Bill Creps 

Bill Creps, a farm boy from Snake Spring Valley, was a 1956 graduate of Bedford High School. Bill lettered in football and baseball while at Bedford. 

After graduation he attended Franklin and Marshall College for two years and played football and wrestled his freshman year. For the next four years he worked as a surveyor for Penn Dot before being drafted into the  Army. 
Bill graduated from Frostburg State and in 1966 he began teaching and coaching at Bedford. He served as an assistant wrestling coach under Hall of Fame Coach, Ed Clark, until 1974 when he became Bedford's third head wrestling coach since 1936.

Meantime in 1956, Bill started a church fast-pitch team. For over 50 years, he has remained active in fast-pitch in the county, as player, coach, and league director.

As a player and coach Bill' s teams won five regular season and nine playoff titles in the I.S.L. when fast-pitch softball was very popular in the county. His team reached the top in 1972 when they won the state major championship and played in the World Tournament in Kimberly, Wisconsin.

Not only has he coached wrestling at Bedford, but has served as an assistant and/or head track and field coach for the past 42 years. During this time, the track team has compiled a record of 255 wins and 123 losses.

Under Head Coach Bob Shank and Bill, Bedford had two state champions in Jason Cole and Bill Benbow in the early 90s. After coaching the distant runners for years Bill switched to coaching the throwers in the late 90s and is recognized by his peers as being one of the best throwing coaches in the area.

Bill also has coached football as an assistant at Bedford since 1966. He started in the junior high and as head junior high coach had a 56-23-4 record. He has been the varsity line coach since 1981 and also was the defensive coordinator from 1981 until 2004. The varsity record during this time was 194 and 82 with six undefeated regular  seasons.

During his 25 year reign as head wrestling coach, Bedford won 20 regular season tournament titles, 11 Inter-County Team Titles, 11 District 5 Championships (although Bedford was in District 9 for six years), and three Southwest Regional Titles.

He coached 81 district champs, 18 regional champs, and 16 state medalists (including 4 state runners-up). He had 57 state qualifiers and at least one each year for his last 15 years.

Bill had three undefeated teams. The undefeated team of 1997 was ranked in the top three in the state and the undefeated team of 1998 was ranked first. This was before the state playoffs. The 1997 and 1998 undefeated teams were also a part of Bedford s longest undefeated streak of 37 straight matches.

Wrestling is a family affair. In his 25 years as head coach, his wife Bev fed the wrestlers at their house before each meet. The wrestlers still talk about how good her homemade waffles were. Then after the meet she had the coaches and friends, including the referee, to the house for sandwiches.

Bill compiled a record of 304-75-4. His record against District 5 teams was 185-5-1 and against county teams was 78-3.

In 1986, he was voted by his peers the Pennsylvania AA Coach of the Year. He was inducted into the Pennsylvania Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame in 2000

Bill has been District 5 representative on the Coaches Board of Directors for over 25 years. He was president of the state coaches association from 1985 to 1987. It was during this time that he played a big part in developing the 24 points system for determining how many meets a team may wrestle.

In 2006, the Pennsylvania Wrestling News ranked Bill as the fourth most influential person in Pennsylvania Wrestling.

In 1962, Bill married Beverly Gordon, who without her support he would not have been able to coach all the sports. They have three sons, Steve, Bill, Brian, and a daughter Karen. They also have four grandchildren.

Class of 2007
Bedford County Sports Hall of Fame
Bedford County, Pennsylvania
Class of 2007
Class of 2006

Bedford County Sports
Hall of Fame