Regular season opens tonight at home vs. Bishop Noll for growing Trojans girls wrestling program

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Evidence of slow growth is evident from every vantage point for the Chesterton High School girls wrestling program, and since slow growth means real growth, it’s easy to assign credibility to the optimistic long-term aspirations.
The numbers have increased, the practice site in the alcove of the fieldhouse has a more permanent feel to it, as does the coaching staff.
Andrew Trevino still heads the wrestling program and is the head coach of the boys team. He has assigned Chris Richardson as the head coach of the girls and Will Scharp as the assistant coach.
“We're going to see some good things out of our older group because they're really working hard,” Richardson said, citing Ally Williams, Alice Scharp, Arti Haney and Kileigh Flynn. “They're training hard. They're drilling hard. They want to get better. They're creating that theme that we don’t just want to be on the mat, we want to be an elite program, which is helping our freshmen. The freshmen are learning that now, and so we'll be able to continue that and build this program into one of the more elite programs in the area.”
Second-year wrestler Flynn is the lone senior on the team. Juniors Haney, Stefany Lopez, Aubree Peters and Williams, and sophomores Lauren Orsbrun and Alice Scharp set the example for freshmen Elise Belcher, Zariah Farmer, Sophia Lugo, Lilah McLendon and MJ Scharp.
Alice Scharp had the best season on the team a year ago, winning a sectional championship at 135 pounds and then winning one and losing one in the regional round, fall just short of advancing to state. Since last season was the first for girls wrestling as an IHSAA-sanctioned sport, Scharp has a permanent spot in the school’s record books as the first sectional champion.
Peters (105), Haney (140 pounds) and Williams (145) made it out of the sectional with third-place finishes in the sectional and lost in the first round of the regional.
Alice Scharp sharpens her skills by scrapping at home with younger sister, MJ, an experienced wrestler for a freshman.
“She’s absorbing everything to get better because she wants to go downstate,” Richardson said of MJ. “And I think she has a good chance of getting to regional and possibly getting out. She has that want to.”
Richardson said he expects Peters to be “one of our go-to wrestlers this year. She has those long levers and she loves the cradle.”
Will Scharp, father of Alice, MJ and seventh-grader Ellie, coached at Westchester Middle School last season.
“We only had only three girls on the middle school team at Westchester last year and all three are wrestling in high school,” he said. “So it’s nice to see that they all stuck with it. Now we’ve got 13 wrestlers at Westchester.”
The coaches rely on their best sales staff to grow the sport, which is the current wrestlers. Tapping into the pool of mixed martial arts to grow the wrestling numbers also has been discussed by coaches. They have an excellent local story to tell to help that happen. Eli Pokorney, a state champion wrestler at Chesterton, is now a mixed martial arts fighter and he has difficulty finding opponents because they fear not being able to hang with him once brought to the ground.
“With MMA being big now, especially on the women’s side, you see a lot more of those MMA gals coming out of their dojos and gyms and going into wrestling because wrestling helps them with that,” Richardson said. “Part of their sport is wrestling, so I think both sports can benefit from girls being in both sports.”
Nobody is making outlandish predictions, but signs of slow growth abound.
“I'm glad that we're growing, and it's good to see more girls come out,” Williams said. “And I'm glad they're really putting in the work this year, which is important, because we have a lot of girls who want to try it and then end up not wanting to do it. But I'm glad they've been at every practice. We seem to have a really solid team this year.”
Alice Scharp also said he has noticed a more serious approach from several wrestlers this season.
“Everyone's been working really hard, and everyone's really excited for the season, excited to wrestle, and that's always good to see,” she said.
The Trojans open their season tonight at home in the main gym at 7 p.m.