Dr. Bill Welker
110 North Huron Street
Wheeling, West Virginia 26003
email mattalkwv@hotmail.com
Dr. Bill Welker 110 North Huron Street Wheeling, West Virginia 26003 email mattalkwv@hotmail.com |
BILL WELKER, Ed. D.1965 SHAMOKIN (PA) HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE |
* He was a 3-time Sectional and 3-time District Four Champion, 2-time Northeastern Regional Champion, PIAA State Champion in 1963 and PIAA State Runner-Up in 1965. (Note: There was only one division of schools at the time and if you lost at any level, you were eliminated.)
* A four-year varsity performer, he had undefeated dual meet seasons as a freshman and senior. He received the "Robert Kemp Outstanding Wrestler Memorial Award" his senior year at Shamokin High School.
* He was the last Shamokin High School wrestler to compete in a "Greyhound" uniform before the school consolidated with Coal Township High School to become the Shamokin Area "Indians" in the fall of 1965. He also held the old "Shamokin Greyhound" record for the most wins (85 victories).
* He is ranked 7th in Shamokin's "Top Ten" all-time winners' list (85 victories). In 1974, he was ranked 7th in Pennsylvania's first "Top Ten" all-time winners' list compiled by Bob Hower, PA's premier high school wrestling historian.
* He earned a Wrestling Scholarship from the University of Pittsburgh, where he was a place winner in the Naval Academy Freshman Tournament and a varsity performer for the Pitt Panthers.
*He was a head wrestling coach at old Wheeling High School (1970-72), Wheeling Central Catholic High School (1972-76), and Wheeling Park High School (1979-80). He also helped to produce three West Virginia AAA State Championship Teams at Wheeling Park High School and was honored as one of the top coaches in the country in 1979 by SCHOLASTIC WRESTLING NEWS.
* He has conducted numerous clinics on wrestling over the years, especially involving the Pancake Series takedown.
* He was selected as the "1987 National Wrestling Sportswriter of the Year" by WRESTLING USA MAGAZINE for his "Mat Talk" column, appearing in the Wheeling (WV) News-Register and Steubenville (Ohio) Herald-Star. .
* Since 1974, he has authored nearly 500 articles on the art and science of wrestling. His writings have appeared in many periodicals, including the Wheeling News-Register, Steubenville Herald-Star, East Liverpool (Ohio) Evening Review, Parkersburg News, Shamokin (PA) News-Item, The West Virginia Wrestler, Scholastic Wrestling News, Amateur Wrestling News, The coaches' Quarterly (NF), The Coaching Clinic (Prentice Hall), Wrestling USA, Ohio Wrestling News, Pennsylvania Wrestling Newsletter, Tom Elling's PENNSYLVANIA WRESTLING, and The Officials' Quarterly (NF).
* In 1990, he was inducted into the Bernie Romanoski Chapter of the "PA Sports Hall of Fame" and was also honored as the "1990 Outstanding West Virginia Wrestling Official of the Year."
* In 1991, he received the prestigious "Mr. Mat" Award from the OVAC, one of the largest high school athletic conferences in the nation.
* He has been selected an unprecedented seven times as the "West Virginia Wrestling Sportswriter of the Year" (1981-1985-1989-1996-2000-2007-2010). In fact, he was the first recipient of "The Snyder-Miller Media Award" in 2010.
* He was a inducted into the "2000 Pennsylvania District IV Wrestling Hall of Fame."
* He was honored by WRESTLING USA MAGAZINE as the "2001 West Virginia Wrestling Man of the Year."
* He is now a contributing writer for WRESTLING USA MAGAZINE. He has also written a nationally published, computer-assisted instructional program for wrestling officials entitled WRESTLING: SPORTS OFFICIALS APPLIED SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE PROGRAM, which was highly acclaimed by the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper.
* He presently serves as West Virginia's Wrestling Rules Interpreter and Clinician since 1989, and is the Supervisor of Officials at the state high school wrestling tournament. In this capacity, he wrote and produced a video entitled "A Baker's Dozen of Difficult Calls in Wrestling" to aid in promoting official consistency across the state of West Virginia. He also initiated a pilot study on "Blood Time" (1993) for the National Federation (NF) which has since become a NF rule in 1996. He was instrumental in proposing, developing, and documenting the "Stall Procedure" & "Stall Procedure: Revised" two-year (1998-2000) pilot study for the NF. During the 2002-2003 wrestling season, Dr. Welker coordinated a pilot study for the NF to investigate an innovative approach for improving how a wrestler is given the choice of position, should a match reach the 30-second tiebreaker.
* As the OVAC tournament souvenir program coordinator & editor for 18 years (1979-1996), his 1996 OVAC Program design and format was awarded 2nd Place national honors by the selection committee of Wrestling USA Magazine's 26th annual Tournament Programs Division contest.
* 2001 NFHS Mideast Section 2 Distinguished Active Official Award Winner. Section 2 includes officials in all sports from the District of Columbia and the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, & West Virginia.
* 2002 National Wrestling Official of the Year Award Winner selection from Wrestling USA Magazine.
* 2003 OVAC Wrestling Official of the Year.
* 2005 Editor - THE WRESTLING DRILL BOOK (Human Kinetics Publishing Company, Champaign, Illinois), with contributions from Jim Akerly (PA), Bill Archer (WV), Dave Lamotte (Arizona), Patsy Pecora (PA), Ed Peery (MD), Ken Taylor (Colorado), and Craig Turnbull (WV).
* Dr. Bill Welker's officiating career is profiled in the July 2005 Issue of Referee Magazine, the
premiere officiating magazine of the country.
* 2006 Wrestling Consultant for the American Sports Education Program's Officiating Wrestling Methods On-Line Course under the auspices of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
* 2008 "Master of Wrestling" Award recipient presented by Wrestling USA Magazine annually and is regarded as their most prestigious wrestling accolade.
* 2008 National Wrestling Hall of Fame Inductee (West Virginia Chapter) for his Lifetime Service as a coach and official.
* 2008 Produced the DVD: "Bill Welker's Pancake Takedown Series" to be distributed nationwide
* 2010 Pennsylvania Wrestling Hall of Fame Inductee for his exceptional accomplishments as a scholastic wrestler.
* After receiving his B.S.(1969) and M.Ed. (1970) degrees from Pitt, he later earned a doctorate degree from WVU in 1989. He is has been the Reading Specialist at Warwood Middle School in Wheeling, WV, since 1976. He served as Dean of Students from 1991 to 2000.
* A resident of Wheeling Island since 1972, Bill and his wife Peggy have four children (Billy, Ricky, Tiffany, and Danny), and 12 grandchildren (Cory, Drew, Chase, Camden Rose, Cheyenne, Canon, Shannon, Alaya, Vander, Nathan, Lillian Grace, and Molly Margaret).
(Editor's Note: Bill Welker was the third family member to win a PIAA State Championship (1963), and the youngest in Shamokin High School's storied wrestling history of nearly 75 years. His older brother Floyd was a state champ in 1959. In fact, Bill and Floyd Welker were the first brother-team to win states in District Four. They won their titles during a time when there was only one division of schools, and you couldn't lose at any level of the elimination process. Also, cousin Harold Welker won his state crown in 1938, at the first PIAA state wrestling tournament held in Penn State's "Rec Hall." All three were Shamokin "Greyhounds." They have been dubbed the "First Family of District Four Wrestling.")
 Dr. William A. Welker Teacher - Coach Dean of Students 1969-2009 | (Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce Award) 2009 March Teacher of the Month (WTRF-TV/Wheeling Hospital Award) 2009 April "Teacher Feature" (Ohio County School's Focus Magazine Award) |
* He has conducted numerous reading presentations on the local, state, and national levels since 1983, traveling to such cities as Lexington, KY and Atlanta, GA, and at the Greenbrier.
* Dr. Welker has privately tutored children Kindergarten through 12th grades since 1980.
* He has develop reading programs for Wheeling Central Catholic HS (1972- 1976) and Warwood Junior High School (1976 to present).
* Dr. Welker has received professional acclaim for his unique controlled reader program.
* He is a member of the Ohio Valley Language Arts Council, the West Virginia Reading Association, and the International Reading Association.
Hitting the Books, an archive of articles by Dr. Welker relating to the art and science of education.
West Virginia Mat Thoughts, by Dr. Bill Welker
West York Wrestling Alumni: Interview with Dr Bill Welker
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