Welton's impact forever imprinted

Published 1/24/2013 in None : GCHS
Editor's note: The following story is reprinted, with permission, from the Abilene Reflector-Chronicle in 2012.

ABILENE � You are not going to back down from anyone, because you are the toughest guy out there.
Long before Rocky Balboa hit the big screen, or Frank Martin brought his famous "look" to Kansas State University basketball, there was coach Rocky Welton .

Friday and Saturday, the Abilene High School wrestling team will travel to Garden City to compete in the longest running tournament in Kansas, which attracts 27 teams from Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico. Six years ago it became the Rocky Welton Invitational, in honor of the former Garden City wrestling coach.

Remember who you are.

Rocky Welton of Abilene is not only a legendary wrestling coach, a member of three halls of fame but he is also the grandfather of Kolby, Kane and Keil Kelly of Abilene. Kane will be one of the members of the Abilene wrestling team traveling to Garden City for the big event.

Abilene wrestling coach James Stout said there were several factors that led to the Cowboys traveling to Garden City for the tournament.

"It is the Rocky Welton Invitational," he said. "Rocky is a good friend of ours and grandfather of Kane. We thought it would be a neat experience for the kids to experience that and try it this year. He's a great gentleman. It's great to have him as part of our wrestling/Abilene community."

Welton 's teams have won nine state championship titles, three at Goodland and six at Garden City. Over 39 years as a coach, his mannerisms, sayings and style are often referred to as Rockyisms.
If it feels good, it's wrong. If it hurts, you're doing the right thing.

Not only did Welton win titles, at least 15 of his former wrestlers are now coaching, including Abilene Middle School coach George Havice.

Monte Moser is the current head wrestling coach at Garden City, who was both a member of his high school team and former assistant.

"Most of his Rockyisms are not printable," Moser said. "The one I heard the most was, 'Dammit Moser,' directed at the referees, but he looked at me. One of my favorite was when the referee had made bad calls against both competing wrestlers, Rocky would say, 'Ain't no virgins out there now.'"

You have to love the sport more than the coach.

Martin Segovia, a 1990 state wrestling champion, former coach and now Garden City High School athletic director, is familiar with that saying.

"You talk about his demeanor and what type of coach he was; I quit wrestling because of him," Segovia said. "It was my sophomore year. There were only two sophomores on the varsity team. I was new to him. I was maybe a pound overweight. Coach Welton was very adamant about getting down to weight. We got into a little argument over that. I felt like I had it under control. He didn't think so. So I ended up dismissing myself from the team.

"He said, if that's what you would like to do, you do it," Segovia said. "Two weeks later I came to talk to him again and asked if I could come back out. We worked it out. He was really great about talking through the situation. I owe a lot to him. Who knows where I would be if he would have just let me quit, if he would have said, 'Yep. You're done.'

You can handle it.

"When you talk about Coach, he was very hands on in the room as far as demonstrations and getting his point across, but very caring at the same time," Segovia said. "You understood where you stood with coach Welton . There was no gray area. If he was angry at us, he was angry. He got his point across and he was that way in everything he did."
Kane Kelly said that he and his brothers were born on the wrestling mat.

"My grandfather didn't want me starting until I was a little bit older, but I convinced my parents to let me start wrestling when I was 4" Kelly said. "We were in the wrestling room with my grandpa from the time I got out of daycare or the time I was done with school. I would be in the wrestling room from 3 o'clock until 8 o'clock. All day, every day, in the winter."

Wrestle so superior it doesn't matter what the refs say.

"He didn't want to coach me," Kelly said. "He didn't want it to seem like I had to wrestle, that it was the only choice in life. He wanted me to try actually every sport that I could."

Kane is the only wrestler among Nancy Kelly's sons.

The Kellys moved to Abilene shortly after Rocky and Phyllis retired where daughter Heather Unruh lived. The Weltons raised two other girls, Marion and Shawn.

Welton has been inducted into the Kansas Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame (2002-2003), KSHSAA Hall of Fame (2005) and National Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame (2006.)