Former Waukon High School wrestler reaches career coaching milestone ...

Bill Plein, a 1976 Waukon High School graduate and current head wrestling coach for the Columbus Community/Winfield-Mt. Union wrestling team, achieved a coaching milestone Thursday, January 18 when his Wildcat mat charges recorded a pair of dual meet victories at Mediapolis High School. In his 28th season as head coach of the Wildcat mat program, initially as Columbus Junction High School, the first of those two Thursday evening mat wins, a 56-22 triumph over Mediapolis, marked the 400th career coaching victory for Plein, making him just the 12th coach in Iowa high school wrestling history to ever achieve that standard. A 60-18 victory for the Wildcats over Wapello High School in their second dual of the evening pushed Plein’s career win mark to 401.

Adding even more significance to Plein’s 400th career victory was the fact that one of his own former wrestlers was at the head coaching helm of Mediapolis. Jason Payne, a two-time high school state champion who went on to become an All-American at the University of Northern Iowa, was part of the string of five consecutive team state championships Plein coached the Wildcats to from 1995-1999. The love of the sport Payne experienced under Coach Plein  is what he is now trying to bring to his own mat charges at Mediapolis, who also defeated Wapello that same evening. The photos of Plein were taken during his historic milestone evening and are being reprinted with courtesy and permission from John Lovretta of The Hawk Eye Newspaper, Burlington.

Plein, the son of the late Frank and Helen Plein of Waukon, was a 1976 graduate of Waukon High School. He was a former Northeast Iowa Conference wrestling champion and multi-year State Tournament qualifier for the Indians before continuing his wrestling career at Central College in Pella, where he alternated two years each winning Central’s Most Valuable Wrestler Award with his younger brother, Tom Plein, from 1977-1981 and where he still holds the school record for most points scored in a single tournament (23) and also once held the school record for quickest pin (23 seconds) for more than three decades. In addition to his nearly three decades of coaching high school wrestling at Columbus, Bill Plein also teaches and serves as Activities Director at Wapello High School. He also furthers his love of wrestling by serving as both a coach and an official for Team Iowa and USA Wrestling.