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Bill Kingsley was standout grappler at CHS
While it’s been nearly four decades since he last took to the mat for Centralia High School, Bill Kingsley can still be found in attendance at Orphans’ wrestling matches.
“Once you’ve done it, it kind of gets in your blood,” said Kingsley who is to be inducted into the Centralia Sports Hall of Fame with the Class of 2017. “It brings back a lot of memories.”
Kingsley, a 1979 graduate of CHS, certainly had a senior year to remember. Wrestling heavyweight, he was a state tournament qualifier with teammate John Lovette, who is also going into the HOF this year.
“It was definitely a good season,” said Kingsley who took a 29-4 record to state and was part of an Orphan squad that produced a 16-1-1 regular season mark including a South 7 Conference championship (the program’s fifth in six years) and first place at the Murdale Invitational.
Kingsley, who was also a starting lineman in football and thrower of the shot put and discus in track, joined Lovette as the first Orphan grapplers to reach state since Ken Smudrick and Rocky Currie did so 11 years earlier.
To reach state, the preparation for Kingsley began in the
offseason.
“I put in a lot of work and went to two camps in the summer,” he said. “At heavyweight, I was around 230 pounds and most of the guys I went against were pushing 300.”
His efforts paid off with a first-place finish at the conference tournament, and seconds at the Mascoutah and Murdale Invitationals, and the Belleville West District his senior year.
“One of the matches that stood out was the one against Harrisburg [heavyweight Jay Warren at the conference tournament],” said Kingsley who won by a first-period pin. “I met him again at the sectional when I needed to win to get to state.”
Kingsley also won the second encounter which placed him third in the sectional at Granite City and on to the state tournament at the University of Illinois Assembly Hall in Champaign.
“That was a thrill,” he said. “I went up there as a freshman just to watch but when you’re going up there to wrestle, it’s like a whole different world.”
Opposing New Trier West’s Jordy Rich in a first-round bout, Kingsley was eliminated in a hard-fought 13-9 decision that ended his year at 29-6.
After the season, he was awarded the Old National Bank’s Most Improved Award at the Optimists Club banquet.
Wrestling was not his only sport. In football, Kingsley was a three-year letterman and was part of one of the most dramatic turnarounds in school history.
Following a winless campaign in 1976, during which Kingsley was promoted to the varsity as a sophomore, the Orphans responded with a 7-3 mark his junior year in 1977 and qualified for the playoffs, where they nearly upset state-ranked Danville before falling 23-21.
Kingsley played center and tackle in his career and was a starter on the line as a senior as well while also competing in track all four years.
But wrestling may have been his favorite.
“It’s a team sport which I like because you’re all working together for the good of the team and at the same time, you’re rewarded individually,” he said.
Kingsley also credits longtime CHS wrestling coach Dick Carpenter.
“I have the utmost respect for coach Carpenter,” he said. “He’s done so much for kids in the program and the sport of wrestling and loved doing it. He’s still someone to look up to.”
Kingsley also has fond memories of his teammate in the late John Lovette who is also entering the Hall of Fame.
“John was a great guy and one heck of a wrestler,” said Kingsley. “It was a great experience to have him as a teammate and we spent a lot of time together.”
“They were both outstanding wrestlers and each had some of the best records and times in that period,” Carpenter said of Kingsley and Lovette. “They did a lot for the program and are well deserving to be in the Hall of Fame.”
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