Enterprise’s new wrestling coach to be paid in Bitcoin

Enterprise High School recently hired assistant coach Willie Fells to be the school’s new head wrestling coach and in doing so Fells became possibly the first coach in the country to be paid exclusively in Bitcoin.

Fells has been an assistant football and wrestling coach at EHS since 2021 and before becoming a coach, he was a dominant high school wrestler that earned All-America status and qualified for Team USA and won gold at the World Wrestling Trials.

After high school, Fells was a college wrestler at Purdue University and also became an All-Big 10 linebacker with the Boilermakers football team. He went on to play professional football in the Canadian Football League, where he won the Grey Cup with the Calgary Stampede in 2001.

As a coach, Fells has spent time as the defensive coordinator at Bethel University and former head coach at Palatka High School in his hometown in Florida. Fells will take over for Matt Pipkins, who has led the Enterprise wrestling program for the past four years, as he steps away from coaching. Fells will also continue to coach football as the special teams coordinator and cornerbacks coach.

“It’s exciting,” Fells said of accepting the head coaching position. “I thought it was a great opportunity for me. We have a fairly young team and there is a lot of excitement around the program continuing to grow.

“We have great young men and women in our program, including one of the top female wrestlers in the country. We also have a lot of great parents around the program and a great feeder program here in Enterprise. I thought it would be a great and exciting opportunity for me.”

While Fells is excited to be a head wrestling coach for the first time, he may very well be the first coach in the country – and certainly in the state – to earn a salary exclusively paid for in Bitcoin. While more and more professional athletes around the country are being paid – at least partially – in crypto currency, there is no reported case of a coach doing so until now.

“I got around Bitcoin for the first time in 2015 and when I first saw it, I thought this thing could change the world,” Fells said. “I saw something that was uniquely in its own category by itself and it was something that could bond and join the world together in a more even and equal economical playing field.

“One thing that I saw with Bitcoin is that it didn’t matter how you look or what your last name is or how many degrees you have or what the color of your skin was. Anywhere in the world, if a person saw what this asset provided, would have the opportunity to take advantage of it.”

While Fells said that he had been converting money into Bitcoin since 2015, he decided that it would be better if he could save money by not having to pay fees to have dollars converted into Bitcoin.

“I began to think about it and look at how things were playing out and prior to Bitcoin, if you wanted to save money you saved in dollars,” he said. “I don’t want to save dollars now, I want to build and save in Bitcoin, so I might as well get paid in Bitcoin to save me from the fees and everything.”

Fells said that the school didn’t know what to make of it when he requested his salary be paid in Bitcoin, but he thinks it’s something more and more coaches – and people in other industry – will begin to request.

“When I said it they looked at me like I was crazy,” Fell said. “They were like, ‘I don’t know if we can do that’ but the system that’s used is pretty much just like the bank you use for direct deposit.

“In this industry I think it could be huge for coaches. The long term aspect of this is astronomical.”