Peotone’s Jonah Young tried his hand at wrestling eight years ago and didn’t care much for the sport.
“The first year, l didn’t like it,” he said. “I didn’t win that many matches. But I stuck with it and my dad pushed me to stay with it.”
His father is James Young, a wrestling coach at Peotone Junior High School and his grandfather is John Young, an Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association Hall of Famer who led the Peotone High School program from 1966-99.
So Jonah was going to get some great instruction.
James said he knew Jonah’s frustration and encouraged his son to stick with it.
“I knew wrestling is a sport you have to grow into,” James said. “It takes a while to excel at.”
Jonah has been excelling. After winning an Illinois Elementary School Association championship as a seventh grader and finishing third as an eighth grader, Young is a high school freshman at Peotone and is one of eight area wrestlers to advance to IHSA sectional competition.
Young (18-8) took second in the 126-pound bracket Jan. 31 at the Class 1A Coal City Regional.
Blue Devils coach Greg Goberville is impressed with the way Young has handled his freshman season.
“He’s in a weight class with a lot of upperclassmen,” Goberville said of Young. “It’s not coming in at 106 pounds where you see a lot of underclassmen. He’s had some good matches. He’s beaten some solid kids.
“He’s strong and fast. With his future – the more and more strength he gets, the better he is going to be.”
Young came into his first high school season knowing it wasn’t going to be easy taking on wrestlers older than he is.
“Most of them are big and strong, but I’m a strong kid myself, so it’s not crazy,” he said. “I knew it was going to be tough. I knew it was going to be harder than middle school was.
“I knew I had to be better, but I wasn’t nervous about competing.”
Peotone’s Jimmy O’Connor, also a freshman, finished third in the regional at 106. Manteno’s Carter Webber was second at 106 and Lucas Hetman was second at 165 .
The four will be back at Coal City for sectional competition on Feb. 13.
In Class 2A, Crete-Monee’s Dominic Jackson (285 pounds) and Trevon Williams (157) won regional championships at Oak Forest while Angel Mojica (106) and Gerard Fleming (150) took second. The four will compete on Feb. 13 at the Hinsdale South Sectional.
Manteno wins IESA regional
Manteno Middle School won the Class 3A Regional 5 boys basketball title, beating Bradley Central 55-46.
The Panthers (21-3) advanced to the Sectional 3 finals, where they were scheduled to battle Bismarck-Henning (21-1) on Feb. 2 at home.
Beecher preseason faves
The high-school softball season is still several weeks away, but the Illinois Coaches Association came out with its preseason rankings and three area teams made it in the top 20 in Class 2A.
Beecher, which won the Class 2A title last season, was voted as its No. 1 team.
Manteno was ranked eighth and Peotone is 19th.