During a typical day at Eastside Elementary School, students see their teachers hand out homework, tests or pop quizzes.
Friday, however, was no typical day. And instead of dishing out homework, students gathered inside the school gym with their parents to see Eastside educators dish out haymakers and bodyslams during the school’s Viking House Rumble wrestling event.
As part of a partnership with Chatsworth-based Renegade Championship Wrestling (RCW), Eastside Elementary School held its seventh wrestling event. Students, parents and members of the public showed up to see in-ring action featuring familiar faces, including the school’s principal and assistant principal, mixing it up with RCW wrestlers inside the squared circle.
“Every year, it’s great,” said Eastside Principal Ben Hunt. “And the reason why it’s great is because of our fans, our students and our parents that come. (They) are the ones that make the show.”
The show included three matches, the first of which featured RCW wrestlers Kevin Ryan, Tyler Sutton and RCW No Limits Champion Jason Hampton as they competed in a “triple threat” match.
Before the match, Hunt brought Eastside Elementary fourth-grader Damon Sherrill, clad in a black and white-striped referee shirt, into the ring to be the official timekeeper and bell ringer for the bout.
“I told Damon last year that if we ever had a wrestling match again, I needed someone to be my timekeeper, so he’s going to ring the bell tonight,” Hunt said, turning to Sherrill. “You’ve got a very important job to do.”
Sherrill said he had been looking forward to helping officiate the match all day.
“I’m glad I get to ring the bell,” Sherrill said. “It’s a big responsibility.”
Pummeling with principals
Another headline bout included an open challenge tag team match with Hunt scheduled to team with a mystery partner against the team of RCW wrestlers Johnny Viper and Wes Blaze, known collectively as Besties 4 Life.
After having no luck finding a tag team partner, Hunt’s offer was accepted by Britt Adams, Christian Heritage School’s academic dean and middle school director. A longtime friend of Hunt and a fellow avid wrestling fan, Adams wrestled underneath a black and gold mask as The Great Alaskan Bear, with the duo ultimately securing the win after Hunt performed a “Stone Cold Stunner” maneuver to get the pin.
While celebrating his victory, Hunt said the members of the Eastside Elementary community were the real winners.
“Any time we can get a lot of our kids and families together for anything, to celebrate this school and just be a part of our school community, it’s a win for all of us,” he said. “You can see the culture, the climate, the excitement and the energy. It’s just awesome to have these kind of opportunities for our kids.”
Second-grade student Ashton Fitzsimmons, who attended the event with his father Robert, said the experience was “good and fun,” sharing that his favorite moment was “when Mr. Hunt slammed the other guy.”
“I wasn’t surprised he could do something like that,” Fitzsimmons said. “I knew he could do it.”
The match card also featured an eight-person Viking House Rumble, which included a mixture of teachers and masked RCW wrestlers competing to throw one another over the top rope for a chance to bring home the specially-made Eastside Elementary Viking championship belt. The championship belt was presented earlier by Southeast Whitfield High School’s recent 4A state wrestling champion Terra Burse.
Each competitor in the rumble represented a “house” that showcases a character trait at the school. Under the school’s “house system,” Eastside Elementary students and staff are divided into seven houses throughout the year.
Competing in the rumble and donning their house colors were educators Brian Gibson, who represented the Reveur house of dreamers; Reece McCoy, who fought for the Amistad house of friendship; and Scott Ellis, who wore the colors of the Nukumori house of kindness. The trio teamed up to eliminate unnamed masked wrestlers who were accompanied to the ring by teachers brandishing flags for the other houses, before being thrown over the top rope by an antagonistic masked foe known as the House Smasher.
Students’ boos soon turned to elated cheers when the last participant’s theme music played and Eastside Elementary Assistant Principal Judith Ross made her way down the aisle dressed in the colors of the school’s newest house, the Protos house of success.
Delivering a hip toss to the masked House Smasher, Ross successfully eliminated her foe to win the main event matchup and the championship title.
“We’re the house of success, and in Greek ‘protos’ means ‘first,’ so I think it was fitting that our house won,” Ross said after the event.
Ross said competing in the bout was the first time she had stepped inside of a wrestling ring.
“I’m just glad it wasn’t too obvious,” she said.
Waving the championship belt in the air as students gathered around her and cheered, Ross said she was proud to see the community come together.
“Eastside has seven houses, but we’re all one Eastside,” Ross said. “Having our families involved, our students here and everyone together, that’s exactly what Eastside is.”
An ‘energetic’ atmosphere
Ellis, who coaches the school’s archery team, said the event marked the seventh time he has competed inside a wrestling ring in front of his students.
“I love it,” he said. “Just the adrenaline you get from hearing the kids cheer for you and being in there and hearing them go crazy, it’s great.”
During the rumble, Ellis performed a running splash onto an opponent, a move he said he had to perform “just right,” because I could get hurt or they could get hurt.”
“It’s hard to train for, but we trained several times and it worked out good, except when he moved out of the way on the second one,” Ellis said, laughing. “But those mats hurt. People say wrestling’s fake; no, it hurts. I’ve got the bruises to prove it.”
Third-grade teacher Aurelio Jacobo, who stood outside the ring and cheered fellow house member Gibson on during the rumble, saw some action of his own as he came to Gibson’s aid and delivered a maneuver made famous by WWE wrestler Rey Mysterio, which involved swinging his body between two of the ring ropes and connecting his legs with the opponent’s face, much to the delight of the crowd.
“This was my first time performing a move in the ring,” Jacobo said. “The adrenaline, it’s nothing like being in the classroom. This is completely different. You’re in front of all the students, you have families that are out here supporting everybody. It was nerve-wracking.”
Gibson, who has been a part of several wrestling events at the school, said performing in front of the students is always “a blast” because “they enjoy yelling and cheering.”
“It brings our community together,” he said. “The kids love to come and do this, and see their teachers up there in the ring while having fun. Really, that’s what it’s about. Having fun and bringing families together to do something fun.”
McCoy, who joined the school two years ago as a special education paraprofessional, said this year’s event was his first experience between the ropes.
“It was a great atmosphere and it was super energetic,” he said. “You could just feel how into it the kids were. The energy was at an all-time high. My adrenaline was pumping so high, I didn’t feel a lot of the pain. But it was an absolute ball. Being able to be a part of it was amazing just in and of itself.”
McCoy made his entrance wearing medieval armor before rushing to the ring to aid Ellis in clobbering a tandem of masked opponents.
“It was great because we’re all one big team here at Eastside,” McCoy said. “It was an awesome way to come in and just show the kids too that we’re all one team and that, although we’re in different houses, we’re still one Eastside.”