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On a rainy December night in a martial arts gym in the Lents neighborhood, Kiera Gabaldon started girls wrestling practice. A handful of athletes took to the mat wearing Cleveland High School wrestling gear.
That might seem a little odd, given that no students have signed up for the Cleveland girls wrestling team this season.
But these girls would rather be here than on the official team. They prefer it even though they have no way to compete for their school at meets or the state championship; the organization that runs athletics in Oregon does not approve teams not affiliated with districts.
The story of why is now the subject of a Title IX lawsuit that alleges gender discrimination, crude behavior, and retaliation against a whistleblower.
The plaintiffs are five girls team wrestlers and Gabaldon. Otherwise known as Coach Kiki, she was the girls wrestling coach at Cleveland through the 2024–25 school year. The girls she coached that night all attend the Southeast Portland high school, where they say they have grown to love the sport under Gabaldon’s mentorship.
In previous years, Gabaldon has coached one wrestler to repeat state championship titles in the sport, and others to podiums at meets around the state. Some students have gone from not being able to do somersaults to doing front handsprings.
“This is the greatest sport to join,” she says. “You can come from any background, you can be any height, weight, skill level, athletic level, and you can be a great wrestler. That’s what they’ve all learned. They’re all great at the sport.”
Instead of practices in the high school cafeteria, they’ve been running drills and lifting weights—as part of an eight-member team with no official affiliation—at the Lents gym American Top Team five nights a week.
The scene reflects the fallout from the lawsuit filed on behalf of Gabaldon and five Cleveland High School girl wrestlers against Portland Public Schools, which KOIN-TV first reported in late November. The lawsuit alleges these girls were given access unequal to the boys’ in practice spaces, coaching and resources. The girls looked for an attorney after Gabaldon told the team on March 3 that she had been abruptly fired without cause.
The lawsuit alleges this came about because Gabaldon was at odds with Cleveland’s head wrestling coach, Rustin Marchello, who allegedly failed to provide girl athletes with comparable opportunities. For example: Boys team wrestlers practiced in the gym, the lawsuit alleges, while girls practice was confined to mats in the cafeteria. It further alleges the girls have not felt comfortable with Marchello’s “sexually inappropriate behavior.” (In one example, the lawsuit alleges Marchello joined minors on the team in a hot tub during an away tournament, where he allegedly asked the students repeatedly if they wanted to see his “cock,” an apparent reference to a rooster tattoo he has.)
Marchello remains employed by the district, and says he did nothing wrong. In fact, he says that the “painful” allegations concerning his conduct were reported to PPS and thoroughly investigated last spring. The investigation, he says, ultimately concluded he had engaged in no inappropriate behavior, and found the allegations unsubstantiated. (He is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, though it includes allegations against him.)
“My focus has always been, and remains, on the well-being, safety, and development of every student in our wrestling program,” Marchello tells WW. “I want to say clearly to our women’s wrestlers: Your voices matter and there will always be a place for you on Cleveland’s wrestling team.”
Kiera Callahan, the sole senior on the team, says she first discovered wrestling in November of her freshman year, when a couple of wrestlers came to demonstrate the sport at a physical education class. “Me and six other girls were like, this is going to be our thing,” Callahan says.
She went to her first tournament and still remembers when everyone cheered for each other and about how much fun she had. Before wrestling, she says she never stuck with a sport for more than a year or two. And even when all her other friends dropped wrestling, she stuck with it. She loves the discipline and how the sport pushes her to be “comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
Callahan says Gabaldon’s mentorship balanced being tough with being caring. It’s a coaching style Callahan says she believes deeply in, so much so that having a modified senior season where she misses out on tournaments is ultimately worth it to her, albeit upsetting. She says that sacrifice is worth it if her younger teammates get a season next year.
“Kiki’s always going to be in our corner no matter what, no matter if we win or lose,” says Callahan, 17. “She’s going to be hard on us if we do have a bad attitude, but she’s also really good about strengthening our mindsets and knowing that one bad match doesn’t change her view on us.”
Parents of the athletes who spoke with WW say they had tried to resolve the matter internally with PPS but saw little progress. So they sued, demanding that the district reinstate Gabaldon, terminate Marchello, and provide the girls with opportunities equal to the boys’.
On the district’s end, spokeswoman Valerie Feder says PPS also desires to get the girls back competing for their high school team. She says officials have offered them a different coach and that they could practice in the gym. And Feder adds the district has provided a practice and tournament schedule in hopes the girls will opt to compete for their school. The district did not comment on the pending litigation, in accordance with its policies.
“Portland Public Schools is committed to ensuring girls have equitale access to athletics, including high-quality coaching, facilities, and competitive opportunity,” says Marshall Haskins, the district’s athletic director. “We continue to support the growth of girls wrestling at Cleveland High School and across the district, and we remain focused on providing safe, supportive, and inclusive athletic environments where all students can compete and thrive.”
But families say the coach that PPS offered was no replacement for Gabaldon, whose impressive résumé includes runner-up of the Women’s College Wrestling Association national championship in 2019, Oregon state champion that same year, and three All American honors at Warner Pacific University.
Parents said they filed the lawsuit in hopes they’d see more rapid changes during the winter season, crossing their fingers that the girls would be allowed to compete in a state tournament where they felt comfortable.
That hasn’t happened. Instead, the wrestling season has continued without a Cleveland girls team.
In December, Gabaldon says, the group made contact with the Portland School Board, which doesn’t appear to have intervened.
“You tell [the athletes] to be strong and advocate for themselves, and they did that, and they’re being punished,” Gabaldon says. “That they’re still sticking with it and not willing to stray from what they know is correct is amazing.”
