Bill Martell's influence on the sport of wrestling as a coach, administrator, author, clinician and as an innovator has been far-reaching.

He spent 38 years coaching at the high school and college levels, including 17 years as head wrestling coach at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1974 he joined the national coaching staff of USA Wrestling and continued his involvement through the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

Martell taught folkstyle wrestling at Northgate High School in Walnut Creek, California in the 1970s and then brought it back in the early 2000s. The Bill Martell Invitational tournament is named in his honor.

He has two published books on wrestling and provides numerous articles in periodicals and USA Wrestling publications.

He created many "firsts" for the sport, including his annual Concord International Greco-Roman Championships, which for 18 years brought the world's finest teams to California to compete with the United States. In 1992 and 1996, he hosted the Greco-Roman Olympic Trials which were centered around the Concord Youth Center facility. The Concord facility became a national regional training site. In 2002 as executive director of the youth center, he supervised an expansion project which increased its size to 32,000 square feet. This longtime dream of Bill's provides sport and educational outlets for individuals from 6 to 20 years of age.

To date, the club has helped in the athletic and personality development of thousands of members with two of them going on to become Olympians, two boxers ranked in the Top 20, national Greco-Roman and freestyle junior and senior medalists, 17 California state team championships and collegiate competitors.