Richard A. Welker has been involved in wrestling for nearly four decades as a wrestler, coach, official, writer, and radio broadcaster in the Upper Ohio Valley.

An Ohio Valley Athletic Conference freshman tournament champion, Welker was a varsity member of the 1990 Ron Mauck OVAC Championship Team at Wheeling Park High School.

Welker coached wrestling at Triadelphia Middle School for four years, where his teams posted a 72-4 dual meet record and won four Pac-8 championships. He was named as the 2010 OVAC Middle Coach of the Year.

He is also an accomplished scholastic wrestling official who has arbitrated numerous OVAC and West Virginia regional tournament championships.

Rick is past President of the Wheeling Youth League and the Wheeling Wrestling Club. He is also co-founder of the West Virginia Youth Wrestling League.

Welker served as a committee member of the West Virginia State Freestyle Wrestling Association.

For his many articles on area wrestling and hosting the Rick Welker Radio Show on WKXX, he was named the 2013 Snyder-Miller Wrestling Sportswriter of the Year by the West Virginia Wrestling Coaches Association. That same year Rick Welker and his hall-of-fame father, Dr. Bill Welker, (2008), were recognized as the National Wrestling Sportswriters of the Year by Wrestling USA Magazine. The duo are the first father-and-son team to be admitted into the West Virginia Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

In the fall of 2022, Welker decided to step into the high school coaching ranks. He reinstated the wrestling program at Wheeling (West Virginia) Central Catholic High School. His first year as head coach, he sent two qualifiers to the West Virginia state tournament and had a third-place finisher. In his second year, four underclassmen qualified for the state tournament and all four reached the state finals to help win the school's first-ever state team championship.

Rick Welker is a retired USMC senior drill instructor and recruiter who now works for USA Compression Company.

Welker and his wife Shelly reside in Wheeling and have six children: Chase, Camden, Cheyenne, Canon, Taylan, and Issac (aka Mike), and grandson Greyson.

The National Wrestling Hall of Fame honors Richard Welker with the Lifetime Service to Wrestling award as a member of its Class of 2019.