Entering the state wrestling tournament last year with three seasons of wrestling experience behind him, current senior Trent Williams was shocked by the environment in which he would be competing. The arena where he would be wrestling overwhelmed him with sounds, blinding lights and a large crowd. He lost a close match, 4-2, in the first round of the tournament, but the experience changed his outlook on wrestling.

“When I got [to the state tournament] I realized, ‘Wow, I can take this and go somewhere with it, I can use this, like even to help me get into college.’

“Once you do it, you realize you can do more,” said Williams. “If you do well at a tournament you realize you could do well at another tournament, and keep going and going and it just adds up.”

Williams has verbally committed to continue wrestling at the University of Chicago  beginning in the fall of 2019. He said wrestling contributed to his admission into the school, along with his academic record.

Although Williams originally joined the wrestling team to help him improve in football, he said it became his favorite sport. He began to compete at the varsity level before the end of his sophomore year.

Junior Louis Schaller said being Williams’s practice partner has taught him new skills and has allowed him to teach Williams in exchange.

“Our practice partner chemistry has gotten really strong and we’re able to pull each other aside and just be like, ‘Hey can I work on this, can we drill with each other?’” Schaller said.

Williams said wrestling has positively impacted his academics, as it has changed his view on life and given him more motivation.

“A lot of people think what they’re going through is hard, and it is, it definitely is,” said Williams. “But for me, I thought football workouts were hard, I thought doing homework was hard, then I started wrestling and I was like, ‘Oh, [that was] not hard at all.’”

According to Jason Erwinski, head varsity wrestling coach, although academics can often negatively impact athletics, that was not the case for Williams.

“In wrestling, you want it to be as instinctual as possible,” said Erwinski. “That’s why we do what we do in the practice ring, repetition, you do things to the point where they’re ingrained, where it’s instinct … Trent is very intelligent, very smart, but I wouldn’t say it works against him. If anything, it works in his favor … since he was able to pick up the sport so quickly.”

Schaller said he is surprised by how easily Williams seems to succeed in all of his classes despite competing in multiple varsity sports.

“I’ve always been shocked that him and his brother have such a high GPA [and are] just academically … really high up, because they both play football and wrestling, and that’s really time consuming, and they put so much energy into both of them and still keep their grades up,” Schaller said.

As of Jan. 23, Williams is 30-4 and is ranked No. 10 in the state for his weight class in class 3A by the Illinois Wrestling and Officials Association. Other wrestlers with over 25 wins include seniors Nicolas Jung and Cameron Casey. The team is ranked 4th in conference and Williams leads the team with 22 pins.

Erwinski said Williams will likely be very successful in wrestling at the collegiate level.

“To be honest with you, we’re only scratching the surface.

“[In high school,] we want young men involved in as many sports as possible to build athleticism,” said Erwinski. “But when you get to college, it’s a totally different mindset. So his focus will be strictly on wrestling and he will wrestle year-round and I think the sky’s the limit.”

Williams said his goal is to finish his last high school wrestling season at state, but this time to be victorious.

“I don’t wanna jinx it, per se, but I’ll say it: my goal is to win state, and it’s first or bust for me right now, that’s my mindset, practically,” said Williams. “I don’t see myself not placing, but I mean winning [state] would be … a lofty goal. It would be hard, but … I’m putting the work in.”