Video games led Kendra Hayden to the sport of wrestling.

Homewood-Flossmoor’s sophomore 190-pounder is an athlete. She swims and plays water polo. But she’d never stepped on a mat before last summer. 

Hayden developed a friendship with Aleksia Ramirez, an accomplished wrestler from Lakewood, Washington, over online gaming. She needed something to do in the winter and Ramirez encouraged her to try out wrestling. 

“We just became really close. I don’t even play that game anymore but we still talk daily,” Hayden said. “We just talk about wrestling and stuff.” 

And now Hayden is a state qualifier. She’ll have a chance to bring home a medal on Feb. 28. She won her bracket at the regional in Chicago, earning a fall over Hillcrest’s Jordyn Coleman-Harrison only 41 seconds into the final. The Vikings were team regional champs, as well.

Hayden followed up the regional with third place at the sectional. She’s H-F’s only girls wrestler advancing to state, as unlikely as that seemed a few months ago. 

“I almost quit on the fourth day. My body was so sore. But Coach (Scott) Aronson said, ‘You’re going to get used to it,’” she said. “So I stayed and I stuck it out.” 

Confidence came for Hayden after the Vikings went to the Findlay Invite in Ohio. She didn’t wrestle well there but quickly understood what it took to be at the level of one of the best high school girls tournaments in the country. 

“It was an eye opener because I knew everything wasn’t going to be so easy,” she said. “I had to kind of get used to the losses.”

Aronson praised Hayden’s size and strength. He could see that almost as soon as she walked through the door of the wrestling room for the first time. But Aronson didn’t know she could be a state qualifier until she won her blood round match at the sectional, also against Coleman Harrison.

“I wasn’t sure. It was a hard sectional. We had seven (wrestlers) in the sectional and six of them didn’t make it,” Aronson said. “I didn’t have any expectations for Kendra so this is an absolute surprise — an awesome surprise, a great surprise but a surprise.” 

She’ll open the state bracket at state with Schaumburg senior Nadia Razzak, who finished fifth at 190 in last season’s state meet. Waiting in the next round would likely be undefeated Rock Island junior Courtney Walls. 

Hayden said she’s not looking too far down the bracket. Advancing to state at all is a success, she said. Placing would be a dream. 

“She’s been shocking us all year, so who knows?” Aronson said.