Walt Monroe is a well-known name in the wrestling community, and his impact on the sport is thoroughly documented.
Monroe, who coaches at Clear Creek Middle School, was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame’s Georgia Chapter. Along with 11 others, they were honored as “Lifetime Service to Wrestling” recipients and recognized at the GHSA state championships last month.
“It is an honor for the board of the Georgia chapter to consider me and vote me in,” Monroe said. “The vote comes from all of the people who are in the hall of fame. There are some really great coaches (who voted and) were also great wrestlers. It’s still overwhelming and just a great honor to be considered and I don’t take it lightly. I appreciate it very much.
“A lot of people don’t get to do what they want to do in life, what they’re really called to do. I don’t have any doubt God put me in this place, and I’m very thankful for that. He allowed me to thrive in the sport as a coach. It means a lot when a 35- or 45-year-old man still has fond memories of the things we did and going through the process. That’s the most important thing.”
From Monroe’s days as wrestler at Milton High School in the mid-80s, through 32 years of being mat side as a coach, he has witnessed wrestling blossom state wide. For those under his tutelage, they were far better for it.
“It’s been a good experience being a Georgia native,” said Monroe, who grew up in Alpharetta. “Many of the big-name coaches who have come through, came from out of state and that even started back in the 80s. It’s been cool to be part of this experience.
“I wasn’t a great high school wrestler. I had a passion for the sport when I started doing it in 10th grade. Back then, that wasn’t unusual to start in high school because there weren’t as many kids’ programs around. There weren’t any training centers whatsoever.”
Seven years following Monroe’s senior season, the first training facility opened. Fellow hall of famer, Arturo Holmes, founded the Wrestling Center in 1992. That was the year Monroe got his first head coaching gig at Effingham County. Dublin High coach Ken Whiddon, another eventual hall of fame member, took notice. Monroe joined the Irish’s coaching staff in 1995.
“Coaching for me was a calling, and I fell in with good people,” Monroe said. “I thought I knew the sport until I started learning from them. That quest for learning kept growing and continuing on. I fell in with Arturo when I was coaching at Dublin. We’d go to his camps and even make the two-hour drive during the week. I learned a lot of wrestling from that guy and about how to coach wrestling.
“Going to Dublin was really the turning point for me. Ken asked me to come to Dublin and said they really liked what I was doing down there. Dublin was already an established program back then. I had a lot of pivotal learning experiences, learning technique, that stuck with me. It showed me the value of being a good technician.”
After five years as an assistant, Monroe took over the head coaching reins in 2000. In five years at the helm, he led the Irish to a pair of state championships. Monroe was named the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association’s Coach of the Year in 2002 and 2004.
He was in the corner of 12 individual state champions and 35 placers.
Monroe arrived in Ellijay in 2005 looking for a more reduced role, and he became a middle school coach. While Monroe’s passion and knowledge for the sport persisted, family circumstances and the pursuit of a master’s degree required a change of scenery.
He joined forces with Bo Dorsey, and they took over the established Gilmer Middle program from previous head coach Greg Wingo.Monroe immediately doubled wrestlers’ time on the mat. He kick-started and oversaw Gilmer’s middle school USA Wrestling program.
“I really like seeing a kid develop and grow and catch a passion for the sport,” Monroe said. “That’s what ended up keeping me at the middle school level, was taking raw talent or not so talented and seeing those kids make leaps and bounds. I really enjoy the process of developing kids and coaching.”
Monroe spent 15 years combined at Gilmer and Clear Creek middle schools. He coached 26 eventual individual Gilmer High state champions during that span. Gilmer won 15 of 17 combined traditional and duals state championships under hall of famer and former head coach Sam Snider.
“Walt has a way to motivate no matter where he’s at,” Snider said. “When he started doing our middle school stuff, he took us to another level because he did USA Wrestling, which took us through March. As a coach to work with, I learned a lot from him.
“He’s driven, but he’s godly. He has a great balance in life and a great balance in the way he coaches. He doesn’t stop trying to help kids outside of wrestling. When he got here, he already had the motto we had here for years. He had the motto of building fathers and brothers and husbands and building young boys into men.”
After retiring from teaching and coaching, Monroe took a one-year hiatus. However, he was soon mat side once again as an assistant coach at Pickens.
“The flame was still burning then, but it wasn’t a roaring fire,” Monroe said. “That was rekindled when I was down at Pickens, and I’m really thankful for that time. Those guys were great to work with, and I left there with some newfound friends in Joe Mullins and Brandon Tippins and respect for what they’re doing.”
With Monroe wearing green, he helped the Dragons finish second to Gilmer at the traditional state tournament in 2022.
Monroe returned to Clear Creek Middle as an assistant for the 2022-23 wrestling season and has been in the Bobcats’ corner since. He discussed what motivates him to continue coaching after so many years.
“The discipline involved in wrestling is something that is starting to wane in our society, and maybe the world in general,” he said. “It’s a one-on-one combat sport that requires a lot of self-discipline. Kids who stick with it, get to discover that when you don’t feel good or feel like coming to practice, you come on anyway. If you want to get better.
“If you don’t want to go to work, you still have to get up and go. Marriage is tough. Families are tough. Life’s tough. Wrestling isn’t the most important thing in the world, even though I’ve treated it like that sometimes and get my priorities mixed up. I believe it’s a little microcosm of real life.”
Monroe will be 60 in three years. He said he may coach up to two years beyond that, but has not made any formal plans.
“It’s a question that rattles around in my head and rattles around in my wife Ginger’s head. She’s resigned to the fact that I’ll just die in a corner somewhere coaching wrestling,” Monroe said with a chuckle. “She has put up with late nights and missing weekends with her for 31 years. And instead of leaving, she just keeps getting sweeter toward me. If she had not held down the fort all these years, I wouldn’t know which was up.”
Monroe’s hall of fame class will be inducted Sunday, May 4, at The Venue at Friendship Springs in Flowery Branch.