Charles Gowdy started the Emporia High Wrestling program in 1955 with Assistant Coach Pat Sands. Their first official year of wrestling was in 1957. Coach Sands took over in 1968 until he retired in 1990 after winning 6 state championships. Coach Paul Dorathy took over after Coach Sands. Coach Dorathy is now the Superintendent of Schools in Baldwin City. Hall of Famer Curtis Simons took the helm after the 1993 school year and coached until the end of the 2004 season, winning 3 team titles. Greg Buckbee led the Spartans from 2005 to 2009 and won a team title in 2009. I would guess that he is on a very short list of coaches to win state titles at 2 different schools? I think that is very impressive. Dennis Charbonneau took over after Coach Buckbee in time for the 2010 season is currently the head coach. Charb is also on the list of coaches to win state titles at two different schools. I am REALLY biased but, I think Emporia has a pretty impressive history with several legends and a couple more that will be legends. All told, 11 team titles, 48 individual champions and more Centennial League titles than I have fingers and toes. Ryan Karjala, a long time assistant maintains a very impressive website that has much of this information on it.
http://www.usd253.org/ehswrest/wrestle.htmAlso, there is an incredible Facebook page dedicated to the history of Emporia Wrestling. http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Emporia-Kansas-Wrestling/131967940195701
