Bill Collins
Editors note: As most of you
know, Bill Collins is president of ArmWorld Promotions at:
http://www.armworldpromotions.com/
Prior to the death of
Bill Soberanes, Bill Collins was elected to the board of the World's Wristwrestling
Championship, Inc. He then filled Bill Soberanes position on the board of
United States ArmSports. Here is his story.
Bill Collins was born in San Jose and later moved to Los
Banos California. There are a total of six in his family, four sisters and one
brother, with Bill being the second to the youngest. When Bill was 16 years of
age his father passed away at the age of 47 leaving a void in the family. During
those difficult times only he, his younger sister and mother lived at home. Bill
and his mother became very close, as she could not work due to an injury. Bill
cooked graveyard shift in a restaurant and worked at a tire shop after school
for three years to help pay the household bills. Bill was unable to participate
in sports due to his responsibilities at home and missed out on school
activities but learned something much more valuable than playing sports at
school. He learned the values of family ties.
Bill met Ginger during his junior year in High School. Shortly after
graduation the wedding bells rang at the early age of 19. Bill and Ginger now
have two great kids, Chris 20 years old and Casey 15 years old. During their
years of growing together their biggest tragedy occurred! Due to surgery
complications Bill’s mother passed away, the best friend and closest,
best-hearted person whom walked on earth, left their lives.
Bill’s education led him into marketing and business administration where he
worked seven years as a purchasing manager for a hardware firm. Bill and Ginger
soon became entrepreneurs purchasing a Dairy and Refrigeration company and then
starting a rental business. An opportunity presented itself and they acquired a
Helicopter and then leased it back to a flying school. As time passed and life
became more demanding they decided to liquidate and sell two of their
businesses. Bill is now employed with the State of
California Department of Water Resources as a Health and Safety supervisor and a
supervisor for the Department of Water Resources dive team.
Bill started armwrestling in 1979 after 155-pounder, (OB O’Brien) pounded him
on the table. Bill couldn’t believe someone 45 pounds lighter than himself
kicked butt so easily. After 1½ years of getting crushed, Bill and OB started
to train and created a technique that worked for Bill. The only vacations that
Bill and Ginger took were armwrestling tournaments. The only tournaments that he
was aware of occurred at fairs and Bill had no idea of the level and the
integrity of the sport. Bill won the qualifier for “Over the Top” and traveled
to Las Vegas. This was one of the highlights of his armwrestling career. After
two days of non-stop armwrestling he finishing 5th in his weight class. Bill met
the best of the best and started to venture out. At the same time he started to
referee different tournaments and help promote the sport. Bill won many titles,
qualifiers and the World’s (Petaluma) in 93 & 95, & the World’s NAWA 96. One of
his most memorable events was traveling to Moscow as a United States ArmSports
team member. After dislocating his thumb the first pull it became an
exciting adventure when he brought back the "Golden Bear", winning his
weight class. "It was an experience seeing Denise act as a mother for
30 armwrestlers and having Leonard as my coach." Bill had the honor
of meeting Russian President Boris Yeltson in Moscow. This and having
armwrestling friends around the world was very exciting.
It was by far the best experience an armwrestler can ever imagine.
Upon return to the United States he soon signed a contract with OTS staring in a
training video, and semi-retired in 96. He soon became active in Karate
tournaments and found out real fast that armwrestling pain wasn’t as bad as
Karate after a tournament.
Bill tells us that “After promoting armwrestling for several years ArmWorld
Promotions was born in 2000”. ArmWorld Promotions is not interested in quantity
just quality. We’ll bring the armsport world to you! I want to thank Denise and
Leonard for being instrumental in this sport and giving me the experience of a
lifetime. I want to thank Dave Devoto for keeping the integrity of the
sport alive and being one of the most respected persons that I know in the
armwrestling world and all the armwrestlers whom have become my good friends and
supporters. Thanks to ArmWorld Promotions’ staff for all the hard work and being available
for all our events. And most of all my wife Ginger, for putting up with all my
adventures the past 22 years. Ginger is my biggest supporter, my biggest fan,
and my best friend. Oh, we do now have real vacations besides armwrestling
tournaments.
