AA Spotlight: Tanis Previews the B1G
Dec 23 | Wrestling
By Anthony Hernandez
ScarletKnights.com
A 2002 NCAA All-American, Tom Tanis still struggles to describe the emotions he felt standing on the championship podium that day on March 23, 2002 in Albany, N.Y.
"It's one of those where you kind of get caught up in the moment and you're not really able to reflect on all the hard work that you put into it and everything that goes into standing up there," Tanis recalled. "I think I'm probably prouder as the years go on of having accomplished that, because I do know what it takes and I can remember and put it all together.
"All the emotions that went into losing, then to winning, and following that roller coaster each year between the offseason and putting in the work when everyone else was having fun."
With his alma mater set to open its inaugural conference season in the Big Ten on Jan. 2, his emotions are more clearly defined.
It's easy to understand why.
Rutgers welcomes No. 1 Iowa to the RAC for a nationally televised showdown on BTN to begin the Big Ten era. It's a meeting of the new kids on the block versus the 23-time national champion Hawkeyes: a perennial power against a program starving for the opportunity to show it belongs.
"It's very exciting," Tanis said. "The first thought is `what challenges lay ahead and how difficult will it be to break into that elite group of the Big Ten?' At the same time, that's what challenges are there for. Rutgers is a good program and it's fun to watch where it was when I was there grow to where it is now. That's probably the best part - to see that progression of the program."
Before March, when redshirt junior Anthony Perrotti made a run at All-America status in Oklahoma City, Tanis was the last RU wrestler to finish the year an All-American.
The 184-pounder piled up a 98-31 career record at Rutgers - good for 16th all-time - and placed at the EIWA Championships three times with a title in 2001.
No doubt an accomplished wrestler, his All-America finish has grown to define his career in Scarlet. But Tanis knows as well as Perrotti that becoming an All-American isn't about just one guy.
"It's a lot of hard work, a lot of team effort," Tanis said. "It doesn't take just one person to get onto that podium, it's the whole room - the athletic trainers, an all-in mentality. I think that shows where we're at now being in the Big Ten and having the success that Coach [Scott] Goodale has.
"It's just a testament to the fact that that's what Rutgers does - it takes everybody and makes sure that everybody's all-in to achieve its goal."
Over the years Tanis has followed the program closely. A former assistant coach at Navy, he remembers being at NCAAs and secretly hoping a Scarlet Knight broke through.
When Perrotti did just that in the spring, Tanis was among the first to know.
"I always have Rutgers in the corner of my mind," he said. "We had a lot of opportunities here over the past several years so it was nice to see Perrotti capitalize on it."
The timing could not have been better for the program.
With Rutgers (9-0, 0-0 Big Ten) set to open Big Ten Conference competition at the RAC against Iowa, a match nationally televised on BTN, the buzz around Rutgers wrestling has never been louder.
Much of that can be attributed to Perrotti. Just as much can be attributed to the rest of the room, the staff and Rutgers wrestlers that came before those on the inaugural Big Ten roster.
However it adds up, only 10 Scarlet Knights will be able to shape Rutgers' first impression in the conference a little more than a week from now.
"A lot of hard work is going on behind the scenes, I know that," Tanis said. "It starts at the top, and I'm sure Coach Goodale is setting the example day-in and day-out."
