After toying with the idea of becoming a wrestler her freshman and sophomore years, Oak Lawn’s Charvelle McLain decided as a junior last season to become a manager for the boys team instead.
That didn’t last long. McLain quickly chose to get off the bench and start competing.
“Not even a week into the season, I came back home with a singlet,” McLain said. “I would do weightlifting with them and they’d tell me, ‘You’d be good at this.’ By the third match, they were like, ‘You sure you don’t want to join?’
“I was like ‘You know what? I guess I will.’”
It’s all worked out quite well.
After qualifying for state last season as a first-year wrestler, McLain — now a senior — won the 155-pound title at Saturday’s South Suburban Conference Tournament in Palos Heights.
Oak Forest (153 1/2 points) earned the team championship ahead of the Shepard (109 1/2). The Bengals got titles from Marjorie Rodriguez (115), Iyobosa Odiase (145) and Isabel Peralta (190), while Sofia Perez (105), Mila Rocush (130) and Kassandra Lee (179) took titles for Shepard.
Other champions were T.F. South’s Dakodia Kelly (110), Abibatu Mogaji (120) and Quincy Onyiaorah (135), Lemont’s Molly O’Connor (125) and Rowyn Page (235), Oak Lawn’s Felix Morales (100) and Hillcrest’s Christiara Finley (140).
McLain won both her matches with pins in the first period, finishing off Oak Forest’s Adri Bille in 1:11 in the finals.
Although she’s new to competing in the sport, McLain said she brought in a bit of a background in wrestling before high school.
“I grew up with a lot of boy cousins who wrestled their whole lives,” she said. “We always wrestled around without the rules. I got into it last year and the only thing I had to learn was the rules, but they’re pretty simple and I’m a fast learner.”
Oak Lawn coach Matt Arthur can certainly attest to that.
“She’s like a sponge,” Arthur said of McLain. “She always wants to be the practice dummy when I show moves. She’s basically become a coach. She’s like our team mom.
“She’s always been a leader by example. She’s a phenomenal student. She’s an even better friend and an even better athlete. I’m lucky to have coached her.”
Last season, McLain was one of a group of five who became the Spartans’ first girls wrestlers. The team started this winter with 18 girls.
“Last year, no one else wanted to join with us,” she said. “This year, we got a few soccer players, a couple gymnasts and a couple kids who just needed to find a home and a place to stay out of trouble.
“We’ve got a mixture of everyone and we all get along.”
McLain also is on the softball team at Oak Lawn and feels like she played the right position to be prepared for wrestling.
“I’m a catcher so I build a lot of leg strength, and even though softball is not supposed to be physical, when you’re a catcher, it gets physical,” she said. “When you’re standing behind home plate and a girl runs into you and knocks you back three feet, you might as well just wrestle.”
McLain went 1-2 at state last season. She hopes to make the podium this year — and make more Oak Lawn history in the process.
“We have all the record boards up in our gym for all-conference, regional champs, state qualifiers, and I’m the only girl name on all of them,” she said. “It’s nice because when a girl who might want to join sees it, she thinks, ‘Oh, this can’t be that hard.’
“I hope to be the first girl state placer for Oak Lawn. Nobody could ever take that away from me.”
