Dixon wrestling great to be enshrined by IWCOA

Jacob Hey was one of the most dominant wrestlers the Sauk Valley has
produced.

That point will soon be driven home with his induction into the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association Hall of Fame. A formal ceremony will be held at the 48th annual IWCOA induction banquet on Saturday, April 6, at the William Tell Holiday Inn in Countryside.

Hey and the rest of the 2019 induction class will also be recognized at the IHSA individual state tournament in Champaign on Friday, Feb. 15, before the night session.

Hey, 44, amassed a 157-13 record during his four seasons (1989-90 to 1992-93) at Dixon High School. He won a state championship as a 103-pound sophomore, placed third twice, and was a four-time state qualifier.

Hey holds DHS records for career wins, consecutive wins (59), and tournament titles (18), and is second in wins in a season (42) to current Dixon head wrestling coach Chris Bishop (44). He is one of five state champions for Dixon, joining Jim Witzleb (heavyweight, 1970), Clyde Ruffin (132 pounds, 1972), Micah Hey (119 pounds, 1993) and Joe Roth (119 pounds, 2009).

Jacob Hey was nominated for the IWCOA Hall of Fame by longtime coach and official Don Mekeel. In fact, it was Mekeel who delivered the news to Hey last month, while Hey, an Illinois Department of Transportation employee, was out plowing snow.

“I was pretty excited when I got the call from Mr. Mekeel,” Hey said. “I was working one of my snow routes, plowing snow, and I had pulled over to fix something on my truck. I got a call from him, he let me know, and I was really excited. I thought it was the coolest thing ever.”

Hey was quick to credit the environment he was brought up in as a reason for his success.

Only the strong were going to survive in a wrestling room full of talent, and he proudly noted the Dukes had a 21-0 dual record in his junior season. Micah Hey, his younger brother, was his primary workout partner.

“We had six or seven guys on our second string that could have qualified for state, but they were backups to some of our guys,” Hey said. “We had solid partners all the way up our lineup, and we didn’t hold back in practice. We were best friends outside of the wrestling room, but when we were in the room, we were all trying to make each other better. Iron sharpens iron.

“When I got to wrestle Micah Hey every day, that’s going to make me 10 times better than the next guy.”

Hey has continued to be involved in wrestling in one form or another after high school.

He competed at the University of Illinois for one season, then transferred to Illinois State, but left there when the wrestling program was dropped for Title IX reasons.

The next stop for Hey was the Air Force, where he was a member of the all-Air Force wrestling team from 1997-2009. His day job was with the security police, but essentially his job was to train at the Olympic Training Center, to represent the Air Force in big meets in the United States and abroad.

He was a 10-time all-Air Force champion in both Greco-Roman and Freestyle wrestling, and competed in three (2000, 2004 and 2008) United States Olympic Trials in Greco-Roman.

Hey lost in the semifinals of the Olympic Trials in both 2000 and 2004, and the second of those losses, to Army wrestler Glenn Nieradka, was particularly tough to take.

“In 2004, I really think I should have made the team that year,” Hey said. “I lost on a really bad overtime call. I don’t complain about refs at all, but it’s one of those things that haunts me because I know that I won that match to go the finals. From there, it was on to the Olympics, but I never got that chance.”

After losing in 2008 Olympic Trials quarterfinals, Hey left his shoes in the center of the mat, signaling his days as a competitor were over.

Civilian jobs took Hey to Belleville, near St. Louis, from 2009 to 2015, and to Ilwaco, Washington, from 2015-17, but he stayed involved in wrestling at both stops.

In Belleville, he coached with the Belleville Little Devils IKWF program in 2009-10, and helped produce 16 state qualifiers. He then coached at Belleville Althoff High School from 2011-15, and helped groom 12 state qualifiers and 10 state place winners.

In Ilwaco, Hey was an assistant coach that helped produce 26 state qualifiers, 11 state place winners and three state champions.

It was also while in Washington that Hey, at age 42, showed he still had some wrestling chops as a competitor. He made a deal with the Ilwaco team that if it won a certain tournament, he would enter a senior wrestling event being held in Las Vegas. When the Ilwaco squad held up its end of the deal, Hey had to follow suit.

Hey ended up winning both the Greco-Roman and Freestyle divisions at that national tournament.

Hey came back to Dixon in June of 2017 and began working for IDOT that November, but again, he’s still involved with wrestling. After work on most weekdays, he can be found in the DHS wrestling room, passing on tips as a volunteer assistant.

“They’ve already got good coaches like Micah and Chris,” Hey said. “If I can just show them a few things here and there just to help out a little bit during the week, then I feel like that’s my job.”

Hey file

High school: Dixon, class of 1993

Resides: Dixon

FYI: All-time wins leader for DHS wrestling with 157. … Won IHSA state championship in 1991. … Will be inducted in IWCOA Hall of Fame on April 6