Military sent Walters on path to success
Just out of high school, John “Buzz” Walters was at a crossroads. He needed some direction in his life and chose to enter the United States Marine Corps. That decision put him on a path to a career in education and athletics.
Walters was raised in the mining community of Poland Mines, the son of a hard-working coal miner.
A 1952 graduate of Mapletown High School, he was a two-year wrestling starter for the Maples and compiled a 20-2 record on the mat. He was awarded most valuable honors as a senior. Walters also played football and baseball for the Maples.
“Wrestling was my sport, but I enjoyed football,” Walters recalled. “I was a running back and was a linebacker on defense, I would move around a little. We weren’t very good in football and the wrestling team was decent.”
After high school, Walters entered the Marine Corps for three years. He stayed close to the military serving 22 more years in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.
“After graduation, I didn’t want to go into the coal mines,” Walters explained. “I needed a little direction at that time. I did some things that I probably shouldn’t have done and I looked for some direction. With three brothers in the Marine Corps, that was the way I had to go with the military. My brother, Bud, was a captain and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. My brothers Bob and Jim also served in the Marines. When I needed some direction, I looked to the Marine Corps because of my brothers.
After his time in the Marines, Walters entered Waynesburg College.
“I went to school on the G.I. Bill,” Walters stated. “I tried out for football and wresting and got a half scholarship for each one of them. The wrestling coach was Raymond “Bucky” Murdock who was a straight shooter, he is in the NCAA, NAIA and PIAA Halls of Fame. I picked up a lot of my thinking on coaching from Murdock.”
In his four years on the Yellow Jackets wrestling squad, Walters had a 24-5 record and qualified for the NAIA Tournament his junior year. Walters was a monster man on the Waynesburg defense in football and also played a little bit as a running back. He weighed 155 pounds.
After graduating from Waynesburg in 1961 Walters was hired by the West Greene School District. He served as wrestling coach and was a history and social studies teacher, home/school visitor, Federal Programs Coordinator and school lunch program director for the next 32 years.
Walters took over the varsity wrestling program in its second year of existence.
“We had a losing season in wrestling my first year,” Walters offered. “Then for 28 years after that I never had a losing season. I was fortunate to have kids that wanted to wrestle and would listen to you and were ready to better themselves.”
He had to work with the kids in some interesting facilities over the years at West Greene.
“We practiced in the Band Room, the Band Room was a little bigger than a regular room,” Walters remembers. “We had to move out the instruments, the chairs and we had to put the mats down and then when we were finished we had to take the mats out and put the instruments and chairs back in every night. They put us on the stage one time and when they were remodeling they put us down in one of the empty rooms that they hadn’t finished yet and we were in the library one time. Kids today would not go through what our kids went through back then.”
Walters’ coaching philosophy produced success at West Greene. He coached 32 section champions, six WPIAL champions and one Southwest Regional Champion. He also took 21 different PIAA qualifiers to the state tournament and garnered two PIAA place winners.
“I emphasized the mental part of coaching probably more than the moves and counters moves,” Walters said. “I tried to build the character of the boy, then the wrestling. I think the character of the boy means more than anything else. He may not be the best wrestler, but you are going to be able to depend on him.
Looking back, Walters and West Greene took on the best in Southwestern Pennsylvania wrestling.
“The other teams were so strong and so tough and well coached,” Walters stated. “We had to be up for every match because we didn’t have any easy matches, except maybe when we went to West Virginia for a match. We wrestled Connellsville when they started out and Waynesburg, German, Albert Gallatin, Washington and McGuffey. We went against some tough competition. The saying back then used to be it was the WPIAL against the rest of the state when we went to the state tournament.”
Walters stepped down at West Greene in 1990 and recorded a career best 17-5 record that season. His career mark at West Greene was 284-134-3. Before finishing his coaching career, Walters was head coach at Beth-Center for two seasons ans was an assistant and head coach at Clay-Battelle High School in Blacksville, WV. Walters overall high school coaching record is 300-143-4. He was inducted into the West Greene Hall of Fame in 2010, he was placed in the PIAA Coaches Hall of Fame in 1997 and is also enshrined in the Washington-Greene County Sports Hall of Fame.
“That’s a fleeting thing, the Hall of Fame stuff,” he said. “It makes you feel good personally, but really it’s about what the kids did, not what I did. Really it’s not about me. It’s about them.”
Walters has three sons, Buzzy, Rikk and Jody and resides in Rogersville. He owns Walters Takedown Tire and Snack Shop. He remains a big fan of West Greene wrestling and runs the Tri County Leatherneck’s Toys for Tots program.
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