Wyatt Sheldon '24 Recruiting Profile

I have been active in sports my entire life.  I started playing hockey in Alaska at the age of 3.  I started football,  wrestling and soccer at the age of 5.  My parents worried about me a lot growing up because I am deaf.  Deaf students historically struggle in school and are often excluded from sports.  When I joined my local Pop Warner Football team at the age of 5, I was told many times that I couldn't play because I'm deaf.  When I played soccer, they tried to place me on the Special Needs team, before they realized I belonged on the undefeated Competition team.  I have been excluded and underestimated my entire life and I've always had to fight to prove myself. When I started Mission Heights Preparatory High School, a charter school with a rigorous, accelerated, academic program, we didn't have sports because of Covid and we hadn't had a tackle football team for 10 years. I helped create one, and now I am the team captain.  In the 3 years we've been able to play football, I have helped my team make the play-offs twice.  I was Player of the Game 6 times over.  I also joined the wrestling team and I am their team captain as well.  I am the current CAA State Champion at 165lbs, and I was the runner-up the year before.  I am currently undefeated and hope to take State again for my senior year.  I placed 3rd in discus for track and field my junior year and hope to place higher this year.  I have received many awards from my school for sports and 2 from my league, including All-State First Team Defensive Linebacker for 2023, an honor voted on by all the coaches in the league.  The average deaf student graduates with a 4th grade reading level and they rarely go to college.  My parents do not accept that statistic and were determined that I would beat those odds. Today I am ready to graduate at the age of 17, having already completed 12th grade English and Shakespeare with high marks in both.  I could have graduated at 16, having already passed AP Calculus, but I wanted to spend one more year in high school for sports.  Due to Covid, my freshman year was entirely online, but I still managed straight A's.  I don't consider being deaf a disability.  I have always felt it gives me an advantage on the field or in the ring, as I can leave my hearing aides on the sidelines and focus completely on the sport.  Derreck Coleman of the Seattle Seahawks, the first Deaf NFL player to win a Superbowl, once said "... (P)eople have told me my whole life that I can't play, but I didn't listen."  I could not agree more.  It's amazing what you can do when you can't hear all the people telling you what you can't.