Families have a family sport, usually. A sport every one in the family enjoys, members of the family has participated in, or just watches. Many families become attached to sports because of the colleges members of the family attend.
The Dean Sheets family is a wrestling legacy family. My father has devoted his life to growing the sport of wrestling in Kansas. He continues at age 90 to teach and coach wrestling to youth in Kansas.
How are we a legacy family? All three of my brothers wrestled from youth through high school. My younger sister and I could have wrestled as youth, but in the late 1960s through 1980s not many girls were encouraged to compete in the sport.
That doesn’t mean Stephanie and I did not know the sport. We wrestled with our brothers and dad at home. Our dad was a high school wrestling official for more than 25 years. Our mother new the wrestling rule book from cover to cover just like dad.
Mom’s knowledge helped our fledgling high school team win a dual because she stood up and helped our first-year wrestling coach on the rules. My parents brought youth wrestling to our small hometown and it grew into a high school wrestling program.
Two of my brothers had strong high school careers on the mat. They both qualified for state tournaments and placed. My younger brother’s son — my nephew Zac — qualified and placed in four straight Class 4A state tournaments in Kansas. Zac is now a wrestling coach.
I’m the only sibling who hasn’t or isn’t currently coaching wrestling. My two brothers are high school and middle school wrestling coaches in Kansas. My sister introduced wrestling to a Southeast Kansas community to give my nephew — her son Stephen — an opportunity to compete in the sport.
A year after the youth wrestling program came middle school then high school wrestling to that Southeast Kansas community. Stephen, who graduated in 2013, remains its top wrestler, taking second in Kansas’ Class 4A 220 pounds at the state tournament.
In a week, Dad, my sister and her husband will fly to New Hampshire to watch the latest generation of Sheets coach high school wrestling. My nephew Stephen is working at one high school without athletic programs in New Hampshire, but is a volunteer assistant high school wrestling coach at another school.
I visited with Dad this week. He was laughing because my sister told him Stephen has been “telling tall tales “ about him to his wrestlers. “I think they are expecting a 6-foot-4 man to come walking through the door,” Dad said. Dad is 5-foot-8.
We see legacy sports families all the time. Kids get into a sport because their parents or siblings competed in that sport. Stories are passed down from family member to family member. The love of the sport and the opportunities to grow the sport are passed down from family member to family member.
Me? I just cover the sport. I love the art of wrestling on the mat.
Here in Iowa, the high school wrestling season has picked up steam heading into the final couple of weeks of regular-season action. Class 1A and 2A teams enter sectionals on Feb. 3 and all three classes hold district meets on Feb. 10.
Basketball teams await announcements of postseason assignments. The boys’ Class 1A and 2A district assignments come out Friday with the 3A and 4A substate assignments out on Jan. 26. The girls’ 1A, 2A and 3A regionals come out sometime next week with the 4A and 5A substates released the week of Jan. 29.
Contact Jocelyn Sheets
at jsheets@newtondailynews.com