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Show i ... 5 . V i i A ' i , r i f ; M ! ''-J. ! Panguitch High School wrestling coach Frank Houston was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame & Museum at a dinner and ceremony in Salt Lake City. He was nominated for the honor by the State Coaches Association. Houston Inducted Into Wrestling Hall Of Fame SALT LAKE CITY - Long time Panguitch High School teacher, coach, referee and local hero Frank Houston was inducted induct-ed into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame & Museum at a dinner and induction ceremony held Oct. 4, 2003 at the University Park Marriott in Salt Lake City. Honored Inductee Houston was being honored for a "lifetime of service to wrestling," and "for his years of dedication to the development of leadership and citizenship in young people, through the sport of wrestling." According to Houston "it is events in your life such as these, that are pretty special." Because Houston is modest and humble, the News learned about the outstanding honor paid to him only through his younger brother David Houston. David is presently managing director of Citigroup in Sacramento', Calif.; and was able to fly to Utah to join the rest his family for the most auspicious aus-picious occasion. The love and respect between the two borthers who were long time roommates in college was apparent and the entire Houston clan remains extremely close and loving. Frank Houston was inducted into the National forum along with six other outstanding Utah wrestling coaches including includ-ing Kerry Anderson from Wayne County; Don Neff from the University of Utah; Jim Porter from Delta; Darold Henry from Pleasant Grove; Fred Davis from Brigham Young University and Dennis Preece from Uintah. Houston was nominated to the national honor by the State Coaches Association. His entire family and close friends and former for-mer coaching associates were also invited to this special evening. Career Highlights Asked what special memories he had of his years in coaching and refereeing, Houston responded "it is the legacy of helping to make boys into men." According to Houston, anyone can wrestle or participate sports, but wrestling is particularly demanding personally, requiring unusual mental toughness to make it in the sport. Wrestling training, he said, "means dieting, diet-ing, weight lifting, running and competition." Highlights of his career also include his first state championship champi-onship in 1997 and all the outstanding out-standing academic all-states (See HALL OF FAME on pg. 6) Wrestling Hall Of Fame From Front Page who came out of the ranks of Panguitch High School s well as a number of All Americans and State Champs. In November 2002, Houston was honored at a Utah statewide banquet when he was nominated to the Utah State Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, along with these same coaches who were this year inducted at the national level. Inductees were paid tribute with a brief synopsis of their coaching history and Frank's was delivered by Paul Dart from Tooele High School. Tribute By Dart "Frank Houston remembers his first dual meet as a coach where he was shut out 72-0. This began a long coaching journey at Panguitch High School, his alma mater, where he was a Regional champion. After this initial setback he built Panguitch into one of the small classification powers in wrestling taking state twice and finishing second twice. Houston has coached 15 individual indi-vidual state champions. He is also a very accomplished track and field coach and cross country coun-try coach winning 12 state titles in these sports. "Houston has coached at Panguitch 22 years with 16 years as head coach. He built up the wrestling program in Panguitch starting a bantam league that is extremely successful success-ful despite having a limited population pop-ulation to draw from. "Houston has also made his mark in other ways being a wrestling official since 1971 and is considered one of the best officials by his peers and coaches. coach-es. He has served in many leadership lead-ership capacities as both an official offi-cial and coach. Houston was inducted into the UWCA Hall of Fame in 2001 and has twice .keen named Coach of the Year by his peers." Personal History Houston, 52, married the former for-mer JeriLu Heaton also of Panguitch in Sept. 1972 and they are the parents of seven children, five boys and two girls. He is a 1969 graduate of Panguitch High School and actually began his own personal quest in wrestling in fourth grade. He was a wrestling Region champ as well as active in baseball and track in high school. Frank said his mother Dorothy Houston always encouraged him and would work his shift in their family-owned family-owned business, the Southern Utah Equitable SUE Market, so he could participate in wrestling. He attended Utah State University in Logan where he received his masters degree in science. He has several other majors physical science, business, busi-ness, food service with minors in math, chemistry and geology. His service to family, community com-munity and country included seven years military service with the Utah National Guard, first in Beaver and then in Logan. He joined while a junior in high school. Houston returned to Panguitch and worked from 1974 to 1986 at the SUE market, mar-ket, as a grocer and custom meat cutter. When that business closed in 1986, he followed his heart and the prompting of former for-mer teachers and coaches Maloy Dodds and Delin Roundy to get his teaching certificate. He began teaching science, math and physical education classes at Panguitch Middle and High Schools in 1987 and subsequently sub-sequently began coaching cross country, wrestling, track. Houston had previously assisted with volunteer coaching. |