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Jan 26, 2026 By Jonathan Guth 5 min read

When Bill Swink was questioned about earning his 500th-career coaching victory, the Connellsville wrestling head coach was quick to point out those who have worked with him in his over 40 years of guiding wrestlers on and off the mat.

“To achieve something like this, you need to have kids that will buy in, good assistant coaches and administration, and supportive parents, and I’ve been fortunate to have that in my career,” Swink said. “I am grateful to have coached for over 40 years and been around some outstanding people. The support from the community has been great, especially here at Connellsville.”

Swink’s milestone victory came last Friday in Morgantown, W.Va., at University High School when the Falcons defeated Parkersburg South, W.Va., 38-20, in their first of two dual meets in the University Tri-Meet.

Swink knew he was at 499 wins coming into the dual meet, but he wasn’t aware of the celebration that came following the triumph, as he was presented with a banner that listed his career accomplishments. Several of the wrestlers he had coached in previous years came to join in the celebration.

“I didn’t know they were going to do what they did,” Swink said. “It was very nice, and University High was very good in allowing that to be done. We have competed in that tri-meet the last two years, and it is a very good event with two good teams.”

The Falcons followed their win against Parkersburg with a 46-26 victory over the hosts to give Swink win No. 501, but his main focus right now is victory No. 502, which he hopes his team will accomplish in the first round of the WPIAL Class 3A dual meet tournament on Wednesday.

Connellsville, who has never missed the WPIAL dual meet tournament since its inception in 1979, will host two first round bouts, and a quarterfinal dual meet, which is something Swink and his squad relishes.

“This will be our fifth year in a row hosting through the quarterfinals of the tournament,” Swink said. “It’s a good place to wrestle for us. We have good support from the community, and the kids feed off that energy. We also take great pride in being the only team to qualify for the WPIAL dual meet tournament each year since it began.

“The only difference this season is a preliminary-round match will be contested prior to the first round, but all that means is we have to get the mats ready a little earlier in the day. We will await the winner of that match.”

Swink, a 1982 graduate of Connellsville Area High School, has earned 84 wins since he accepted the position to lead his alma mater starting with the 2021-2022 season.

Swink began his coaching career two years following high school in the Connellsville Area School District, as he guided the Connellsville Junior High West program for seven years until moving to Virginia to begin his career in education and coaching at the high-school level.

Swink had assistant coaching experience at Stafford High School, C.D. Hylton High School, North Stafford High School and Louisa County High School before becoming the head coach at North Stafford and Osbourn Park High School in the mid-1990s.

Swink’s tenure at Colonial Forge High School lasted 17 years and produced six team state championships, 16 regional and 18 district/conference gold medals.

Individually, Swink coached 130 state placewinners and 23 state champions during his tenure at Colonial Forge.

Upon his return to Connellsville, Swink coached Jared Keslar to a state title in 2022. He also guided 10 placewinners at the individual state tournament.

Eighty-four of Swink’s victories have come while he guided the Falcons, including a third-place finish in the state dual-meet tournament last year. Connellsville won the WPIAL Class 3A team dual-meet championship in 2024.

Swink is a winner of USA Wrestling’s President’s Award, which he earned in 2017. He was the State Chairperson of the Year in 2015, and is a member of the Virginia Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Swink has won several coach of the year honors during his time in Virginia, where he was named USA Wrestling Magazine’s Virginia Wrestling Man of the Year in 1998, 2006 and 2009.

Swink was inducted into the Falcon Foundation Hall of Fame in 2023.

As the victories were piling up in Virginia, Swink didn’t begin to notice until the Hall of Fame committees started calling.

“I really didn’t keep track until the Hall of Fame asked me for that information, so I had to do a little digging,” Swink said. “I have pretty much stayed with coaching since I began, but I did take a break from it when I was AD (athletic director) for five years.

“I taught for 25 years and was in administration for five before I was able to retire, and it’s nice to be able to just go to the wrestling room everyday and get everything ready while the kids are still in school.”

While there have been changes throughout Swink’s 40-plus years of coaching, the majority of what is needed has stayed the same. The one difference Swink mentions is the amount of coaches who do not work as teachers at the school they are coaching.

“For most of my career, my assistants were teachers and working at the high school where they coached,” Swink said. “On our staff, Ashtin (Primus) teaches but he is at Albert Gallatin. Mick Lilley does teach in the school district but he is at the middle school. Chad Jesko isn’t a teacher and George Harvey wasn’t, but those values that people learn in the work force carry over into wrestling, and coaching is teaching.

“There was a time, and I’m talking way back, even before me, when a non-teacher had to get permission to be hired as a coach. Obviously, all that has changed.”