Contributing what she could to save the wrestling program, Sarah Zenthoefer, family and consumer sciences (FACS) teacher, posted a Facebook announcement on Tuesday, Aug. 13, conveying the wrestling team’s dire need for coaches.
At the beginning of this school year the wrestling program had no official coaches set to coach the team, raising the possibility of a cut to this year’s wrestling season.
Through the efforts of students and staff, however, candidates were found.
Zenthoefer said her original intention for the post was for her high school friends to see the announcement and express interest in the coaching positions.
Shortly after posting, a student asked Zenthoefer if she could make the post shareable.
The post almost immediately was shared 148 times, not including countless screenshotted reposts, Zenthoefer said.
“I hadn’t thought much about resharing it,” Zenthoefer said. “I was completely shocked. It even reached someone in Atlanta, Georgia, who was interested in coaching.”
Because of her post, a woman who saw it shared with her husband, Chip Allison, the opportunity and he was later interviewed for a position. He is now one of the official coaches for the team.
“I don’t want to take credit for anything. I’m just glad they could find somebody,” Zenthoefer said. “I think what prompted me to do it in the first place was that I was a cheer coach here for 13 years and just the thought of so many kids not being able to continue what they love made me want to say something.”
Activities Director Adam Starling has confirmed there will be a wrestling program for the 2024-2025 school year.
“I think we are set up pretty well with people that have a lot of experience and will be good for the program,” Starling said.
Before the beginning of the school year, Starling said he made a plea to the staff to do what they could to help spread the awareness for the wrestling coach shortage.
“Only one out of six coaching positions had been filled since last spring, and no other changes had begun to happen until the teachers started posting on their personal accounts,” Starling said. “It made such a significant impact.”
Starling said people who aren’t connected to a school might not feel a need to look into its job openings, but once the news was put onto non school-related platforms, a new population of candidates emerged.
Samuel Barton, junior, has been a part of the wrestling program since his freshman year, and once the news was out that coaches were needed, he went straight to his family.
“My family is a bunch of wrestlers, and through talking with them, my grandpa offered to take a position as assistant coach for our team,” Barton said. “It’s kind of funny because he was in retirement, but he wanted to take up the offer, and I think part of it was to get out of retirement.”
Barton said he is nervous to have his grandpa, Tom Smith, coach the team because of how experienced he is in coaching, but is also excited and confident he will be able to have a huge impact on the team.
“I felt like our previous coaches lacked good communication, but I think that he will help the team grow in that area a lot more,” Barton said. “He was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame for coaching, so with him being such a good coach, I am hoping we can grow from where we were before.”
