'The Wrestling Drill Book' by Welker wins national award

The Wrestling Drill Book by Dr. Bill Welker has found its way onto the shelves of thousands of school libraries, wrestling coaches' offices and homes of high school wrestlers. Now this classic instructional has earned a place on a national book awards list.

The second edition of Welker's book has been named winner in the Sports Non-Fiction category by the 2019 Independent Press Awards Program judges which include independent publishers, writers, editors and professional copywriters.

"Wrestling has been a major part of my life for over 60 years, and I have been writing about the sport since 1974," Welker told the Wheeling (W.Va.) Intelligencer, the newspaper serving the community he now calls home, where he has coached and served as a mat official. "The first edition of my drill book was published in 2005 and was so well received that my publishing company, Human Kinetics Publishers of Champaign, Ill., commissioned me to write a second edition of the bestseller in 2012."

Both editions of The Wrestling Drill Book have sold 31,000 copies nationwide. According to Welker, his book is ranked third in sales of all wrestling books that Human Kinetics has published since 1974, behind two books authorized by Dan Gable.

"Not bad company to keep," Welker told the Wheeling paper.

Welker -- a native of Pennsylvania -- has authored two other books: The Sparrow's Spirit , his memoir published in 2016 ... and his first novel, A Wrestler's Curse, published just this month.