Girls Wrestling is prepping to kickoff their 2024-2025 season. According to the National
Women’s Coaches Association (NWCA), girls wrestling has become the fastest growing sport out of any other program within the IHSA. In a span of only a few seasons, the team has gone from having a scarce number of competitors to growing rapidly in popularity across not just the population at VHHS, but IHSA as a whole.
Elyanna De Leon, a sophomore on the girls’ Varsity wrestling team, spoke about the changes she’s noticed from last year.
“Practices this year are different, not just because there are more girls, but more guys too, so the room gets insanely crowded. However, that gives us opportunities to have more one-on-one coaching when we get to split up by teams,” De Leon said.
De Leon mentioned how the relationships she’s developed on the team as a result of this growth have expanded tremendously, impacting her life and helping her in many ways, not only as a wrestler, but as a person as well.
Varsity head coach Joseph Regan spoke about the pleasant surprise he felt with this year’s growing roster from a coaching perspective.
“This year is the greatest number of girls that we’ve had wrestling since the program started. Now, it’s the fastest growing sport in Illinois,” Regan shared.
Previously a boys coach, Regan is looking forward to his second year of coaching the girls wrestling team at VHHS. According to Regan, the program saw its first established girls team during last year’s season with a roster of 6 girls. Since then, the program has more than doubled with 14 girls on the team this year.
“Before, girls wrestling was not an IHSA sport. So this meant that girls would wrestle on the boys team and wrestle boys or wrestle other girls that were on the boys teams as well,” Regan said.
Since then, the program has received so much growth and attention from students state-wide that IHSA declared girls wrestling their own program.
Hanna Lee (11) a returning Varsity girls’ wrestler, spoke about the rise in popularity of the program as well.
“Newer girls are more comfortable both mentally and physically. With a smaller team in a male-dominated sport, it can be hard to feel like you have a place in a room of 30-something experienced guys,” Lee said.
Lee mentioned the importance of the girls having their own team, as it makes teammates more willing to step out of their comfort zones and try something new.
“Experiencing a season with the biggest girls team yet has definitely made me realize firsthand why we need to continue growing this team,” Lee said.
Lee recounted when, as a freshman, she saw a female upperclassman wrestling amongst the boys team, which empowered her to keep up with the sport.
“It was daunting to be in a room of experienced guys, but seeing her wrestle with so much self-assurance made me feel like I could have a place in the room too,” Lee said.
In Lee’s case, the presence of a role model encouraged her to pursue wrestling and stick with the team. That decision proved to be vital, as Lee went on to lead the team to regionals in 2023, where she experienced one of her most valuable memories.
“The energy in the room was so high and you could feel the emotions rolling off of everyone in the room. Everyone on the team was nervous but it was probably [the most] aggressive [set of matches] each of us had wrestled the entire season because we wanted to win so badly,” Lee said.
Heading into the season, the girls wrestling team is not only growing in size but also in the determination of each athlete.