Soddy-Daisy coach Jared Hensley instructs Trojan baserunner Javier Everett at third. The Ooltewah Owls met the Soddy-Daisy Trojans in the District 5-AAA baseball tournament. The game was held at Cleveland High School Baseball field on May 7, 2016. Soddy-Daisy is the latest area high school to step outside the box for athletic fundraisers, turning away from coupon books and cards, candy, cookies or magazines.
The Trojans, under the guidance of athletic director and baseball coach Jared Hensley, will host a professional wrestling event Saturday evening. Doors open at 6:30 with wrestling to begin at 7:30. Admission is $15 for floor seats and $10 for bleacher seats.
"All proceeds are going to the Soddy-Daisy athletic department," Hensley said. "We're hoping to raise enough to fund all of our athletic training needs for next year."
Hamilton County athletic departments are expected to be self-sufficient, and that is a primary reason Josh Massey, a former Soddy-Daisy student, got involved.
"The county school system doesn't have the money to share, and we started this to try and help raise money for athletics," he said.
A former professional wrestler - he appeared at the WWE's Wrestlemania 27 in Atlanta under the name Ace Rockwell - Massey has become a promoter and booking agent. His first endeavor with Hamilton County schools was last year at East Hamilton.
"We raised about $7,000 there, and we're going back in August," he said.
"It was a good fundraiser," East Hamilton baseball coach Steve Garland said. "There was a fair amount of paperwork regarding insurance for the wrestling company and then a fundraiser approval form and a use-of-facilities form for the department of education."
The East Hamilton event was called the Scenic City Invitational and later was judged by Wrestling Observer, wrestling's version of Pro Football Weekly for the NFL, to be the fourth-best show of the year.
"It's not like two fat guys in (the ring) rolling around. These guys are talented," said Garland, who served as baseball coach for Massey and his brother.
Soddy-Daisy has added a twist to its event with Hensley agreeing to compete in a tag-team match before the student body this afternoon as a prelude to Saturday's event.
"Let's get real. I'm built OK, but I'm not pro wrestling built. Still, I would hope at least 600 of our kids would pay $2 each to see me wrestle," Hensley said after acknowledging that he had been working out for the last couple of months.
Hensley will team today with Gunner Miller, the football and baseball standout at East Ridge who went on to play linebacker for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
"It's all for a good purpose. That's all Hensley, though," Soddy-Daisy principal Steve Henry said.
There will be seven matches Saturday for the Trojans' Scenic City Rumble.
"There will be 30 guys in the royal rumble, the last event of the night. We'll start with two guys and another guy will enter the ring every 30 seconds," Massey said.
Wrestlers for the event are coming from seven states - Illinois, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Florida - in addition to local talent, and the winner will earn a spot in the Scenic City Invitational at East Hamilton.
"It's a way for them to give back," Hensley said of the efforts by Massey, Miller and others. "We're making plans already to have them come back to our place next year."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.