Teams show up to support Eudora girls: 'It was just cool to see how many schools have our back'

A packed room awaited the start of the Eudora USD 491 Board of Education meeting on Thursday.

Surrounding wrestling communities and others were there to show support for members of the Eudora girls wrestling community who also spoke during public participation.

Baldwin, Edgerton, Washburn Rural, Shawnee Heights, Silver Lake, Free State, Lawrence, Paola, Olathe and Wellsville all had coaches or players in the standing room-only meeting.

The public participation comments were in response to the board's decision in July to follow Superintendent Stu Moeckel's recommendation to hire assistant coaches for the wrestling program while the girls wanted to form their own team.

The district has had girls wrestling in the past, but it just recently became a sanctioned KSHSAA sport.

More: Eudora puts brakes on fast-growing sport of girls wrestling. The team is pushing back.

Baldwin's Elee Pittman has been a part of her school's girls wrestling team for three years.

"It means a lot to have your separate team," said Pittman. "Yes, wrestling is wrestling, but it's so much different. A lot of new girls are getting into it and so they need different training in order to develop skills and be good at wrestling, and I think that's super important."

Eudora will continue to have girls wrestle this year but will share coaches with the boys team.

Moeckel's recommendation came after talking to new head coach Miles Cleveland and athletic director Cara Kimberlin about the proper steps in bringing on more coaches.

"As we evaluate the number of kids we have, we've got growing popularity for both," said Moeckel. "The board never made a decision other than the fact that we would continue to hire assistant coaches as we evaluate all our programs to meet the needs of our students."

One of the things the wrestling program has planned to support girls wrestling is a fundraiser on Oct. 8 at Barbwire BBQ in Eudora.

"We're going to host a big cornhole tournament that is going to a memorial scholarship that's been in place for years and years," said Cleveland. "It's always gone to a male wrestler because we really haven't had female wrestlers in Eudora until now.

"We thought it'd be a good idea to add to that scholarship and add funds for a female wrestler to get a scholarship as well. The funds from the cornhole tournament right now (are) going to directly fund that scholarship.

"We've got some two-piece uniforms that are in the works for the female wrestlers who would rather wear a two-piece uniform than a singlet. We could always use more equipment and medicine balls and stuff like that. Whatever funds are leftover, it's just gonna go straight to the program."

Wrestlers Maddy Arnold and Jordan Dempsey spoke as did their mothers Amber Arnold and Amber Jenkins, respectively.

Amber Arnold reiterated issues that the initial proposal for a separate girls team brought up in May, including their support for Cleveland.

"We have also been told that we need to give coach Cleveland a fair chance," said Amber Arnold. "I want to make myself perfectly clear when I say that Maddy and I are excited to work with Coach Cleveland. We have no issues with him at all. We think he's going to do amazing things with the Eudora wrestling program."

Dempsey talked about her opportunity to work out with the Washburn Rural girls wrestling program over the summer and talked about the impact that their program had after being formed.

Jenkins shared comments from Scott Cutbirth, women’s director of Missouri USA Wrestling.

"Many athletic departments make the comparison to other sports like track and field as a reasoning that the current coaching staff can coach both programs," said Jenkins. "While on the surface they may look like similar tasks, the reality is much different.

"In track and field, a female and male athlete can be taught a technique and can work that same technique together without physical contact. However, some techniques in wrestling has to be taught differently to a female athlete than a male athlete, causing a coaching staff to almost double their practice plan time taking away from both the men's and women's program."

After the public comments, those that came in support of the wrestling issue met outside to talk about the need to continue this fight for their own team and those in the future both in Eudora and around the state.

"I started getting emotional at the beginning," said Maddy Arnold, who helped put the proposal together. "It was just cool to see how many schools have our back and it was good to finally show the board, 'Hey, look at all these girls having our back,'

"Keep showing up, keep fighting, keep putting our words out. Our fight isn't over, not even close to over. I'm excited."

Tips or story ideas? Email Seth Kinker at skinker@gannett.com or DM him on Twitter @SethKinker

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Eudora Board of Education listens to response on July decision