David G. Wendt

1948 - 2021

(News story) TEMPERANCE - David G. Wendt, who in decades as a youth sports coach taught children the fundamentals of football and baseball and thereby self discipline, died Tuesday in his Temperance home. He was 72.

He had cancer, his wife, Melanie Wendt, said.

From 1972-2018, Mr. Wendt and Harold Keaton - his best friend since sixth grade at Whittier School - coached the DeVeaux Vikings of the West Toledo Lightweight Football League.

"He loved the sport, and he wanted kids to be part of a football family," Mr. Wendt's wife said. "He knew how to talk to kids and understood them."

The league in a Facebook post said: "Dave was one of the forefathers of our league and helped form and maintain the structure we have today. Dave would tell stories about a time when he and the other commissioners would pull their cars into Bowman Park, turn on their headlights, and stripe the field before the game the next day.

"Dave was passionate about lightweight football and he was known for being a strong advocate for the children, wanted nothing more than to give them a safe fun place to play youth football," the league said on Facebook.

In 2014, Vikings players and assistant coaches surprised Mr. Wendt and Mr. Keaton with trophies, thanks for their contributions - and a surprise visit from Romules Durant, Toledo Public Schools superintendent, who played football at Waite High School and the University of Toledo.

"It was a shock," Mr. Keaton said Saturday.

Mr. Durant praised the coaches for their volunteerism and the players for their potential, if they applied themselves.

"Every one of you has a champion inside," Mr. Durant said then. "I take my hat off to Viking pride and these gentlemen for instilling that pride in you."

The friends began coaching the team when the previous coach quit, Mr. Keaton said.

"He did the offense, and I did the defense," Mr. Keaton said. "He wanted to be an offensive caller. I like defense anyway. It worked. I guess that's because were such good friends."

Players got to know their approach: "Dave could be real mild. I would do the mean stuff. He was always calm."

The pair in time had three different teams. They started with 9 and 10 year olds and later coached grades six through eight and even had a team of 8 year olds.

As the friends started coaching, they recalled their seventh and eighth grade coaches at Whitter and concluded, "let's coach the way they did - make it fun for the kids, teach them fundamentals," Mr. Keaton said. Their Vikings wanted to come to practice, he added.

"I run into some of the kids who are now 50 years old, and they say the best time of their life was playing for the DeVeaux Vikings," Mr. Keaton said. "That was our pay."

For all the changes in society during their tenure, "a 12 year old is still a 12 year old," Mr. Keaton said. "You're trying to teach them discipline. They're just kids."

Mr. Wendt for more than a quarter century also coached the Whittier Trojans youth baseball team. Many of his players graduated to the renowned Start High School baseball program under coach Rich Arbinger, Mr. Keaton said.

He was born April 2, 1948, to Betty and Robert Wendt. He was a 1966 graduate of Start High School, where he was a fullback and defensive end on the football team. Afterward, he served in the Navy.

Mr. Wendt was a Jeep worker for more than 30 years, retiring as a fork lift driver at what is now called the Toledo Assembly Complex. Earlier, Mr. Wendt and Mr. Keaton worked together at the former Mead Containers paper mill on Matzinger Road.

He was a 2010 inductee to the Start High School Hall of Fame.

He was formerly married to Karen LaFrance Wendt.

Surviving are his wife, the former Melanie Cole Parks, whom he married Nov. 11, 2011; sons David T. and Adam Wendt; daughter, Holly Kimpon; sister, Julie McIntyre; seven grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter.

Visitation will be from 3-5 p.m. Sunday in Bridgepoint Church, Temperance, where he was a member. Funeral services in the church are to begin at 5 p.m. Arrangements by the Michael W. Pawlak Funeral Home, Temperance.

The family suggests tributes to Hospice of Northwest Ohio.

This is a news story by Mark Zaborney. Contact him at mzaborney@theblade.com.