**This story has been corrected regarding a reference to the first EHS girl wrestler.
BY CHRIS FORTUNE
Eudora High School wrestling is sending three girls to regionals on Saturday.
Gus Andrews has been the wrestling coach for six years. His son, Holden, and his daughter, Harper, are both on the wrestling team. Harper is a freshman and one of the three girls going to regionals.
“Wrestling has always been a part of my life because my brother, my dad and my uncle did it,” she said. “My dad asked me if I was going to do it, but I was really going to manage, so I was like why not just try it because it’s my freshman year.”
Harper said having her father as a coach has been nice and having the chance to wrestle with other girls on the team has made it easier for her.
“It’s kind of nice because I get a different connection than everybody else besides my brother,” she said.
Sophomore Phoebe Fletcher and freshman Kyleigh Musick are the other two girls competing at regionals. Kambry Shockley is the fourth and final member of the wrestling team. She completed the season but is not currently practicing.
Gus Andrews said the girls practice with the varsity boys so they can practice with a more mature group and not pick up bad habits.
“I had to break it down into two practice sessions this year due to COVID,” he said. “I stuck them with the older group, which is mainly varsity guys.”
Fletcher, who also participates in cross country and track, said she has learned to push herself harder in other sports because of how challenging wrestling is. Despite the challenge, she enjoys wrestling and working with the other girls on the team.
“I really like how I can have a relationship with the girls and just get to talk with them,” she said. “I laugh in there, which is surprising to me because I didn’t think I’d have a lot of fun, and it makes practice fun.”
Fletcher said her experience in other sports, such as cross country, made the transition to wrestling a little easier.
“I’ve already built up my endurance and I can stick to one thing and keep going at it, so it’s helped out,” she said.
Gus Andrews noted there is a wrestling background with all the girls on the team except for Fletcher, but her little brother has wrestled for him in a kids club. Musick’s father, Jay, wrestled for Eudora and went to state. Andrews wrestled with Shockley’s father, David, at EHS.
“It’s kind of neat to see all of our daughters wrestle together,” Jay Musick said.
Kyleigh Musick said her dad has always talked about wrestling, which led to her trying it out. She said it can be hard practicing with a team of mostly boys.
“It has been harder because they push you to your breaking point, but they’re like brothers, so we get it,” she said. “Us girls also wrestle with varsity, so that’s also another factor in it, is that we get pushed harder because we’re in varsity.”
Musick said she has learned wrestling is hard work.
“It takes a lot of your time, and you have to be in the right state of mind mentally and physically,” she said. “You got to be like ‘I can get through this.’ You can’t feel sorry for yourself or anything like that.”
While the practices can be tough, Musick said she has enjoyed competing and practicing in a sport she loves.
“Practicing with the guys, they are hilarious,” she said. “It’s a really good time.”
Coaching the girls team has changed Andrews’ approach, and it is something the boys have noticed, too.
“The boys say I’m softer, which I have to break out a little old school on them when they say that, and then they regret saying it,” he said. “They make me appreciate everybody a lot more than I probably ever did.”
Andrews said one of the new rules for wrestling next year states that if a girl competes with a boy next year, she has to compete with boys the entire year.
“Other than Kyleigh, none of the other girls have wrestled a guy, and I’d like to keep it that way,” he said.
Andrews is beginning to see a growing number of girls on opposing teams.
“Everybody is recruiting girls hard,” he said. “Last year, when they opened up girls state, between then and now, that was probably the biggest fluctuation in girls I’ve ever seen in the sport.”
He cited the addition of women's wrestling in the Olympics and how he shows videos and articles of the women to the girls on the team.
“I try to throw that stuff in front of the girls as much as I can,” he said. “I think it’s important. I think the girls need a good role model, especially when you start talking about Olympic gold medalists, world medalists or national champions, things like that. That’s huge.”
Senior Holden Andrews said that he would get frustrated at first when the girls couldn’t keep up with the boys on the team, but then he realized he couldn’t approach it that way. He said they have been doing very well.
Senior Will Schreiner said the addition of the girls team gave everyone something else to cheer for.
“We get to watch them with their girls’ matches,” he said. “It’s just fun to cheer on those four girls, and they’ve been really good.”
Musick said coach Andrews has enjoyed coaching the girls team, and they are all excited about going to regionals.
“The fact that we’re going to regionals Saturday is awesome,” she said. “He is enjoying this as much as we are.”
Regionals begin at noon Saturday at Rossville Junior-Senior High School.
Reach reporter Chris Fortune at eudoratimes@gmail.com.
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