Warren junior Aaron Stewart is a rare student-athlete, to say the least.
The 5-foot-7 Stewart committed to Illinois for both football and wrestling in January. He’s an all-state running back in one sport and a state champion in the other, and he also competes in track.
But as classmate Royce Lopez knows, Stewart’s work is never done.
“Aaron wakes up every single morning at 5 a.m. and works so hard,” Lopez said. “No matter how much older he gets, he just works harder and harder. No matter how many medals he wins, he wants to win more. He has a fighter’s mentality.”
Stewart won another medal on Saturday night. In fact, he won a state title for the second straight season, outscoring Homewood-Flossmoor senior RJ Robinson 5-2 in the Class 3A championship match in the 175-pound weight class at the individual state meet at the State Farm Center in Champaign.
“It was a good weekend,” Stewart said. “At the end of the day, I had done this before, so I wanted to do it again.”
As a returning state champion who was ranked No. 1 in his weight class all season and had just committed to Illinois, Stewart arrived at the state meet with a spotlight on him. But he wasn’t fazed.
“I came into this year with a little bit more confidence,” he said.
Stewart (43-2), who won at 157 last year, wasn’t Warren’s only wrestler to repeat. Sophomore Caleb Noble (44-2) avenged a regular-season loss to top-ranked Normal senior Caden Correll with a 17-5 major-decision victory in the championship match at 113 pounds.
“Aaron means a lot to me,” Noble said. “There’s nobody I would rather win with. Aaron is definitely the one I would like to be on the podium with.”
But Stewart’s record in two sports sets him apart from most. A third-place medalist at 152 pounds as a freshman in 2023, Stewart then had a breakout sophomore season in football, rushing for 1,647 yards and 20 TDs for the Blue Devils.
He was even more dominant last season, running for 2,465 yards and 34 touchdowns, and he began to hear from college football coaches. As it turned out, Illinois wanted him for both sports.
“I would say midway through or after my junior season, I noticed coaches started to give me calls for football,” Stewart said. “It was not like I was reaching out to them for attention. These coaches were giving me attention for football.
“To me, this is a dream come true. I never thought this would happen. I really had not seen anybody else do it. College coaches want tough guys who want to work, so that helped my case.”
Warren boys wrestling coach Brad Janecek said Stewart is unusual.
“When he was going through the recruiting process, some of the coaches would speak to me and had never really realized that had occurred, to be recruited in football and wrestling,” Janecek said. “It’s so rare. He has realized that as well, so he has been training for that. It’s a big load to take on football and wrestling and the challenges that it brings up.”
Stewart’s father Ryan said he visited several colleges for football, including Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, and was heavily recruited by new North Carolina coach Bill Belichick.
“I always thought personally he could do both in college,” Ryan Stewart said. “He’s always done multiple sports, but college is harder. But in college, it also affords you more time since you are in class less.
“Illinois likes his attitude and toughness. He has straight A’s, so they gave him a shot. My son wants to be different than everybody else. If he fails and it doesn’t work out, that’s OK.”
Aaron Stewart’s cousin Josh, a 2024 Warren graduate, said he’s not shocked by the dual commitment.
“Aaron is an athletic beast,” Josh Stewart said. “He was first a football star growing up. He was my strong-willed cousin. I knew at one point he was going to do his thing in both sports, but it’s crazy to me how it happened.”
Bobby Narang is a freelance reporter.
