Howard Sheley

Bio

A native of Kansas, Coach Howard Sheley graduated from Scott Community High School in Scott City, Kansas.  After a highly successful high school athletic career, Coach Sheley attended Hutchinson, Kansas Junior College for two years competing in both football and track.  From HJC, he transferred to the University Of Northern Colorado in Greeley where he received both his B.A. and M.A. degrees while still competing in football and track.

His first teaching/coaching position was in Palisade, Nebraska for two years.  From Palisade, he went to the other end of the state and coached for two years at Plattsmouth, Nebraska.  In the fall of 1969, Coach Sheley started a thirty-eight year teaching/coaching career at Hastings High School as a Biology and Human Anatomy/Physiology teacher and head wrestling coach for thirty years.  He also coached football at both the varsity and freshman levels for a total of about ten years.

As head wrestling coach, Coach Sheley’s teams won 180 dual matches, qualified 207 individual wrestlers to the state wrestling tournament, placed 82 wrestlers at the state tournament, had fourteen teams place in the top ten at the state tournament including the 1988 state championship team, had eight district championship or runner up teams and had twelve conference championship or runner up teams.   Three Hastings High wrestlers went on to win collegiate All-American honors.  In addition, the Hastings High Wrestling Handbook, authored by Coach Sheley, was judged the number one handbook in the U.S.A. on five different occasions. 

Coach Sheley was elected president of the Nebraska Scholastic Wrestling Coaches Association in 1978,  and was selected as Class A Nebraska Wrestling Coach Of The Year in 1988.  In 1997 Coach Sheley entered the Nebraska Wrestling Hall Of Fame after being nominated by his good friend and coaching competitor Tom McCann, currently on the wrestling coaching staff at University of Nebraska-Kearney.    In 2014, he was honored by an article in the Hastings Tribune about Faces In Tribland regarding accomplishments as a teacher and coach.

Howard is married to the former Phyllis Steffen of Canby, Minnesota and they have one daughter, Jill, along with four grand children.  Their oldest grandson, a former wrestler, is currently a freshman at James Madison University and will pursue a career in medicine.   The other grandchildren are all actively involved in gymnastics, swimming and wresting.  Son-in-law, Mark, is a Commander in the United States Navy stationed in Norfolk, Virginia.