Eagleville High School didn’t take long to get a grip on wrestling.
The school’s first ever wrestling team bagged a double win at home Thursday night, defeating same classification foe Forrest, 78-6, and Class 5A opponent Coffee County, 43-30, in the Eagles’ gym.
The double win pushed the Eagleville team above .500 for the season.
“It was a good night with a good home crowd and a good showing,” first-year wrestling coach Rod Key said.
Key started the program this year and “didn’t expect to be competitive” in the school’s first season, especially when competing against other Rutherford County public schools that are all much larger.
But, the Eagles have split with Smyrna and beaten La Vergne, plus Lincoln County and, as of Thursday, Coffee County, all schools in the top TSSAA classification for size.
Eagleville has also taken some lumps, losing handily to Blackman, a state top 10 power, Riverdale and Wilson Central.
Still, Key is encouraged by the team’s competitiveness to date, noting early on the Eagles were short wrestlers and for several matches had to forfeit four weight classes and 24 points.
Key is quick to credit the experience of players from the Sharpshooters AAU team of Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department Major Bill Kennedy, who oversees the school Resource Officers program.
“We got some experience when we started the program,” Key said, listing Parker and Joseph Pennington, Samuel and Peter Underwood and Ryan Hammonds who brought experience to the team from their AAU competition.
“They’re the backbone of the team right now,” Key said. “That has helped tremendously since we have a little bit of experience in there.”
Key credited the AAU players with helping the other wrestlers learn to complete, “where to stand, where to put your hands and what not to do. There’s almost more what not to do than what to do.”
The other wrestlers are working hard and “learned a lot. We’re working a lot of basics,” he said.
Coaching a wrestling program was something he always wanted to do after competing high school, Key said, so when asked what sport he might be interested in coaching last year in his first term as an Eagleville teacher he suggested wrestling.
This year school officials decided they wanted to give the sport a shot.
The Eagleville season runs through January, culminating in the TSSAA tournaments to crown a state champion.
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