When someone speaks about the history of Section III wrestling many great names are mentioned - Leo Johnson at Baldwinsville, Wayne Ferguson in Beaver River, Don New from Canastota, Neal Aubel at Lowville, Roy Hunt in Sandy Creek, Gene Mills at Syracuse University and Phoenix and Jim Howard at Oswego State. These names and many more are associated with greatness in wrestling and will endure forever in the strong and colorful history of Section III. But we would be neglectful if we did not add the name of Bill Kays of Mexico to this illustrious list of individuals. Bill commenced his coaching career in 1989 at Mexico and has been there until 2015 when he officially retired. During that tenure, the Tigers of Mexico Academy and Central School have never experienced a losing season. Coach Kays' life-time record is 363-130-2 which calculates into a 73.7 winning percentage. This is a great accomplishment since Bill has competed in one of the toughest Division II Sections in the state and is known for seeking out the best competition for his squads. Troy Tooley, his assistant coach for many years, stated that "Bill teaches his wrestlers to take the lessons of hard work, devotion and perseverance taught in wrestling into the world to find them success in life." Coach Derrick Smith added, "He possesses the necessary integrity to always do things the "right way" - no shortcuts, no cheating, no exception and this accounts for the success of his wrestlers and the Mexico program." To complement his coaching, Bill was a very successful and accomplished science teacher in the district, teaching regents class & AP chemistry and physics. In his first varsity year as coach his team proceeded to win the league title and one of his wrestlers, Don Duell, was runner-up in the New York State championships. The honors just kept increasing for Coach Kays throughout the remaining years of his outstanding career. His teams were Onondaga High School League Dual Meet Champions for 13 years, Section III Dual Meet Tournament Champions in 1998 and 2015 and runner-ups in the Dual Meet Championship in 2004, 2007, 2008 and 2014 quite an achievement for person who initially was only interested in coaching tennis. In addition, Bill's teams have won (4) Section III Tournament championships in 1999, 2005, 2006 and 2015 and had 42 Section III Champions. On the state level Kays' team won the New York State Tournament Team Championships in 2015 and were runner-ups in 2014. While competing at the state championships he has had 3 state champions (Trevor Allard, Theo Powers and Jacob Woolson) and 10 state finalists. Bill has also won many individual coaching accolades which include - Onondaga League Coach of the Year nine times; Section III Coach of the Year Award in 2014 and 2015, the National Federation High School District I Coach of the Year - 2015 and the National Federation High School New York State Coach of the Year Award in 2015. He has been very active on the administrative side of wrestling as well serving as the OHSL Representative on the Section III Wrestling Committee and is still working as the Section III Assistant Wrestling Coordinator and member of the New York State Wrestling Committee after his retirement. In recognition of all his achievements and service to the sport of wrestling, the Upstate New York Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame is proud to add Bill Kays to our list of honored inductees.