by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

“Retiring is doing what you want to do,” said Dan Barry about his plans to start a youth wrestling program at Winchester Christian Academy following his decision to retire from coordinating the Mountain Top Wrestling Tournament at St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School, a 20-year commitment that began in 2006. But there is a problem with Barry’s definition of retirement. Talking with Barry, it quickly becomes apparent he has been doing what he loves for the past 40 years: coaching.

Barry started wrestling when he was a sophomore at St. Andrew’s School. “Before I got to high school the only sport to play around here was baseball,” Barry said. “My older brother had wrestled at St. Andrew’s and my cousins. When I got there, the coach said, ‘You’re a Barry. You’re gonna wrestle.’” Barry chuckled, “I didn’t know any different.” He graduated in 1972, earned a master’s degree in psychology from Middle Tennessee State University, and worked at Vanderbilt in the neuropsychiatry department testing new drugs. But by the 80s, Barry was back on the mountain with two familiar blips on his radar screen. His wife Arlene started a catering business which evolved into the legendary Four Seasons Restaurant located on the Barry family farm in Midway. The eighth generation of Barrys now lives on that farm. “I cut the timber for the restaurant from that land,” Barry said.

The other homing pigeon instinct that called to Barry was wrestling. He volunteered to help out with the Mountain Top Wrestling Tournament started by St. Andrew’s athletic director Brian McDowell in 1980 and with the Amateur Athletic Union youth wrestling program, likewise initiated by McDowell. “Brian talked Tracy City Elementary School into letting them put wrestling mats in the gym and practice there,” Barry said. His son Nick began wrestling at the age of six.

Asked when he started coaching wrestling at SAS, Barry hesitated, “It’s hard to remember exactly because I was helping out all the time.” Barry officially signed on as assistant coach in 1999 and moved into the head coach role in 2006, a position he held until 2014. During Barry’s coaching tenure, 23 wrestlers earned recognition placing in the state championships. Not surprisingly, Barry’s kids were among those making history. Between them, his sons Nick and Evan placed seven times in the state finals. Barry’s daughter Hannah wrestled in the first state tournament with a separate division for girls, placing second in the state. SAS’s Lucia Krcmeryova placed first.

It was the first year SAS had a girls’ wrestling team, and Hannah’s senior year, 2010. “I asked her if she wanted to do it, and she said, yes,” Barry said. He explained prior to that when girls wrestled they wrestled against boys. AAU youth wrestling groups wrestle by age, not weight class. “In the youth program years, girls develop a little faster than the boys, and they have a lot of success. But by the time they get to their sophomore or junior year, the boys overpower them with their muscle strength.”

Barry’s most memorable coaching event was when SAS won the 2008 Mountain Top Tournament and at the same tournament his son Evan received the Outstanding Wrestler award. Barry will be following his grandkids to WCA just like he followed his kids to SAS. Together with Evan as assistant coach, Barry plans to start the school’s first wrestling program, beginning with ages 5-13. In a few years, Barry hopes to move into Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association wrestling. “We’ve got to get people interested,” he said. “We don’t want to get the socks beat off of us the first year.”

Among the challenges of coordinating the SAS Mountaintop Wrestling Tournament, Barry cited finding a balance in terms of both the number of schools competing, the number of wrestlers, and the skill level. “Mountain Top is all midlevel schools,” he insisted. “No heavy weights. Everybody has a chance to win.”

During the time his kids attended SAS Barry also served as head coach for middle school soccer and varsity girls’ softball and as an assistant coach for baseball and football. “Now I’m coaching my grandkids with my kids,” he said. He and his son Ryan pair up to coach community soccer and baseball.

Four Seasons Restaurant closed in 2008, but has since become a family gathering place. The walls are lined with photographs boasting on the generations of young people Barry coached. Abby Mainzer, who ranked first in the state in girls wrestling, went on to earn a full scholarship to wrestle for Oklahoma City University. Seth Burns who ranked twice in the state finals came back to SAS to serve as Barry’s assistant coach.

“It’s hard to walk away from it, because you’ve always got some coming up, and they’re like your kids,” Barry confessed. “I’m such a blessed man to be able to do what I’ve done, that the lord’s let me do this.”

By Barry’s definition of retired, he’s been retired most of his adult life. What he loves just won’t let him quit.