“Is it okay if I climb the ropes?”
Eddie Bobbitt still can’t believe it. He’s inside a wrestling ring with three young, aspiring wrestlers. He pulls his phone out as he climbs backwards up the turnbuckle, taking a selfie.
“I’m gonna send this to my wife. Tell her I’m learning how to jump off the top rope.”
Bobbitt’s learned a lot in only a few sessions. He’s got an elbow drop, and thanks to Ethan Heyre, Midnight, and Dmitri Staley from Grindhouse, he now has a hip toss. He’s also been brought up to speed on how to properly run the ropes.
To be clear, he’s not looking to make a career move. He’s very happy serving the students at New Albany High School as a post-secondary guidance counselor, assisting hundreds of students every year with their post-high school plans. But he has another passion equal to his desire to see students succeed in life: battling childhood cancer.
When he’s not serving the students of New Albany High School, Bobbitt serves as the executive director of Camp Quality Kentuckiana. “It’s a national network of summer camps,” he says. “We’re in 10 states, and hopefully, we’ll eventually be in all 50.”
Camp Quality offers kids who are or have battled cancer the opportunity to experience summer and camp in an environment that best meets their needs. “The focus is on quality, as in quality of life. There are other organizations who focus on quantity, extending their lives. Our mission is to make their lives better.”
Bobbitt spends a lot of time thinking about how to fundraise for Camp Quality. One day, a student walked into his office with a new idea: “How would you like to partner with a pro wrestling school to do a fundraiser?”
Full disclosure: that student is my 17 year old daughter Lydia. Last summer, Lydia rappelled down the side of the Louisville Slugger Museum in a Batman costume for the same cause, an adventure she enjoyed thanks to Eddie Bobbitt. Now Bobbitt is fulfilling a childhood dream thanks to Lydia and Grindhouse Pro Wrestling Academy.
“I was a huge Bret Hart fan as a kid,” he says. “Then came the Attitude Era, the Monday Night Wars. I was one of the fans who switched back and forth between WWF and WCW, between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Goldberg. Eleven year old me would be thrilled to know I finally got into a wrestling ring, even if I am almost 40 now.”
Back in high school, Bobbitt never even dreamed about college. No one in his family had ever gone to college. Then one afternoon in the atrium at New Albany, guidance counselor Laura McGuirk stopped and asked what his plans were after graduation.
Bobbitt told her he was going to enlist in the military. His family didn’t have the money for college, and it was his only hope for a better future. McGuirk told Bobbitt he had the grades to go straight to college and asked him to give her a chance to help. By the time he graduated high school, Bobbitt had a full ride to the University of Louisville.
Another life-changing moment took place while Bobbitt was still in high school. He was working at a school supply store in New Albany when a customer came back into the store and suggested he volunteer for Camp Quality. “She told me it was for kids with cancer, and I was all in. I lost my mother to the disease when I was only ten.”
Bobbitt filled out an application to be a counselor that summer. “Here’s the strange thing. When people asked me how I learned about the camp, I told them it was a woman with brown hair and glasses. I didn’t catch her name. But no one I talked to could tell me who she was. I’ve never seen her since.”
Bobbitt volunteered every summer for more than a decade before moving up to become head of fundraising and now the executive director. He also returned to New Albany High School thanks to his mentor, Ms. McGuirk.
“Around 2013, she half-jokingly suggested I get a Master’s in counseling so I could take her place one day. I got my Master’s, and then in 2020, I got a phone call from her offering to pass the baton.”
To say Bobbitt is thrilled sitting in the same office as the woman who changed his life would be an understatement. Now he’s the one changing lives, encouraging kids to think beyond high school, to explore their options for educational and career opportunities they never dreamed possible.
Bobbitt doesn’t do anything half-way, either. As a proud Louisville Cardinal, he’s also a venomous hater of the Kentucky Wildcats. Years ago, he started a tradition of buying a T-shirt for the school that knocked UK out of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. The year Number 15 seed St. Peters knocked off the Wildcats, he upped his game by making a donation to the college. Donations are made in the name of his UK-loving friends so they receive a notification when the donation is received.
“When UK lost to Oakland, the Oakland coach mentioned in a press conference that someone had made a donation to the school as a thanks for beating Kentucky,” he says. “My Facebook blew up with people tagging me.”
It’s no surprise, then, that Bobbitt is willing to take some time from his family and learn to run these ropes. He wants as many people to come to the show as possible to buy tickets, buy T-shirts, and support Camp Quality Kentuckiana. What better way than to set foot in the ring himself and give the kids of New Albany High School a chance to see him in action?
“We’re trying to get the cheer block to come out,” says Lydia Cosper. “We made fliers and posted a video of Bobbitt doing an elbow drop. It spread all over the school.”
Grindhouse Pro Wrestling Academy is equally thrilled to be a part of the show. Owner 2 Tuff Tony and trainer Ronnie Roberts want to make Grindhouse part of the community. It’s not just a chance to give back. It’s a chance to win some new fans for themselves and pro wrestling in general. And it might just gain them a few new recruits.
They wouldn’t be alone. Midnight’s a New Albany graduate, class of 2014. So is Pretty Boy Choi, who graduated the same year. They’re both following in the footsteps of fellow Bulldogs Rob Conway, Stu Gibson, Jeff “Lord Humongous” Van Camp, and Jason “Crybaby Chris Alexander” Lindsey.
Chokeslam Childhood Cancer will take place in New Albany at the Knights of Columbus Building at 809 E. Main Street. The event takes place Sunday, May 18 at 3 p.m. Tickets are only $10, and T-shirts will be on sale as well. All proceeds will go to benefit Camp Quality Kentuckiana.
