What started as a simple suggestion from a friend in the weight room grows to enjoyable first year of wrestling for sectional participant freshman Sophia Lugo.

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Chesterton has eight athletes out of 14 weight classes registered to compete in Friday’s girls wrestling sectional at Hobart. That’s fewer than many schools, but not bad considering this is just the second year it has been an IHSAA-sanctioned sport.
Word of mouth is always the best way for a young sport to grow. Conversations such as the one two first-year Chesterton wrestlers had in September during Matt Wagner’s weights class will lead to increased numbers.
“I’m trying wrestling out,” junior Stefany Lopez said to freshman Sophia Lugo. “You should come join me.”
Two sentences set Lugo’s mind in motion and she saw no reason not to join her.
“I needed a winter sport,” Lugo said.
Now they both are wrestling in the Hobart sectional.
Lugo started her year as a JV wrestler, impressed veteran teammates with her aptitude for the sport in practice, won most of her JV matches and earned the promotion.
Early in her wrestling career, Lugo already was talking about how much the sport has done for her, and that was before she had wrestled a single varsity match.
“I feel like it’s getting me stronger in a lot of ways, mentally, physically,” Lugo said. “I have a lot more endurance now. I can lift a lot more weight in weightlifting.”
Lugo expounded on how wrestling has helped her mentally.
“On the mat it gets really tiring really fast and I feel like I need to push myself harder,” she said. “And when we exercise, I feel like it makes me mentally stronger and all of that.”
At the end of all of her matches, JV and varsity, either head girls coach Chris Richardson or assistant Will Scharp, was quick to deliver pointers on how she could have done something better at a specific point. Teammates, Lugo said, also are quick to lend a helping hand.
“When I have a question, they’ll all come and help me, and when I’m confused they’ll all come and help me,” Lugo said. “They’re all really nice.”
Words such as those make a relatively new sport grow.