FRISCH, STANFORD, STECKLEIN, SIAR RECEIVE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDSOne of America's most respected collegiate referees and three world-class officials in the international styles will receive 1998 Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Hall of Fame.
The honorees are David R. Frisch of Colorado Springs, Colo., whose credentials include 31 national championship events; Sally Stanford of Meadville, Pa., who has officiated 15 World Championships in both men's and women's competition; William T. Stecklein of Bensalem, Pa., who has called 26 World Championships and the Olympic Games of 1992 and '96; and National Pairing Director Sue Siar, another two-time Olympic official in the Games of 1984 and '96. The fifth annual awards will be presented at the Honors Banquet June 6. The honor roll of officials now totals 22 members. A graduate of St. Cloud University in Minnesota, Frisch began officiating in 1976. He has worked 20 NCAA Championships, 14 of them in Division I, four junior college nationals, one NAIA and six Dual Nationals. He also has refereed 20 major conference tournaments, including the Big Ten, Big Eight, Pac-10 and Western Athletic Conference.
He has worked several smaller conference meets and state high school tournaments in Colorado and Minnesota. He has been a member of the National Wrestling Officials Association for more than 15 years and has served as a director of the Pikes Peak association for the past decade. He has served as officiating clinician for the NWCA/NWOA annual convention.
A land surveyor by profession and a church elder and Sunday School teacher by choice, Frisch started a Wednesday evening children's program at his church in 1985. The program now involves from 300 to 400 children each week. David and Rebecca have two daughters, Stephanie and Heidi, and a son, Anthony.
Stanford is a graduate of Edinboro University and has been a high school mathematics teacher for 22 years. She began officiating at the high school level 18 years ago, and soon moved into college wrestling, with emphasis on the Eastern Wrestling League.
Sally has called regional, state, national and international tournaments in all age groups. She has been state officials director for USA Wrestling for 16 years and has been a referee and rules clinician at one or more national tournaments every year since 1982.
She received her FILA exceptionelle rating in 1992 and has called two Senior Worlds in freestyle, two in Greco-Roman and eight in womenÕs freestyle, along with four freestyle and three Greco World Cups. Her travels to international dual meets and tournaments have taken her to 14 foreign countries. Sally and her husband, John, have two grown sons, Douglas and Keith.
Stecklein, a marketing executive who took early retirement from Sears, began refereeing freestyle in 1972 and added high school and collegiate events the next year. He has officiated national championships at all levels every year for the past 25 years, including all the World team trials since 1984 and the Olympic trials since 1988.
He has worked 49 area high school tournaments and four state meets in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, along with 10 Division I conference tournaments and four Division II and III nationals.
Stecklein received his international license in 1976 and earned his FILA exceptionelle rating in 1985. His credentials include 13 World Cups, 13 Cadet and Junior Worlds, 13 Senior Worlds and the Olympic Games of Barcelona and Atlanta. Recently he has been named FILA assistant instructor for the Americas, sending him throughout the hemisphere to present clinics.
Bill is a graduate of La Salle University. His wife, Sue, is a national pairing master and officiated at the 1995 Freestyle Worlds and the '96 Olympics. They have two sons, Bill Jr. and Erik, and a daughter, Traci.
Siar, whose Lifetime Achievement Award is the first for a pairing official, started working tournament operations in 1965. She joined USA Wrestling in 1978, and because of her high school experience quickly moved to the top on the national scene. As National Pairing Director, Sue oversees all USA licensed pairing officials and represents them on the executive board of the U. S. Wrestling Officials Association.
She continues to direct tournaments at all levels. She was a pairing master at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and chief pairing master in Atlanta. She has officiated 268 regional, national and international events, including World Championships, World Cups, international military championships and national events from coast to coast. She continues to work junior high, high school and college matches, and all the age groups of USA Wrestling, topped by the Cadet-Junior Nationals with more than 3,500 entries.
Sue is a graduate of the St. Vincent School of Nursing in Pennsylvania and is a professional nurse. Her husband, Bob, an outstanding high school wrestling coach, is a nationally respected referee-judge, as are their sons, Bob Jr. and Tom. Their daughter, Kim, has extensive experience as a pairing master.