Through all the years D127 has had different sports teams, this 2021-2022 winter season was the first year ever where a girls wrestling team was brought to life at Grayslake North.

The very first girls wrestling team consisted of six girls: sophomore Kenya Bahena, senior Alexa Paniagua, sophomore Holly Goss, sophomore Vanessa Alvarez, sophomore Nayeli Gutierrez, and junior Julia Landmesser. Also with a new team came a new coach. Coach Alexander Castiglia has been coaching the girls through the very first girls-only open mats through mostly all their meets. With the new team it was most of the girls first time ever wrestling as well as Coach Castiglia’s first year ever coaching at North, although he is a former wrestler and graduate of North.

“I thought it was awesome because there’s always been girls in wrestling, but they just had to be tough and wrestle guys at their own weight,” said Castiglia when he heard about North’s first girls wrestling team.

Also with coaching girls, Castiglia said, “The girls tend to listen a bit better, but other than that wrestling is as long as you are working hard and going out there and just battling while you’re in a match you can be a good wrestler no matter what size, gender, weight you are.”

Sophomore Vanessa Alvarez joined the team because her brother did it when he was younger and she was jealous. Since she had the opportunity, she took it. Junior Julia Landmesser joined the team because her friends and her brother had done it, and they all encouraged her to join, so she did.“It’s been so much fun, and sure it’s hard at times with the conditioning and everything, but it’s a lot of fun,” said Landmesser about being in wrestling.

“I’m liking it so far. It definitely humbles me a lot, but yeah it’s pretty good,” said Alvarez about being in wrestling.

During the girls wrestling season, so many goals were set and accomplished with girls winning their first matches to the girls first tournaments being held at North. With that, memories were created that will be forever cherished. Alvarez’s highlight of her season was wrestling and beating another girl wrestler fifteen pounds heavier than her. Landmesser’s highlight of the season was getting her first match and wrestling through all of it.

Coach Castiglia’s highlight of the season was, “Watching them improve from those couple of open mats practices because you could tell they didn’t know what they were doing, but they were interested in doing it,” he said. The one thing Coach Castiglia will always remember from the first ever girls wrestling season is actually being able to being one of the first to be a part of it.“Anytime you’re one of the first people to do something is awesome because it’s not always going to be smooth sailing, but to say you’re the first to do anything is always a cool option,” he said.

Since wrestling is a mostly male dominated sport, having a girls team was different and gave an opportunity for girls to try something new. North’s wrestling teams encourage anyone who wants to wrestle to come out and try it with nothing needed, except maybe just a bit of stamina, mental toughness, and a positive attitude, according to both Alvarez and Landmesser.

“Well you’re in high school and you’re probably not going to get another chance to wrestle once you leave high school. So I just say go for it and try it out, and if you like it, you’ll know,” Alvarez said.