Goodbye Chris Ayres

When you think of Stanford Athletics, you don't think of wrestling, and that's something that's just fine with the program's new head coach.

When Chris Ayres came to Princeton in 2006, you didn't think of wrestling here either. The task of filling out the lineup with healthy wrestlers and not having to forfeit any weight classes was tough enough. 

Actually competing on the national level? That seemed like something beyond even the most optimistic fans. 

Of course, that's where Aryes had his biggest advantage. He's not like most optimists.

Ayres came to Princeton knowing that it was just a matter of time until he produced a nationally prominent program. It was inevitable in his mind — and at the time, only his mind.

So what happened? That's exactly what he went out and did.

Princeton Athletic history is filled with great coaches, ones who won many league and national championships. There are some who turned around programs (Bill Tierney and Courtney Banghart leap to mind).

There is nobody who ever did what Chris Ayres did in his time here as the wrestling coach.

That time came to an end yesterday, when Ayres announced he was leaving Princeton to become the head coach at Stanford. 

Ayres took Princeton Wrestling from an afterthought to a perennial Top 20 team. He won an Ivy League championship. He produced multiple All-Americans. In his final winter with the Tigers, he made good on what he always figured he would do: He coached an NCAA champion at Princeton when Pat Glory won at 125 pounds.

His tenure at Princeton will be remembered for more than just on-mat success. He was a leader in building women's wrestling. He moved matches from Dillon Gym to Jadwin Gym and drew huge crowds as Princeton Wrestling became a big event. He was a tireless supporter of any and all things Princeton, going way beyond his program to be a highly recognizable and respected face throughout the campus. 

Ayres was an Eastern champion and All-American wrestler at Lehigh, where he was an assistant coach before being hired at Princeton the first week of June in 2006. Somewhere along the line, somebody taught Ayres about the value of confidence, hard-work, belief and above all positivity.

It's hard to imagine anyone who drips positivity more than Chris Ayres.

TigerBlog remembers Ayres from when he first arrived as someone who seemed delusional about what he could build in wrestling here, and yet there was something else there, something that made you think "If anyone can get this done, it's this guy."

TB's longtime friend and colleague Craig Sachson was the Princeton Office of Athletic Communications contact with Ayres from the time Ayres started through 2019. If anyone had a front row seat for the rebuild, it's Sachson. 

When TB found out that Ayres was leaving, he reached out to Craig to see what he thought. What he had to say was pretty much what TigerBlog has already said:

In his earliest days as Princeton Wrestling coach, I would email Chris Ayres a request for probable starters. One name kept coming up, and sometimes he would wrestle in both the light and heavy weight classes on the same night: Johnny Forfeit. It would always make me laugh — many of the conversations I had with Chris over more than a decade working together had us laughing — but it was a constant reminder of where the program was at the time. We rarely could field 10 actual wrestlers, much less 10 who could compete with the rest of the Ivy League.

 Last year, Chris Ayres started Patrick Glory, the 2023 NCAA champion. He started Quincy Monday, a three-time All-American and two-time NCAA finalist.

 You can’t imagine where Princeton wrestling was when Chris Ayres first walked into Jadwin Gym. His goal was to bring All-Americans, an NCAA champion and an Ivy League title to Princeton. My goal for the program was to be somewhat competitive. Frankly, I thought he was crazy … and maybe he was just crazy enough to pull this together. He will tell you it was a team effort, and it truly was. He surrounded himself with the right people, put together the right message to share with the right recruits. He connected with the right people both in the department and around campus, and altogether they changed the energy of the program.

Make no mistake, though. It starts and ends with Chris Ayres. His relentless drive and enthusiasm are reasons 1 and 1A why Princeton wrestling is where it is today. He created the higher standard that Princeton wrestling now strives for — and expects of itself — and that legacy will last far beyond his final day in Orange and Black.

The Cardinal program has been around since 1916. It has a solid history, with eight Top 20 NCAA finishes, seven of which are this century, and one Pac-12 title, in 2019. Of course, the school is moving into the ACC for next year. 

Ayres will bring to Stanford what he brought to Princeton. He has no other gear. 

No matter what has been going on and what the most results may have been, Ayres always has a smile. He laughs easily. He's the kind of guy you want on your side. That's what Stanford is getting. 

His legacy at Princeton is one of greatness, as a coach and a person.