WILLIAM "BILL" BYERS
Lifetime Service to Wrestling Award

Bill Byers, a graduate of Olathe High School and the University of Northern Colorado, retired after 30 years on the mats and is presently ranching outside Delta. He began as a freshman coach at Northern Colorado in 1966 and had his first head-coaching job the following season at Delta High School. He became the head coach at Sterling in 1968, and then was the head coach at Arvada West from 1969-1978. He returned to Olathe in 1978 where he would coach for the Pirates until he retired in 1998. His teams compiled a 140-35-4 dual meet record. He won six league titles at Arvada West, nine at Olathe and his teams at all four schools finished as a league runner-up 10 times. Arvada West was the state runner-up in 1970 and 1975. Olathe was third in 1984, second in 1994 and his teams finished in the top 10, 15 times. He coached 15 individual state champions, 142 league champs, qualified 212 for the state tournaments in which 82 placed. He was the Colorado Coach of the Year in 1970 and coached the North All-Star Team in 1984. Six of his former wrestlers have gone on to coach.