Freshman Tevis Bartlett puts his values on the line — for the Huskies and for middle school wrestlers
Most student-athletes stay busy enough in the off-season with classes and homework, workouts and conditioning, and socializing with friends. Freshman linebacker Tevis Bartlett is getting a jumpstart on his future career by adding another big commitment to that hectic schedule: a job as a middle school assistant wrestling coach.
Each weekday when football and class obligations are over, Tevis drives nearly an hour to the far south side of King County to Cedar Heights Middle School in Covington. He spends two hours coaching and then dives into three hours of homework before hitting the road back to the dorm.
“I love being around the kids and the sport,” says Tevis, who plans to follow in the footsteps of his parents, who are both educators. “Seeing kids change for the better because you cared, having an impact by helping to set them up for the real world after sports and after school — that’s what draws me toward teaching and coaching.”
Tevis grew up in Wyoming and was a wrestler long before he was a football player, starting the sport as a little boy and ultimately earning multiple state and national wrestling titles. And while football came a little later, it soon emerged as an even bigger passion. He not only earned All-State honors as a high school quarterback and defensive back, he also graduated at the top of his class with a 4.0 GPA.
A lot of universities recruited him. Choosing Washington came down to a matter of what Tevis describes as an alignment of values.
“A lot of the things Coach Pete talked about were the same things we talked about in my family — how you handle yourself as a person, your character, how important school is,” recalls Tevis, whose scholarship is supported by the Brix Family Endowed Scholarship for Football. “We’re building great football players and a great football team here, but Coach Pete always says that we’re also building men for life. That made the decision to come here easy when those values line up.”
When it comes to values, commitment and caring, the wrestlers at Cedar Heights Middle School couldn’t have a better role model.