@HuskerlandBob Sez: Last weekend Norm Manstedt was the well deserved center of attention at the 50th annual Clarks/High Plains Wrestling Invitational. Norm has been the wrestling coach at the schools since the program's inception and over the past five decades has served as a towering figure in the world of Nebraska high school wrestling.

Last Saturday following the wrestling tournament, always one of the biggest and the best in the state, there was a reception held in honor of Coach Manstedt, one which originally was to be a secret. It was not. (wink) In attendance that night were dozens of his former wrestlers as well as fans and supporters of the program. The night was one of the biggest highlights in Coach Manstedt's career, one of many honors which have, and will continue to come his way.

Among those honors was Norm being named The Republican-Nonpareil Person of the Year, an annual award presented by the Central City newspaper...where I am publisher. Norm is the 27th recipient of the award and was honored in the final week of 2018 and what follows is the story about him written by, well, me.

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Turns out Norm Manstedt has a little Kenny Loggins in him: you know, this is it.

Bringing down the curtain on perhaps the most historic career in Nebraska high school wrestling Manstedt intends to retire at the end of the 2018-19 season, his 50th coaching and teaching at Clarks and High Plains Community schools.

Manstedt will be honored many times over in the coming weeks - that’s what happens when you’ve touched as many lives as he has - and among them will be him being named winner of The Republican-Nonpareil’s 25th annual Person of the Year award.

“This is a really neat award and I am humbled by it,” says Manstedt. “You don’t get into this business for the awards but it always nice to be recognized.”

* Norm Manstedt seems to have been destined to be part of the Clarks, Neb., community. It was his first job out of college and like most young professionals he took a couple of jabs at moving up to a bigger school. “But I always finished second in the interview,” he smiles.

Good thing for Clarks, good thing for Nebraska high school wrestling.

Manstedt grew up on a dairy farm located just outside of Wahoo, Neb., the son of Howard and Claresse Manstedt, and he has two sisters, Janet, who lives in Yuma, Colo. and Garnet, who lives in Wahoo. Back in the day there is nothing easy about dairy farm living, it was time consuming and back breaking work.

“I was never so happy when Sunday church came around,” says Norm. “And if there was anything special during the week I signed up for it.”

He loved sports, of course, and played a mean brand of football; he also tried basketball for a year, “but there is a reason I coach wrestling.” His favorite sport was baseball, his father’s shared passion, and Norm was very good at the sport, playing mostly third base.

When it came time for college Norm attended a new college that had just opened in Wahoo, John F. Kennedy College. It was a school known for pioneering women’s sports in the state, even offering scholarships, another first. Manstedt played baseball for JFK and studied biology and physical education, with the career goal of becoming a teacher and coach.

But what kind of coach?

* In his formative years Norm Manstedt had played a lot of sports but had never wrestled. Never coached wrestling, But when he got his first job out of college it was at Clarks High School in the fall of 1969 and he would be the wrestling coach and football coach. Football went swell, the Blue Bombers finished the season 8-0-1. And while the school board bit on Norm’s proposal to field a wrestling team there was at least one fairly major article.

The school didn’t have a wrestling mat.

You can’t say anything if you don’t say Manstedt wasn’t creative, as he found six single bed mattresses and taped them together - and voilà, the team had a wrestling mat. That first wrestling team struggled mightily early in the season - losing all of its opening dual matches by first round pin - but by the end of the season the team produced three state qualifiers, John Micek, Bob Church and Alan Pickrel. Micek even won a match at state.

After that things started happening fast and by the 1971-72 season Clarks wrestling was a well respected program. Qualifying five for the state tournament Clarks won one of the most hotly contested team races of all time, winning the title with 39 points while Stromsburg and Beaver City tied for second with 38.5 points and Winside was fourth with 36.

Senior Bob Church became the program’s first gold medal champion that season, senior Jerry Pollard and sophomore Alan Church placed second and Ted Micek placed fourth; it was Pollard’s first year of wrestling. Senior Randy Dexter won 30 matches that season and also qualified for state.

“It was so exciting,” remembers Coach Manstedt. “The school had never won a state championship before and the community fell in love with wrestling.”

* You can’t talk about Clarks Blue Bombers wrestling without talking about three-time state champions. The program produced four of them including Hall of Famer Dave Church (1973-74-76), Steve Strobel (1980-81-82), Shane Strobel (1984-86-87) and Norm’s son Mitch Manstedt (1998-1999-2000). Clarks merged with Polk-Hordville in 2000-01 and, you guessed it, the program producted a state champion that first season, Clint Church.

“Our program in the 1980s never finished lower than fifth and never higher than third, for the entire decade,” says Coach Manstedt. “We had really good teams but there were some great teams that beat us those years.”

Over the course of his 50 years in coaching Norm believes the 2016-2017 season might have been his best, as High Plains placed three wrestlers in the state finals with Logan Russell and Kyle Stevens winning state titles and Payton Stevens finishing as runner-up.

* There is more to Manstedt’s contributions to the Clarks community beyond his teaching and coaching. For the past 12 years he has served at the Village Board, now serving as mayor, and he’s also served as announcer for the town parade and home football games, at least until this year. “I had hip surgery and couldn’t get up the stairs.”

Norm is also a business man, for several years now running the Manstedt K Lawn care service in and around Clarks. “The best compliment I can get is when they say, darn it Norm now I have to mow my yard twice a week.”

Another of his passions in the Nebraska Scholastic Wrestling Coaches Association and hall of fame, which were founded in 1975 and 1983 respectively.

On Saturday, Jan. 5, immediately after the 50th annual Clarks/High Plains wrestling invitational, there will be a celebration of Norms’ career held at the Columbus Legion Club. Which he knows nothing about, of course. (wink)

“It’s been sort of scary but once I came to grips with it I realized 50 years really is a big deal. Why would a guy get to 49 and quit?”