Arbisi remembered as mentor, coach, teacher, friend

The voice. The mustache. The pool. The Diet Coke.

Joe Arbisi will be remembered for many things.

Colleagues, friends and former students recalled his love of swimming and his knack for inspiring students’ confidence.

Arbisi, 60, died Sunday of a heart attack. He taught in Kansas City, Tipton and Sedalia for more than 35 years, and coached wrestling, swimming and diving. He was the swim coach for the Sedalia Bandits team for 24 years.

An estimated 800 people attended his visitation at First Baptist Church on Thursday night and at least 600 came to the funeral Friday. Sedalia schools dismissed two hours early for his funeral.

“He was the best coach you could ask for. One of the best people you’d ever know,” said Nick Combs, 21. Combs, a former member of the swim team, traveled from Tennessee to honor his former coach.

“Very rarely would you ever see him in a bad mood,” he said, although he and friend Matt McAllister recalled at least one time they got in trouble under his watch.

McAllister, 22, of Des Moines, remembered Arbisi’s laugh and his whistle.

“My ears are still ringing,” he said.

Former student Laura Czech, 21, said he always had what she described as “quirky” stories to tell.

“He always had the best stories,” she said. “The best sense of humor.”

Scott Venable, who was a pallbearer at Arbisi’s funeral, had known Arbisi since he was a child through his friendship with Arbisi’s son, Erik.

Arbisi’s sons, Erik and Tony, and daughter, Kim Bauer, all live in Sedalia with their families.

Venable said he will always remember the sound of Arbisi’s voice.

“It’s the voice. It’s got to be the voice, the laugh. That’s got to be a sound that will never, ever fade from my head,” he said.

Venable’s wife, Kelly, knew Arbisi her whole life.

“The whole Arbisi family was at our wedding,” she said.

Arbisi and his wife Becky were good friends and always in their lives.

“He was always willing to do whatever you needed him to do,” she said.

Two of the Venables’ three children, Dakota and Alexis, learned to swim from Arbisi.

“As big as he was and as loud as he was and as intimidating as it should have been, kids loved him,” Venable said.

Theresa Eads, guidance counselor at Skyline Elementary School, will remember Arbisi’s ability to inspire trust and confidence in students.

Eads met Arbisi at the Maplewood pool when she took her daughter, Rose, then 4, to learn to swim.

Rose was afraid of the water, but day by day, she would go a little bit farther, Eads said, until the last day, when “she trusted him to go off that diving board.

“I don’t know how you can put that kind of trust into a person unless they have a very rare talent,” she said. “He just brings out that self-confidence that kids need.”

Arbisi approached every task with zeal.

“He did everything with that same spirit. Give 100 percent or don’t do it,” she said.

As a colleague, he was a firm but fair teacher, she said.

“He would have been a perfect mentor. You could ask Joe for anything and he’d find a way to get it done,” she said.

This past summer, Eads took her granddaughter to learn to swim with Arbisi.

“He had to be a master teacher to instill confidence in people in something that so scared them,” she said. “He just had the natural ability.”

Smith-Cotton High School Principal Martin White said he considered Arbisi a colleague and friend.
White said his three children learned to swim from Arbisi.

“Joe was an inspiration to a lot of children,” he said. “How many people throughout the years in Sedalia has he had an effect on? You can’t put a number on it.”

When White’s son, Spencer, was 4 or 5 years old, Arbisi taught him to swim.

Like Eads, White recalled how Arbisi caught his son as he was encouraged to jump off the diving platform.

He had the trust, not in his dad, but in Joe,” White said.

White fielded calls this week from alumni asking about Arbisi’s funeral. He said Arbisi was great at recruiting for his programs and students regarded him as a father figure.

“This community has lost not only a good educator, but they lost a valuable person who donated a lot of time to the community,” White said.

agualtieri@sedaliademocrat.com