Wrestling has been, and always will be, an unsung hero sport. This is especially apparent in the Vernon Hills community as the wrestling team does not nearly get any of the credit that it so deserves. Wrestlers put in some of the hardest work compared to other athletes  around the year and have to manage their dieting habits and physical welfare.
Such intense mental and physical focus is seen especially in the offseason and in the words of Vernon Hills state qualifier Peter Vanderbloomer (12) one can see how hard wrestlers work in the off-season: “There really isn’t an offseason. We work hard all year so that we can be better when state comes around during winter.” Like so many others, Peter is unappreciated for his performance when looking at the school’s perspective on the sport during and after the wrestling season.
According to PA-Wrestling.com wrestling is a very unpopular sport in both collegiate and high school athletics. This is due to the extremely intense commitment some wrestlers have towards the sport as well as the fact that wrestlers operate and socialize like a very close-knit club. Despite the allure of exclusiveness that some wrestlers give off, they often appeal to their peers and authority figures as very respectful and kind.

When asked about how the public reacts to certain wrestlers in the community, Vernon Hills Varsity wrestler Maxwell Rickard (11) said “An adversary makes the man. That’s something my middle school coach would tell me before every match to encourage me to act bravely in the face of opposition. Our greatest adversary, in my opinion, is really ourselves because we have to make sure we take good care of our bodies before meets and tournaments in order to wrestle efficiently at certain weight classes.”
He went on further to say, “The kind of appreciation we get is somewhat minimal, outside from how our family ‘praises’ us but that really doesn’t affect us. To be completely honest, it always bothered me how the school would never put an image or video of wrestling in the yearly senior video or during assemblies.” Rickard is a prime example of how wrestlers, who work hard 11 months out of the year, are seen in Vernon Hills. This is what makes wrestlers the unsung heroes of the Vernon Hills athletic community because of their hard work year round and just the overall intensity of the sport.

One such particular unsung hero would be the man of many accolades himself, Dylan Geick (10). Geick just participated in Regionals one week ago, he qualified for the Nationals team (And won the first place tournament trophy as pictured above), and has won countless tournaments on and off-season. When asking Geick about his achievements throughout the years he had this to say: “I’ve done a lot in the wrestling program throughout the years and I have received recognition from my friends, family and coaches, but when talking about how the general public reacts to me and wrestlers like myself I’ve noticed that people just kinda don’t care. I understand how people don’t see the same love for the sport, but the only real way anyone knows my name is the sign on Rt. 60 where it used to say my name next to Middle School state champion.” Geick won state in 8th grade and has been getting adjusted to the High School wrestling program by putting in strenuous work during the offseason.
It is clear to see here that Vanderbloomer, Rickard, and Geick are indeed part of a special group that gets very little recognition from their peers for their hard work. However, the wrestling community is made up of individuals who operate in almost a military like manner where their main focus is on their sport and not what people think of them. That focus on one’s own purpose and the power of self-confidence is what makes them the true unsung heroes of Vernon Hills.