people to help with the program, Davis never had a losing season as a coach in a 46 year career. He has turned some losing programs into winners in a short time. From junior high coaching in Bloomington and Burnsville (while still attending college in the early 1970’s), to Turtle Mountain Community High School in Belcourt (ND) in 1976-77, to Bird Island-Lake Lillian (MN) 1977-78 to 1978-79, Hutchinson (MN)1979-80 to 1984-85, University of Wisconsin-Superior (WI) 1985-86, to 25 years at Owatonna High School (MN) 1986-87 to 2010-11, 2012-13 at Flathead High School in Kalispell, Montana, three years (2014, 2015, 2016) at Eden Prairie High School in Eden Prairie, MN., 2016-17 Bishop Heelan High School in Sioux City, Iowa and 2017-18 at Westwood Community High School in Sloan, Iowa. He has never had a losing season record and coached four different HS programs to conference titles (different conferences) and individual state champions at four different schools as well. The accumulation of records has given Davis a coaching record unmatched in amateur wrestling history, with over a 1100 dual meet victories (current high school career coaching record 1129-197-4).
Davis was awarded National High School Wrestling “Coach of the Year” in 1998 by the National High School Coaches Association. In 2007 he received another “National Wrestling Coach of the Year” honor from Wrestling USA Magazine. He was runner-up for that same honor in 2006. In 2009 he was named “USA Dream Team Coach” for the 13th annual Dream Team Classic held in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Also in 2009, Wrestling USA Magazine awarded him their “Master of Wrestling” Award. As a college coach, Davis was named one of the “Top Rookie College Coaches in the USA” by Amateur Wrestling News and NCAA News in 1986. He was NAIA-District 14 “Coach of the Year” that season too. He is a member of 8 Hall of Fames. Davis also served as USA Team Coach for Down Under Sports, taking high school wrestlers from across the USA each summer to compete in New Zealand and Australia.
On the State and Regional level, Davis received 2004 Minnesota “Man of the Year” by Wrestling USA Magazine; 2005 Minnesota (Class AAA) “Coach of the Year;” named 1999 Minnesota “All-Star Coach” for the MN vs WI All-Star Classic: and several District, Region, Section and Conference “Coach of the Year” honors. He was also selected as 1999 Minnesota All-Star Coach for the annual Minnesota vs Wisconsin All-Star HS Wrestling Classic. In 2011 the Owatonna High School Student Council selected him as “Grand Marshall” for their annual Homecoming Parade.
As a promoter, Davis organized and directed two of Minnesota’s largest “open” tournaments in the Hutch Open (1981-85) and the Owatonna Open (1987-2007). He served as Chairman of the 1985 Minnesota vs Iowa HS All-Star Wrestling Classic, and was initiator of the Minnesota vs Wisconsin HS All-Star Wrestling Classic. He served as President of the Minnesota Wrestling Coaches Association in 1991-92 and MWCA Publicity Director for 8 years (1993-2000). He served on the organizing committee for the 2000 USA Dream Team Classic held at Apple Valley High School. He now serves on the Region 1 Hall of Fame committee, and he serves as Vice-President and host of the Minnesota Chapter of the NWHOF, since 2004. As a writer, Davis wrote one of the nation’s first columns on nutrition for wrestling with his “Nutrition Insight” column for The Guillotine. That column and other articles he wrote earned him the 1986 Bob Dellinger Award, representing the nation’s “Outstanding Writer of Wrestling.” Davis has made 16 Wrestling Technique DVD’s for Championship Productions, Inc., that have been sold across the USA, some internationally too.
Former coaching colleague, Larry Hovden, says: “Davis ,in terms of promotion, is second to none! He always pushed to get people, particularly who contributed to the program, recognized publicly for their contributions.” A number of those people received national awards. One supporter was Scot’s wife, Mary. She received 1999 “National Coaches Wife of the Year” by Wrestling USA Magazine. Others included Keith Stark, Dale Benjamin and Larry Hovden, receiving national awards for writing, broadcasting and coaching respectively. Numerous other people received awards on the state, region and local levels. There were “Honored Guests” at all home meets too. Retired Owatonna HS Principal and former Athletic Director Jim Herzog says, “I do not know of another person who has so thoroughly and deeply dedicated his life to the promotion of a sport…Scot thinks wrestling every day! He is the perfect candidate for the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. I can’t imagine one more deserving of this honor!”
Davis graduated from Bloomington-Kennedy High School in 1969. There he played football and was wrestling Team Captain. He attended Normandale Junior College and was on the 1971 State Junior College Wrestling Championship Team. He then attended Augsburg College (B.A-’74) where he was a 1973 NAIA All-American and Team Captain. He was coached by the late Dick Anderson at Kennedy HS, John Quarles at Normandale College, and Hall of Fame coaches Mike Good and John Grygelko at Augsburg College. Davis holds Masters Degrees from the University of Minnesota (M.Ed-’82) and the University of St.Thomas (M.A.-’95). He has an additional 75 Graduate Credits at various Universities.
The Davis family includes Scot’s wife, Mary, and their three adult children in Alyssa (currently working Myanmar with “Save the Children.” Son, Colin, who wrestled for his father and was a 2004 Big 9 All-Conference wrestler and Section One placewinner, living in Owatonna. He has a daughter Taylan (age 7). His daughter Ashley is married to Zach Wilson, and is a nurse at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St.Louis, MO. Her husband just graduated from Medical School at St. Louis University. They now live in Rochester, Minnesota where Zach is doing is Residency at the Mayo Clinic. They have a daughter Lillian (age 4) and infant son Zachary.
Since he was named the Coach of the Year in 1998, Davis has continued to add more to his impressive resume. In addition to the eight Big Nine Conference titles he won prior to being named, he added another 5 titles while at Owatonna. He has won the most Big Nine Conference Titles in the conference’s history.
After his time at Owatonna, Davis took over at Eden Prairie High School in Minnesota. Here, he coached the team to three Lake Conference Championships from 2014 until 2016.
Most recently, Davis led Sugar-Salen High School in Idaho to a High Country Conference title in 2020. He has a career record of 1158-199-4 after the 2020 seaoson.
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