Jim Wayne Childress was born and raised in Grundy, Virginia. He first exposure to wrestling was in college intramurals where he won his school’s heavyweight championship.

He graduated from college in 1970 and took a job as an assistant football coach at his high school alma mater. Thrust into an assistant coach role because of a resignation, Childress discovered that wrestling was the best sport that he had ever been involved with.

Childress helped start one of the first junior wrestling programs in Virginia to give young wrestlers experience prior to high school. Within two years of the junior program's inception, the varsity program began to see results.

He changed careers in 1977, but continued to guide his youth wrestling program which, with a great deal of community support, evolved into the Grundy Wrestling Club in 1983. Childress served as president for the next 15 years as Grundy won 12 consecutive state AA team titles and had numerous individual state champions while also making a name for themselves on the national state with several Junior Nationals All-Americans.

Another career change took Childress from his direct involvement with wrestlers to the courtroom. Even while building a law practice, he has continued his involvement with the Grundy Wrestling Club and the Grundy High School wrestling program. He has Grundy’s Agie Skeens Memorial Wrestling Tournament for more than 30 years while also leading numerous Southwest District and Region IV wrestling tournaments. Childress has also assisted Larry Hall in running the Virginia A-AA state tournament since it relocated to Salem.