Dean Sheets

2001 Lindsey Carter and Dean Sheets
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Sunflower State Games - 2001 Male Athlete of the Year - Dean Sheets

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Dean Sheets, 2001

Wrestling has been a staple in Dean Sheets' everyday life since 1947.He began wrestling while he was in college and it has been a mainstay ever since.His devotion to the sport has earned him personal satisfaction and accolades throughout the wrestling community.
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Sheets has been selected Man of the Year once by his wrestling peers and has been inducted into the Kansas Wrestling Hall of Fame.He was also a District I representative for three years.Most recently, Sheets was selected as the Athlete of the Year for the 2001 Sunflower State Games.

"It is a very great honor to be selected," Sheets said.

After graduating from Burlington High School in 1945, Sheets attended Kansas State University from 1947-1953 where he began his wrestling career.There, he was a member of the wrestling team, lettered two years and placed third in the Big Eight Conference in 1949-50.He began officiating the sport in 1956 and continued to do so for 25 years.Sheets is also a Linwood Lions' Club member and is on the board for the Linwood Development Corporation and has also been an avid softball player throughout the years.

The Sheets family has a tradition of wrestling.Sheets who has coached for 37 years, has a son Monte who coaches wrestling in Lansing.His son Jeff is the head wrestling coach at Chapman.Nine of his 18 grandchildren have wrestled and three of them are girls.

"My dad has participated in wrestling all of my life.It is his joy in life besides his grandkids and kids," said his daughter Stephanie McDonald.

In 1964, Sheets began his own youth wrestling club in Linwood and DeSoto, where he still coaches today.

"I have only missed one USA Kids' State Tournament since they started," Sheets said.

Sheets participates in the Sunflower State Games because it is one of the rare opportunities he has to compete at the age of 74.

"It is a chance to participate against other wrestlers although I have to spot them 30-40 years in age," Sheets said."I entered to see if I could still accomplish my goal."Sheets placed first in his age group this year and also in 1995.He has been involved in the games as a wrestler four times and has also coached several wrestlers there as well.

McDonald said the first place match between her father and a man 20 years his junior stopped everyone in their tracks.

"They stopped the other matches.Everyone in that gym was yelling for him and his opponent," she said."There were videos capturing this moment and flashes going off everywhere, and a standing ovation when the matches were done."

McDonald said her father is an inspiration.

"My dad is an inspiration for all wrestlers.He has coached hundreds of kids in his lifetime.

Dean Sheets

Coach

Dean Sheets, 81, competed and won the 2008 Sunflower State Games July 12 in the 180-pound weight class, 50 and older division of folkstyle wrestling. He retired after pinning his opponent twice in the first period.Enlarge photo.

Dean Sheets, 81, competed and won the 2008 Sunflower State Games July 12 in the 180-pound weight class, 50 and older division of folkstyle wrestling.He retired after pinning his opponent twice in the first period.
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Scheduled to wrestle three periods of two minutes, with one minute in between periods, 81-year-old De Soto Kids Club wrestling coach Dean Sheets took to the mat Saturday, July 12 at the Sunflower State Games in hopes of going out on top in one last set of matches.

He did just that, pinning the other opponent in his age and weight division â€" 180 pounds, and 50 years of age and older â€" in the first period, two matches in a row.Sheets then signaled to the wrestling world he was through wrestling for good by taking off his shoes and placing them in the center of the mat.

"I tried to talk them into the other way around, have two minutes rests (and one minute periods), but they kind of laughed at me," Sheets said."I didn't have to go past the first period so that kind of helped."

Sheets has coached the De Soto club for more than 20 years.He began coaching Kids Club in 1964, when he started the program in Linwood.

After that program died down after several successful years, Sheets was asked to take over at De Soto.As long as his Linwood kids that he'd be leaving were allowed to join the De Soto program, Sheets would take over.He did just that, and has continued to be a fixture at the side of the mat for the De Soto squad.

"Oh, absolutely, all the kids do," Shaun Miller, co-director of De Soto Kids Club wrestling, said when asked if the kids look up to Sheets.
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"We were at state last year and all the kids wanted Coach Dean at the side of the mat for them."

But on Saturday, with three of his young wrestlers waiting to wrestle in their age groups and weight classes, it was all about the elder grappler.

Miller said everyone in the gym stopped to watch the match between Sheets and his mid-50s opponent.
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Worried about a breathing problem caused by a hernia, Sheets didn't eat anything before his matches Saturday.

"If I do much exertion it kind of shuts off my wind, especially if I eat anything," he said."It comes up into my breathing, in the esophagus and shuts off my wind."

But it didn't matter.In the first 30 seconds of both matches, Miller said, Sheets rolled his opponent onto his back and stuck both shoulders to the mat.
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It marked the first time since 2001 that Sheets had competed, and he was able to close the curtain on a career â€" which saw a third place finish in the Big Eight while wrestling for Kansas State from 1949 to 1952 â€" in style.

"I'd been thinking about it.I've talked about it, so I decided at 81 it's time to quit," he said.

Although finished with wrestling competitively himself, Sheets said he still enjoys coaching and will continue to do so for years to come.