By Matt Gade

605 Sports

NEW UNDERWOOD — What started as an endeavor to keep kids interested in wrestling at the middle school level has evolved into its own independent program at New Underwood High School.

For years, New Underwood had co-oped to wrestle with the Douglas School District in Box Elder, about 12 miles down the road, that is, until this year. 

“Well, we just started a middle school room about three or four years ago because they (the kids) couldn't go over to Douglas, and the numbers just grew,” New Underwood head coach Jason Eddy said. “We had really good kids. And we've had good kids over the years; it's just another thing for them to want to make the commute to practice at Douglas. So things have been growing in New Underwood, numbers-wise. So the school and the board talked about it and worked through a justification, voted on it, and started a program. We thought that if we were going to do one, we thought this would be the time.”

In its first year as an independent program, the Tigers brought five wrestlers to the Region 4B wrestling in Hill City this past weekend. And all five wrestlers qualified for the state tournament that begins on Thursday at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls.

“When we went and started this program, we knew we'd have a couple kids that could go to state, and we ended up — a couple good kids make more good kids. We came here with five only, and I got five going to state. 

“It's a great feeling, but as the year started going, it's no surprise right now, I know they're really good. And it doesn't happen today. It's happened all year. You don't just show up and decide to do that. You work on it all year. And that's the type of kids they are.”

New Underwood head coach Jason Eddy and the team sit in Carl Coats corner during the Region 4B wrestling tournament on Saturday in Hill City. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

New Underwood’s five wrestlers are all underclassmen, led by the lone junior, Trik Elshere (126), sophomore Tel Elshere (113), and three freshmen; Coy Eddy (138), Carl Coats (175) and Tommy Studt (106).

Having coached wrestling at different levels for several years, Eddy said he could tell the Tigers wrestling team was nervous about their first regional tournament, but knew once they settled in, they could earn a spot at the state tournament.

“It's kind of overwhelming,” Eddy said of the atmosphere for their first region tournament. “I came in here and sat down, and I always got something to say to them when we start, before we do a breakdown, and I could tell they were all really nervous.

“I just simply said, ‘You guys deserve to be here. We've worked hard.’ And I said thank you to them and my assistant coaches for letting us do this, because it's just been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to start this and do this, and where we're at right now.”

Eddy said the kids' hard work began when they started the middle-school program, allowing them to stay interested in wrestling without having to worry about a commute over to Box Elder.

As the middle school program continued to grow, Eddy said he was approached about starting the wrestling program. But Eddy wasn’t going to do it unless he had the full-support of the community.

“We just had so many of them that wanted to keep wrestling, and I didn't want to see them, not. So I just wanted to give them the opportunity and see where it would go,” Eddy said. “We kind of started the middle school thing to see if it would grow legs and go forward, and it did. 

“Before I knew it, they were asking, ‘Do you want to go one more step and have a standalone program?’ And I said, it has to be a school and a community decision. And it was. So here we are.”

It's such a community-supported activity that the Tigers have utilized the city’s community center regularly as a wrestling room so as not to have to compete with the basketball teams for space in the school’s main or auxiliary gyms. 

Eddy said he’s excited to see the interest grow in New Underwood and hopes it continues to grow.

“I think we just need more kids. We got a great community, great school, great staff, supportive parents and great kids. We started a club program this year. There we got 40 little ones that come in and do that. The middle school program we had, I think, 16 kids this year. And all these guys, the oldest, I got one Junior on the team, a sophomore, and the other three going to state are freshmen. So we got more behind that, seventh, eighth graders and sixth graders. We just got to keep doing more of it.”

New Underwood fans cheer on the Tigers during the Region 4B wrestling tournament on Saturday in Hill City. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)