BLOOMINGTON — Homewood-Flossmoor junior Attalia Watson-Castro had a chance to make history Saturday as one of the first girls wrestling state champions at the Illinois High School Association’s inaugural girls state meet.
But for Watson-Castro, there was an even greater motivation — honoring her friend.
Melissa De La Garza, a wrestler for Solorio who was a travel teammate of Watson-Castro’s on Beat the Streets, was killed in a shooting in September.
“A lot of the things I did wrestling-wise, I was doing not for her but through her,” Watson-Castro said of De La Garza. “Since she wasn’t able to do it, I wanted to do it.
“My whole goal was to win state because of the fact she wouldn’t be able to win state. This means a lot, and I was so emotional.”
Watson-Castro completed her mission by beating Rockford Boylan’s Netavia Wickson 4-0 in the 135-pound state championship match at Grossinger Motors Arena.
“It’s unbelievable,” H-F coach Jim Sokoloski said. “During the match, she looked at me one time and I was like, ‘Calm down.’ You get into these matches and, no matter how many times I’ve done it, my heart’s beating out of my chest. But she was calm.”
Watson-Castro honored De La Garza with two messages on her knee pads.
“I wrote ‘Long live Azul’ and ‘Do it for Melissa,'” she said. “‘Azul’ is what people called her. She had blue hair and was really colorful.”
Watson-Castro (17-1) became H-F’s first state wrestling champion, regardless of gender.
“We have the board in our room that has the state placers listed,” she said. “I told the boys before I left, when I come back and my name is on first, they can’t say anything to me.
“It’s my wrestling room.”
T.F. South’s Dutchess King and Lincoln-Way Central’s Gracie Guarino finished as state runners-up.
King (20-11) rolled into the finals with three straight pins before losing 6-2 to Rockton Hononegah’s Angelina Cassioppi in the 100-pound championship match.
“The one thing with wrestling lightweights is girls are lightning fast and the moves are unexpected,” King said. “I kind of knew what she was going to do, but my body just didn’t react fast enough.
“I’m fast, but of course, there’s someone out there faster than me. You can’t be the greatest all the time.”
King, a senior, was nonetheless thrilled to compete on the historic day she did not think would come before she graduated.
“When I first did wrestling, I competed in the frosh-soph tournament and finished second,” she said. “I thought I was going to be able to go to state, but they said, ‘No, you can’t. It’s for boys.’
“I was just happy I was able to do wrestling, in general, but I never expected to be a part of anything like this. It was amazing.”
King plans to continue wrestling at Indian Hills Community College in Iowa — the two-time defending junior college national champions in women’s wrestling.
Guarino (26-15), a sophomore, also had three straight pins before losing 5-3 to Glenbard North’s Gabriella Gomez in the finals.
“It was really fun seeing all these girls enjoy the sport as much as I do,” Guarino said. “I was happy I got to enjoy it and now I’m just going to work harder for next year.”
Jocelyn Williams (fourth, 235) and Ini Odumosu (fifth, 190) joined Watson-Castro as medalists for H-F.
Evergreen Park’s Elliana Balderrama finished sixth at 155.
“It was so great to just see all these girls wrestle and to finally have our own state,” Balderrama said. “It was just a nice energy, a nice everything. I loved it.”
Steve Millar is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
