Matt Darrah; Dowling HS ‘85/Northwest Missouri State/Clarinda Academy (Coaching)/East Atchison (Coaching)
HUGE PROPS to East Atchison HS (Missouri) Head Wrestling Coach, Matt Darrah! Tonight, his team won a dual 30-12 resulting in his 200th career win as a coach!!! That is a HUGE accomplishment!!! Prior to assuming the role of HC at East Atchison, Matt coached at Clarinda Academy, where he has spent the majority of his coaching career. He also coached at the D2 level at Maryville University and also spent some time as a volunteer coach at Dowling.
Matt wrestled for WDM Dowling HS and was a 2X State Qualifier and 1X State Placer, placing 3rd as a Junior at 3A 98 in 1984. In that tournament, he defeated a Junior National Champ (Sean Watt of Ames) AND a future 2X state champion/3X D1 AA (Gary Steffensmeier of Fort Madison HS/UNI Panthers) to place 3rd… 4X undefeated State Champion, Dan Knight won that gauntlet of a bracket.
What makes this even more sweet, is that Matt is the son of a man who may very well be the all-time 🐐 Iowa HS Wrestling Coach…the late and great Bob Darrah, who was responsible for creating two of Iowa wrestling history’s all-time greatest dynasties at Morning Sun HS and West Des Moines Dowling HS. Bob put together a career record of 340-17-2 as a HS wrestling coach. His .950 winning percentage is the all-time best for an Iowa wrestling coach. He also had a record of 86-25-1 coaching at the D3 level for Simpson College.
Congrats, Matt!!! The apple obviously doesn’t fall far from the tree and I think it goes without saying that your father would be incredibly proud of the accolade you accomplished today!!!
