Photo by Kim North Dr. Bill Welker’s second edition of the Wrestling Drill Book has been selected as the winner in the Sports Non-Fiction category by the 2019 Independent Press Awards Program judges.

WHEELING — Dr. Bill Welker’s second edition of The Wrestling Drill Book has been selected as the winner in the Sports Non-Fiction category by the 2019 Independent Press Awards Program judges.

The competition is judged by experts in the book industry: publishers, writers, editors, and professional copywriters. The award program submissions come from such cities as London to Madrid, Dallas to Philadelphia, Calgary to Melbourne, Chicago to San Francisco, and many different countries, including Australia, Africa, Canada, Egypt, India, Japan, and Scotland.

“Independent publishing is prospering in every corner of the earth, and we are thrilled to be highlighting key titles representing global independent publishing,” Independent Press Awards sponsor Gabrielle Olczak said.

“Wrestling has been a major part of my life for over 60 years, and I have been writing about the sport since 1974,” Welker said. “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.

“This award means a lot to me because I spent years authoring and editing the book. My advice to any aspiring writers is to realize that the first draft of a book is easy compared to the exhausting, time-consuming phase of editing. Editing can make or break the success of a book.”

The drill book has some local flavor in that the photo-demonstrators were high school wrestlers from Buckeye Local, Harrison Central, Oak Glen, and Wheeling Park. They included Ronnell Green, Abby Rush, Joel Timmons, Cody Miller, Ronnie Green, Bryce Rush, Eric Banks, Jonny Davis, Tyler Brown, Josh Cornell, Josh Sokolowski, Nathan Kirk, Matt Shurina, Geremy Paige and Doug Eddy.

Both editions of The Wrestling Drill Book have sold 31,000 copies nationwide.

“To my knowledge, no other Ohio Valley coach has ever sold nearly as many copies of a sport-specific, technique book,” Welker said. “In fact, The Wrestling Drill Book is ranked third in sales of all wrestling books that Human Kinetics has published since 1974.”

Welker’s best-selling drill book is only surpassed by two wrestling books authored or endorsed by legendary wrestler and coach, Dan Gable.

“Not bad company to keep,” Welker said.

Welker’s memoirs, The Sparrow’s Spirit, published in 2016, was selected as the winner in the Sports Category by the 2017 Beverly Hills Book Awards judges. He has just completed his first novel, A Wrestler’s Curse, for the Dorrance Publishing Company of Pittsburgh, which is available for purchase this month.