After 32 years Skiatook’s head wrestling coach, Rick Reeves, a Skiatook graduate graduate and former wrestling Bulldog himself, is retiring.
With teary eyes and quivering voices Skiatook parents, and former and current wrestlers said goodbye to Reeves Thursday night after a home dual. They recalled his many accomplishments and career highlights, like his induction into the Oklahoma National Wrestling Hall of Fame last October, and his All State East Wrestling Coach honor in 1997.
Coach Rick Reeves
It’s not all about winning for Reeves, even though he is a successful coach.
“It wasn’t just all about winning. I always try to tell my kids if they get out of here and all they learned to do was win a state championship, then I missed the boat,” he said.
Now it’s time for someone else to carry on in his place, he added.
“Age takes away your knees. I can’t get down on the mat with the kids like I use to,” Reeves said.
If he can’t coach like he believes it should be done, then it’s time to step down. Reeves will also be retiring from teaching science at the high school, although he has no definite future plans yet. “You never know where you are going to. I’ll be busy. It’s not like me to sit around.”
During his career with Skiatook, Reeves had a 178-63 record, but the athletes and fans know it wasn’t all about winning, which is one of the reasons he is so admired.
“It’s not win, win, win, and if you don’t win you shouldn’t be here,” Cheryl Delk said. Individual first, then the team, she added. Cheryl is not only Reeves’ cousin, but a parent to one of his former athletes, Mikel Delk.
Cheryl remembers the time Mikel won his first state championship as a junior.
“Mikel is one of those people that doesn’t show a lot of emotion,” she said. But that didn’t stop him and Reeves from hugging after his victory.
“Coach Reeves made a connection – not just a family connection, but a coaching connection,” she explained. “That’s just how he has always been with everyone. He genuinely cares about people.”
It’s not just the state champions that Reeves is concerned with either, Cheryl said. “Coach Reeves values the hard work and the work ethic, and not the hardware. He is not just a character builder on the mat, but character qualities for life. That’s what he does for [wrestlers].”
Cheryl pointed to this year’s team as a great example for what Reeves can do to a team. The current Bulldogs were unranked this season, but he pushed them all to do their best at the District Duals. “You could see the boys were on fire. He builds a fire and from out of now where the kids become other people,” Cheryl said. “It’s because of what he does for them.”
Now the team is headed to Dual State, which many fans did not expect.
“They weren’t just great wrestlers. They were great kids. They wrestled over their heads,” Reeves beamed.
And pride is exactly what the wrestlers have with Reeves, who led as a role model with not only words, but with actions, never using negative comments or screaming curses words at the athletes or referees. Cheryl can never remember a time he lost his temper.
“He just didn’t make a spectacle of himself. He carries himself well and he expects his wrestlers to carry themselves well,” she said.
Anyone who knows him, knows the kind of man he is, Delk said. Reeves’ actions speak volumes about his character.
Reeves graduated from Skiatook in 1976. During his high school career he had been a wrestler and a part of the sport’s great start in Skiatook. Wrestling officially came to the school in the early 70s.
After graduating college in 1980, his former high school coach, Wayne Constant, persuaded him to come back to Skiatook to be an assistant coach for the junior and senior high school. The following year, Reeves became the head junior high coach.
In 1994, Constant stepped down as the head high school coach and Reeves stepped up to take his place. After four years of retirement, Constant came back as an assistant coach for Reeves, coming full circle with his former athlete.
Now Reeves is watching many of his own wrestlers come full circle and become coaches. One of his former wrestlers, T.J. Vaughn, a close friend of Delk’s, is an assistant wrestling coach at Pryor High School, Reeves noted. And Delk is now the head coach for Catoosa High School. Both were All State Wrestlers the same year. It was the only year Reeves had two All Staters in a single season.
As the circle continued during Skiatook’s senior night – Reeves’ last match with the Bulldogs before districts – when he coached against Delk and his Catoosa team.
“If I have to lose to anybody, I could lose to him,” Reeves said with a laugh. He didn’t though. The Bulldogs pulled through with a 47-28 team victory.
“He is a great guy and not just in the wrestling ring. It was a honor to be coached by him. I don’t think you will ever find someone who doesn’t like him or doesn’t respect him,” Delk said.
“He always coached us to do the right thing. Whatever we needed he did it for us. That’s one of the reasons I am a coach today.”
