The Homewood-Flossmoor girls wrestling team isn’t a startup, anymore. The sport is relatively new to the school and state, but the Vikings feel like an established program with a good foundation.
“It’s a machine now,” coach Scott Aronson said. “We know what we’re doing it. It’s great.”
London Gandy is a returning state placer. Alima Toheeb-Lawal, another former state qualifier, joined the coaching staff. Aronson said he feels really good about the state of his team.
“We can hit the ground running,” Aronson said. “We don’t have a newbie section that we have to teach. We just have a couple new girls and they’re jumping right in with the older ones.”
There are 20 wrestlers out for the girls team this season, returning the numbers to near their peak from two years ago. Last year there were only 12.
Only three are seniors, though. That’s not an issue for Aronson, he said. He’s happy to have two years to mold them.
“I’ve got a core of juniors. There are probably six or seven of them who consistently wrestle,” Aronson said. “We have almost a full lineup of experienced girls.”
Gandy is the most experienced. She’ll likely wrestle at 110 but could move up. She said this team is less cliquish than it was a year ago.
“We have a better team morale than we did last year. I think we’ve just connected better,” Gandy said.
“All of the girls know each other because we started with each other,” Amara Nwoye, a junior who will wrestle at 130 or 135, said. “We welcomed everybody in, all the new girls. That’s one really great thing about our team. We have really good camaraderie.”
Expectations are higher, as a result. A successful summer camp helped with that confidence.
“I’ve seen each and every girl and what they’ve put in outside of the season. That makes a difference,” Nwoye said. “During the summer, the offseason, they were there so I really think we’re going to make it.”
Gandy finished sixth at state last winter. She’ll have the highest projections. But her goals aren’t something she can type in her phone or on a piece of paper.
“I don’t want to think too far ahead because sometimes it can be stressing. I don’t want to try to make that promise to myself like ‘I need to do this. I need to do that,’” she said. “I just stay calm and keep going.”
As a whole, the Vikings want to continue the progress the program has shown in recent years. Aronson said his team is capable of winning some team invitational titles, even without a full dual lineup.
“I don’t want to set rigid expectations, but I would love to get three or four girls to state. I would love to bring home some hardware. I would love to have a winning dual record,” he said. “I think all of those things are within the realm of possibility.”
