Rob Weeks is certainly no stranger to hard work. Raised on a beef cattle farm in Queensbury, Rob was expected to perform his share of the farm chores - baling hay, feeding the animals, cleaning stalls - each day before and after school and throughout the summers. Born to the “seventh son’ in a family of seven boys and a girl, a fair dose of toughness was also required just to ensure a seat at the dinner table. But it was these experiences, together with a directive from an older brother, which attracted him to our sport in the sixth grade. The storied Queensbury program, with Jack LaBombard at the helm and Bill Smith as a top-notch assistant, proved the perfect fit. Too small for the varsity while in middle school, Rob was finally able to weigh in at ninety-one pounds in ninth grade. Although he ran track and played junior varsity baseball, it was to be in the wrestling room where he found his home.

Rob recalls the excitement of being a member of the great Queensbury teams of the mid-1980’s, and particularly remembers the packed gyms when Queensbury faced off against cross-town rivals Glens Falls and South Glens Falls. “Coach LaBombard would get us all fired up by telling us that our opponents thought we were a bunch of sissies (or words to that effect)” - and Coach Smith would get us focused for the match. It was a good combo.”

Rob had a successful high school career and by the time he was a senior, was required to cut a lot of weight just to make the one-hundred nineteen pound weight class. In 1987, he capped his senior year with a Section Two championship.

Rob entered Adirondack Community College after graduating high school with no clear direction as to what he wanted to do, except perhaps, wrestle. ACC had no team, however, and Rob and a few others decided to form a wrestling club. As a club wrestler, Weeks caught the attention of Fred Palmer, the former Whitehall coach and then wrestling coach at Fulton-Montgomery Community College, who convinced him to transfer. That transfer resulted in a highly successful year, with Rob attaining All-America status with a sixth place at the National Junior College Wrestling Championships. That performance then helped catch the attention of legendary Springfield coach Doug Parker.

And it was at Springfield, wrestling under Coach Parker, that Rob’s thoughts about what he wanted in a career came into focus. Rob was on the varsity team for two years, competing at 134 and 142, but started to dig in more on the academic side.

With the award of his bachelor’s degree, Weeks became the first in the family to graduate from a four-year college. Rob then added to that accomplishment by completing a master’s degree in sports administration, also from Springfield. And while finishing his master’s degree (on scholarship) Rob worked both as an assistant wrestling coach and at nights in a group home for troubled kids.

After one year post graduation in Massachusetts, Weeks was offered a job at Hadley-Luzerne High School, where he taught physical education and coached the girls modified field hockey team to an 8-1 record - its best ever up to that time. He also re-started the wrestling program, and felt he had of the most important ingredients for success – “tough kids.”

In 1997, opportunity came knocking again with a job opening at Shenendahowa High School in Section 2. Rob got the head wrestling coach nod in 1998. Since then, his "Shen" teams have been nothing short of astonishing. To list a few: an overall record of three hundred ten wins against a mere sixty-five losses, a sixty-four match win streak, seventy-eight Section 2 Class A individual champs, fifty-four sectional champs, twenty-seven New York State place finishers and eleven New York State champions. His Shen teams have won the Section 2 Class A Team title ten times and the Suburban Council eleven times. Rob’s teams were the Section 2 State Qualifier State Champions eleven times and the New York State Tournament Team Champions four times. His teams were top-ranked in New York State in 2011 and nationally ranked in both 2011 and 2012.

In recognition of these accomplishments, Weeks’ peers voted him Coach of the Year not less than six times. And he was voted New York State Coach of the Year in 2011.

Weeks credits his dad for teaching him the virtue of hard work through his example on the farm, which in turn laid the foundation for a work ethic fortified by his years as a competitor on the mat. These proved to be critical ingredients for Rob’s tremendous success as a coach and an educator. It should also be noted that Weeks is rarely seen losing his cool when coaching, and well-regarded by his fellow coaches not only for his coaching skills, but for his sportsmanship.

Rob currently works as a Faculty Manager of Athletics at Shen and assistant to the Athletic Director, and his primary responsibility is to assist the athletic director in the every day running of the Shen athletic programs. Weeks has also served - since the program’s inception - as the Advisor for Unified Sports, a partnership between the Special Olympics and NYSPHSAA.

Rob has been married to his wife Shelly for twenty-five years, and has four children - Jeffrey, Katie, Lucas and Molly, who are still in school.