bill simon to be honored by missouri coaches

On December 11, longtime coach Bill Simon (known to many as “Willy K”) will be inducted into the Missouri Track & Cross Country Coaches Association (MTCCCA) Hall of Fame at a luncheon ceremony in Columbia, Missouri.

Simon started at Principia as a house parent and coach in 1961, and he’s still coaching today! He has worked extensively with athletes in a variety of sports, including soccer and football, but the lion’s share of his time has been with track and field and cross-country. In the course of his nearly 50-year coaching career, he has received a dozen or more Coach of the Year awards—a reflection of his peers’ respect for him.

In state-level competition, Simon has coached one girls’ and three boys’ track and field championship teams as well as one boys’ and three girls’ cross-country championship teams. Many other teams have placed close to the top in state meets, and individual athletes have earned state championships under his coaching as well, including cross-country runners Mark Whalley in 1976 and 1977, Gwen Williams in 1991, and Ben Glass in 2000. In track and field, Bill deserves credit for over 35 individual boys state champions and more than 15 individual girls state champions.

In district competition, Simon has coached twelve first-place track and field teams and seven first-place cross-country teams. And in the ABC League, the oldest in the country, Simon’s teams won a dozen championships between 1970 and 2007.

During his decades at Principia, Simon has served as a house parent in the boys’ dormitory, as dean of boys, and briefly even as dean of girls. In 1976 he became dean of students, a post he held until his “retirement” in 2003.

Many people wrote in support of Simon’s nomination to the MTCCCA Hall of Fame, including his own athletes as well as coaches from competing teams. Within this outpouring of support, Simon’s unflagging appreciation of students’ progress—even when that progress was far from record-setting—came up repeatedly. Susan (Morey, US’79) Thomas wrote, “In an age when girls athletics were practically non-existent, he always made us feel great about our accomplishments and improvements. No matter if you were first on the team or the back of the pack, he always rejoiced about the progress you made.”

If you’d like to attend the ceremony taking place in Columbia, Missouri, on Friday, December 11, at Noon (CST), please e-mail Jamie Bollinger at jamie.bollinger@principia.edu or call him at 314.378.0195.