July 12, 2007: The Salt Lake Tribune

Wrestling Family Pins Its Future On the Mat
by Baxter Holmes

There is more wrestling in the blood of the Kilpack family then there is blood. It starts early, only a few years after birth, and then the kids start raking in awards, trophies and medals before they're even old enough to see a PG-13 movie.

There's Garrick, 6, MacKelti, 10, William, 12, and Ella-Maereen, 14. They competed against about 700 athletes from June 14 to June 16 in the AAU Grand Nationals wrestling tournament in Butte, Mont.

All four came away with All-America status. It's what they - the Kilpacks - do. They wrestle.

"I think as a parent you do have a way of trying to help your kids love and appreciate things that were very gratifying to you," said Bill Kilpack III coaches his kids in the Mountain Top Wrestling Club, which practices at Jordan High School. Bill, a six-time state champion in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, said he started teaching William before he turned 4 years old. William said he vaguely remembers it.

"I remember thinking that we ran too much, but then again, I was almost 4 years old," said William, who won his fifth national championship in Butte.

Bill's father, Bill Kilpack Jr., also was a wrestler. He wrestled for the University of Utah and was one of the two original coaches for the Sundance Wrestling Team, which produced two world-champion wrestlers.

Bill III is the main coach while his dad coaches the club along side him.

"One thing is with my dad being a coach also is that a lot of the kids call him Grandpa Bill," said the younger Bill. "They don't call him coach or anything like that."

Garrick just finished kindergarten at Sunrise Elementary and has six All-America finishes as well as being the top-ranked wrestler for his Flyweight age division in Utah.

Ella-Maereen said Garrick has a bright future in the sport.

"He's a really good wrestler," she said. "He has been outstanding wrestler quite a few times and he's really on top of his group. If he put his mind to it, he'd never lose a match."

MacKelti has had success too, winning two national titles in folkstyle wrestling in women's divisions. Ella-Maereen has wrestled on and off for years, but earned the All-America status in her first competitive year. Previously, Ella-Maereen was a gymnast.

"She bends like a Gumby doll," Bill said. "She's very graceful and floor was her best even because of her grace."

But she joined to fit in with her brothers, she said.

"I was tired of being my brother's dummy so I wanted to wrestle to get back at him," Ella-Maereen said.

Bill said he works his team hard, harder than some high schools even, but his ultimate goal is for each of his wrestlers to become technicians.

The family was in Green Bay, Wis., earlier this month for the ASICS Kids Freestyle and Greco-Roman National Championships.

"We try to make sure they have a balanced diet," Bill III said. "A lot of times if I have fruit leather or candy, they'll choose the fruit leather."

And the coach has even found a way to motivate the other wrestlers in the club. When it comes to doing pushups, he might tell the boys that they have to do more than his daughters otherwise they'll have to go home and tell there dads about it.

"The thing with that is because we work so hard, you have to make sure they're having fun," he said.

All in the family
* Bill Kilpack III, head coach of Mountain Top Wrestling Club
* Garrick, 6
* MacKelti, 10
* William, 12
* Ella-Maereen, 14
* The four family members earned All-America finishes at the AAU Grand Nationals wrestling tournament in Butte, Mont.