The room was packed as we waited for Thursday’s Eudora USD 491 Board of Education meeting to begin.
The surrounding wrestling community and others were there to show their support for members of the Eudora Girls Wrestling Community who spoke out during the public attendance.
Baldwin, Edgerton, Washburn Rural, Shawnee Heights, Silver Lake, Free State, Lawrence, Paola, Oleis and Wellsville all welcomed coaches or players to the standings-only conference.
The civic engagement comment was in response to the board’s decision in July to follow Superintendent Stu Moeckel’s recommendation to hire an assistant coach for the wrestling program while the girls want to build their own teams.
The district has hosted women’s professional wrestling in the past and has recently become a KSHSAA official sport.
more:Eudora puts the brakes on the rapidly growing sport of women’s wrestling. The team is pushing back.
Baldwin’s Elee Pittman has been on the school’s girls’ wrestling team for three years.
“Having separate teams means a lot,” said Pittman. “Yes, wrestling is wrestling, but it’s a lot different. With so many new girls coming into wrestling, they need a lot of different training to develop their skills and become good at wrestling. I think it’s important for
Eudora will continue women’s wrestling this year, but will share coaching with the men’s team.
Moeckel’s recommendation came after talking to new head coach Miles Cleveland and athletic director Cara Kimberlin about the proper procedure for hiring more coaches.
“Both are growing in popularity when we evaluate the number of children we have,” Mockel said. No decisions have been made other than the fact that we will continue to hire coaches.”
One of the things the wrestling program has planned to support women’s wrestling is a fundraiser on October 8th at Eudora’s Barbwire BBQ.
“We are going to have a big cornhole tournament that will lead to a commemorative scholarship that has been running for years,” Cleveland said. rice field.
“In addition to that scholarship, I thought it would be a good idea to add funds for female wrestlers to get scholarships. It’s a schedule.
“We have some two-piece uniforms available for female wrestlers who prefer to wear a two-piece uniform rather than a singlet. You can always use more equipment, medicine balls, etc. Whatever funds you have left over don’t matter. hmm, just go straight to the program.”
Wrestlers Maddie Arnold and Jordan Dempsey spoke similarly to their mothers, Amber Arnold and Amber Jenkins, respectively.
Amber Arnold reiterated the issues raised by the first proposal for another women’s team in May, including her support for Cleveland.
Amber Arnold said, “It’s also been said that we need to give Coach Cleveland a fair chance.” We have no problem with him at all and we think he will do great with the Eudora wrestling program.”
Dempsey spoke about the opportunity to work out with the Washburn Rural Girls Wrestling Program over the summer and the impact their program had after it was formed.
Jenkins shared a comment from Missouri USA Wrestling’s women’s director, Scott Cutvers.
“Many athletic departments are comparing it to other sports such as track and field as a reason why their current coaching staff can coach both programs,” Jenkins said. Maybe, but the reality is very different.
“In track and field, female and male athletes are taught techniques and can use the same techniques together without physical contact. It has to teach female athletes, and it provokes coaching.The staff almost doubles the time for practice planning, taking away from both male and female programs.”
After the public comment, people who supported the wrestling issue gathered outside to talk about the need to continue this fight for their own teams and for Eudora and statewide in the future.
“At first it started to get emotional,” said Maddie Arnold, who helped put together the proposal. “It was just cool to see how many schools had our back.
“Keep showing up, keep fighting, keep our word out. Our fight is not over. It’s not over. I’m excited.”
Any tips or story ideas? Email Seth Kinker at [email protected] or send him his DM on Twitter @SethKinker.