By Brian McBride
Associate Editor

Osceola County Fire Rescue Lt. Brian Sheets is hoping to be a smash with his 'stache.

After combing through hundreds of entries, the American Mustache Institute named Sheets one of the 19 finalists nationwide to compete for the Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year. The winner, who will be announced at 'Stache Bash 2010 on Dec. 4 in St. Louis, earns a plaque and the respect of being the mustache maestro.

“We thought Brian was a qualified candidate because of all the feedback from the community,” Institute President Aaron Perlut said.

Who was the first to nominate him? Sheets wasn't sure, but said he believed it was one of his students he teaches at the Central Florida Fire Academy.

According to the institute website, one of his students wrote in a nomination that “most people teach for a paycheck and don't care about much more than the extra money. Instructor Sheets is different. He stood with us and motivated us and instilled in us information and morals that would have been left by the wayside by anyone else.”

“I talk about my mustache everyday,” Sheets said.

Perlut said the institute also liked the fact that he works to champion firefighter causes. Sheets started a group on Facebook called Firemen with Mustaches, a nonprofit organization. According to the group page, he'd like to use the page logo to sell T-shirts and other marketable items to raise money for organizations such as the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation. The logo is a skull wearing a fire helmet along with a long bushy brown mustache.

But winning is not going to be easy. Sheets is up against some mustached-masters. The competition includes: Pat O’Brien, longtime television and radio personality; Morgan Spurlock , an Oscar-nominated documentary director, television producer, writer and journalist best known for his documentary “Super Size me”; and Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star point guard.

“What sets me apart from all the others is that I'm a firefighter,” Sheets said. “I'm not a celebrity.”

Known as “Mustache Man” around the Poinciana fire station he works at, wearing his thick soup-strainer is more than just a fashion statement, Sheets said. If you look at historic photos of firefighters, Sheets said, they all wore mustaches.

“It just started with carrying on the tradition of the fire service,” Sheets said of maintaining his own crumb catcher. “Tradition is huge in the fire service.”

Pointing to how significant mustaches were in the fire service, Sheets referred to an article written in the Fire Museum's Network in 1999. It was reported that firefighter mustaches in the mid-1800s were more than just a common facial fixture – they were a personal protective device. Firefighters allegedly wetted their mustaches, curled up their lower lip and breathed air through the impromptu filter system when entering a burning structure. They now, of course, use self-contained breathing apparatuses.

The county is supportive in Sheets' goal to win. Niki Whisler, spokeswoman for Osceola County Emergency Services, said he's already an asset to the agency simply as a firefighter.

“We are proud to have him as one of our lieutenants and we wish him well,” she said.

But he's already confident he's got the best facial feature.

“I will win,” he said. “The mustache already told me that.”

To vote for Sheets, go to the website www.americanmus

tacheinstitute.org and click on the Mustached American of the Year box.