As a player, coach, athletic trainer, and developer of athletes, Bill Edwards has made significant, positive, and lasting contributions to the world of sports for over four decades.
As a head football coach and offensive coordinator, his overall coaching record is 49 wins and three losses. As the starting Quarterback for the 1961 and 1962 CHS football teams, Bill led the Tigers to a total of 19 victories, which was the exact same number of victories earned by the legendary George Welsh when he was the Tigers’ starting QB in the early 1950s.
Possessing a cool, calming, and confidence-inspiring demeanor, Bill always demonstrated grace under pressure and strong leadership in the huddle, under center, and while passing and dashing for yardage on the football field.
In the Tigers’ magical 11-win season of 1962, he scored the team’s first touchdown of the season and led a fourth quarter surge that propelled Coaldale to a 20-14 win over Tunkhannock. His precision passing, on a team that usually emphasized the running game, ensured a 47-0 victory over Jim Thorpe in game 2. Against West Hazleton in game 3, he was a primary cog in what was perhaps Coaldale’s greatest comeback win ever, a 27-12 victory that ensued only after the Tigers trailed 12-0 in the fourth quarter. In Coaldale’s 47-0 thumping of Cass Township in game 4, he scored a touchdown and, with Johnny Unitas-like efficiency, he professionally engineered the drives leading to the other Tiger scores. He scored once and passed for a touchdown in game 5, a 27-7 shellacking of Shenandoah. In game 6, he scored again and tossed a touchdown pass to his leading receiver, Rich Miller, as the Tigers walloped Schuylkill Haven 32-7. In leading the Tigers in game 7 over Nesquehoning by the score of 41-0, he fired 2 passes for touchdowns to Miller. Versus Kulpmont in game 8 he exceeded 200 passing yards, again with 2 touchdown passes to Miller, and scored a touchdown on his own in the 31-7 victory. He tallied a touchdown in game 9, a 41 to 0 victory over Ashland. In the Tigers’ 10th victory, a 27-0 pasting of Summit Hill, he contributed with his legs as Coaldale amassed 373 rushing yards against the Hillers. Against a determined and tough Lansford team which had been holding the Tigers to a 7-7 tie into the fourth quarter on Turkey Day, Bill flipped a swing pass to All-State Halfback Ed Kassak for the go-ahead touchdown and then scored the extra point in the 14-7 victory, the 11th win of the Tigers’ amazing, once-in-a-lifetime season.
During his CHS days, he also started on the Basketball team and was a mainstay in the discus and pole-vault events for the Tigers’ track team. Following high school, he played Division III Soccer and Basketball at Philadelphia College of Bible (now Philadelphia Biblical University). In his freshman year, he started on the Basketball team and led all underclassmen in scoring while pouring in 20+ points in several games.
Upon returning from a tour as a platoon leader in Vietnam, he quarterbacked the U.S. Army’s Ft. Carson, Colorado, “Mountaineers” to an undefeated season and to the Fifth Army Championship. In the title game, he ran for two touchdowns and passed for two others, all while nursing a partially-separated shoulder.
Bill earned his coaching certification at Penn State, and he began his coaching career at Everett Area (Pennsylvania) High School as Assistant Coach (Offense) for the football team and Pole Vault Coach for the track team. In 1986, he was instrumental in developing the State AA Pole Vault Champion and he mentored all the county and district 5 pole vault record holders over a decade.
As Head Football Coach, Head Boys Basketball Coach, and Phys Ed Teacher at Riverdale Baptist School (Riverdale, Maryland), he devised and implemented the school’s first weight-training program. Within two years, he led the football team, which had not won one game in three previous seasons, to the conference championship game. Many of his players went on to play Division II football and one player was accepted on a full scholarship at the University of Miami in Florida, a Division I school.
Bill has been mentored by some of the best strength coaches in the National Football League (NFL): Dan Riley of the Washington Redskins, Kim Wood of the Cincinnati Bengals, Mark Asanovich of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Jeff Friday of the Baltimore Ravens.
For 13 years, he directed the Bedford County (Pennsylvania) Youth Achievement Association and Summit Quest Fitness and Human Performance Center, which incidentally he founded, and he developed four athletes who went on to play Division I football and one who played many years in the Arena Football League.
For several years, Bill was also the “voice” of Bedford County sports broadcasting for high school football games, basketball games, and wrestling tournaments on radio station WAYC in Bedford, PA.
He was also the Founder and Director of the Summit Quest All-Star Basketball Classic which, over a 12-year period, showcased the basketball skills of over 550 male and female athletes. Many of those athletes went on to play Division I basketball and two of them became the highest scorers in the history of their state. One participant earned a football scholarship at West Virginia University. The basketball classic was recognized by the sports department of the Altoona Mirror newspaper as “one of the finest all-star games in the state of Pennsylvania.” The organization also sponsored summer sports camps for, and had a positive impact on, hundreds of young athletes.
Bill currently serves as Athletic Trainer/ Strength-Conditioning Coach at Penn State Dubois and he is the Director of the Human Performance Center for Physical Therapy where he continues to help young people become strong, stable, safe, and better at what they want to do and, at the same time, to help older athletes to have a better quality of life.
