The Washington State Wrestling Coaches Association will be honoring five coaches as they are inducted into the WSWCA Hall of Fame on Oct. 24. The ceremony will be held as part of the annual Northwest Wrestling Coaches Clinic in Sea-Tac, WA at the Embassy Suites Hotel, and will celebrate the 32nd class of inductees.
Coaches to be honored are: Jay Breckenridge (Sedro-Woolley HS), John Casebeer (Lynnwood), John Eklund (Chehalis MS), Ruben Martinez (Othello HS), and Bob Wheeler (Forks HS) have been elected to the Hall of Fame as the Class of 2015. With the induction of these coaches, the WSWCA Hall of Fame will have 132 members.
2015 Hall of Fame Inductee
Robert (Bob) Wheeler
Forks HS 1979-present
Robert (Bob) Wheeler teaches PE at the Forks Intermediate School. Over the years has taught a myriad of subjects for students in the Forks schools from fourth grade through twelfth grade. In 1979 he signed a one year position to teach English at the Forks Jr.-Sr. High School and is now working on his 37th year of teaching in Forks.
In 1979, Coach Wheeler served as an assistant coach at Forks High School before becoming the head coach in 1983. During his time at Forks, his teams have compiled a dual meet record of 246-68-2, and have won 16 dual meet league championships. The Spartans have placed in the top-10 in state ten times. Wheeler has coached 75 of the 77 FHS state placers, which include six state champions. His sons Ryan and Rob were among the Forks state placers.
There were three years from 2002–2004 that Coach Wheeler did not coach wrestling while his wife, Lyn, was battling cancer. Happily, she is now cancer free. In 2005 he returned to wrestling as an assistant coach, but again took over head coaching duties in 2007.
When Coach Wheeler moved to Forks in 1979, he started the Forks freestyle wrestling club which has supported kids’ wrestling ever since. In 1986 Wheeler was named the 1A State Coach of the year. In 1989, he was a coach for one of the Centennial Games regional wrestling teams. In 1991 he was the team leader for a cultural exchange team to Japan. He also spent six years as a WSWCA regional representative.
In the Forks community he spent six years coaching baseball in Little League and Babe Ruth. For eight years he served as the Forks High School fast-pitch head coach, and was also the Forks High School head baseball coach for four years.
