Bill was a two-time MidSouth champion from McCallie. For those of you younger folks, the MidSouth predated our state tournament and was made up of all high school programs in the southeast. It was a big deal. Bill continued to wrestle and coach at Vanderbilt and in another example of a bygone era, Bill coached and wrestled post-college at the YMCA who compete against college teams as well as other YMCAs.

Bill is the Chairman and CEO of Weigel Stores, Inc that operates 76 convenience stores, Broadacre Dairies, and Red Barn Bakery primarily in East TN. The convenience store model was generated as a way to sell milk from his family’s dairy farm. The first ones were called milk depots. Bill is clearly a successful businessman, but he is an even more successful community leader. After college he served our country in Air National Guard and was stationed in France. He is a Salvation Army Bell Ringer and served that board for 35 years, Boy Scouts of America board member for 33 years, as well as being a leader in his professional organization in several roles and in 2018 was named Powell Business Person of the Year. The Weigel family hosts an annual Christmas event feeding and taking families shopping, but don’t ask him about selling eggnog at Easter-not everything is perfect.