2025 Chesterton Athletics Hall of Fame: Billy Biehl, Class of 2015

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojajns.com

To this day, Chesterton 2015 graduate Billy Biehl’s name can be found on the giant track and field record board on the fieldhouse wall next to the 800 meters (1:54.53) and 4x800 meters (7:43.79) relay. He broke 2 minutes in the 800 as a freshman, the year he was on a 4x800 relay that finished third at state and broke the school record by six seconds, only to shatter it multiple times later. He also ran on the 4x800 relay teams that placed second (sophomore year) and first (junioir year).
Biehl did all that and more in what he says was only his second-best sport.
He had to think about it when asked to name his best sport: soccer or track.
“That’s a hard question,” Biehl said. “With soccer, you have to see it to measure it. With track, you have the times. It’s tough to say, but I’m going to go with soccer, and I liked soccer better. It was more fun playing as a team with my friends.”
His combined efforts in the two sports made him an easy choice for the selection committee to include in the Chesterton Athletics Hall of Fame 2025 class that will be honored the final weekend at halftime of the Aug. 29 football home opener vs. Hammond Morton and will be inducted at a dinner Aug. 30 at Sand Creek Country Club. For ticket information, call the athletic department at (219) 983-3730.
As early as his sophomore season, Biehl was named co-MVP of the soccer team and as a senior was first-team all-state, when the Trojans went 20-1 and won the regional championship with a 2-1 victory over Munster. Biehl scored the team’s first goal in that one, but when asked to name a favorite goal during his career that wasn’t the first one that popped into his head.
“I scored against Valpo one time, and any goal against Valpo was always a good goal,” Biehl said, smiling at the memory.
Not all of Biehl’s soccer memories are pleasant ones. As a junior, his season was cut short by an injury sustained in the 10th game, when he was elbowed in the face by an Andrean player.
“I broke my orbital bone,” he said on a Zoom call, pointing to under his right eye. “Broke my nose. That was a bad situation. I missed more than half my junior season.”
Some who have seen the replay suspect it might have been intentional.
Was it?
“I can’t comment on that,” Biehl said after a prolonged pause with an anguished expression that revealed how uncomfortable he was being asked the question and/or reliving the memory. “I’m not the one who did it. I hope not. I hope not. That night, I went to the emergency room. I can’t remember exactly what happened. I can’t remember if I stayed at the hospital or went home that night. But I had all the surgeries and still have a metal plate in my face from it.”
His expression took a sharp turn when discussing the following season.
“My senior year, the entire year was just a great memory,” he said. “We went undefeated and lost in the semi-state game (2-0 to eventual state champion Goshen). If we had won that game, we probably would have won the state championship.”
He already had become a state champion the previous spring as a junior, joining Tyler Vore, Marion Williams and Kevin Kenney in taking first place in Bloomington in the 4x800 relay. That came a year after Nick Barango, Biehl, Vore and Kenney placed second at state and set the school record that still stands.
Recalling the kinship, more than times and records, is when the outgoing Biehl grows most animated.
“Being with all my friends, track and soccer, those guys were all my best friends,” he said. “We would joke around. When you have a good team and people who you enjoy playing with, that makes you want to work harder. It’s fun, and it’s not work. It doesn’t’ feel like a job. You’re doing it because you’re so passionate and those friends who I had so much fun with were the reasons for all the success that we had.”
Biehl didn’t experience the same camaraderie in his one season at Valparaiso University as a redshirt on the soccer team.
“I wasn’t enjoying it as much as I thought I would, so I decided to transfer to a school I was interested in going to. I went to University of Arizona for a couple of years,” he said.
After finishing his time with the Air Force, he completed requirements for bachelor’s degree in business administration online from University of Maryland Global Campus this past spring. He spent five-plus years in the Air Force, which he called “an awesome experience.”
He was stationed in Germany, South Korea and Japan.
A look at the videos on Biehl’s Instagram page and on Youtube makes it easy to understand how sitting out a year as a redshirt would not appeal to him. In Japan, he can be seen and heard ziplining into Godzilla’s mouth; demonstrating how to eat water mochi, a slimy Japanese snack; visiting a temple that has a bronze Buddha statue 41 meters long, 11 meters high and weighs 300 tons; eating at a high-tech restaurant, his food served by a robot, the toilet seat raising as soon as the door to the rest room is opened; offering insider tips on the best places from which to shoot photos at tourist attractions; taking in breathtaking views during a four-day, three-night hike at Big Bend National Park in Texas, his father joining him; hiking in the mountains of Guatemala to catch a closer glimpse of active volcanoes.
William C. Biehl IV is built to go, go, go, not wait, wait, wait. He remains active and said he runs almost every day with an eye toward taking up 5K road races.
It wasn’t enough for Biehl to simply become a paralegal. He had to do it so well he was named “Outstanding Paralegal of the Year” for the entire Air Force in 2021. He currently is embracing the challenge of learning the differences of military and civilian law as it pertains to his paralegal work.
He already booked his flight for Hall of Fame weekend shortly after being informed of the honor.
“I’m proud and excited, excited to be there,” he said.
And grateful.
“All the credit to my coaches and all my friends that I competed with in soccer and track,” he said. “The passion and the motivation being in those sports, they’re the reasons I kept pushing so hard. They’re what made me enjoy it so much. That and my parents’ support.”