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Payton Temple remembers her early days of youth wrestling as a 7-year-old, although not very fondly.
“I struggled a lot,” Temple said. “It took lots and lots of years to build up confidence. My second year I cried almost every single match. It was rough.”
Temple, now a sophomore at Central, stuck with wrestling through those tough early years. She even cried after a match again this year, but this time happy tears after she pinned her way through the first three rounds and into the championship match of the IHSA Girls Wrestling State Tournament 190-pound bracket.
After qualifying for state at 157 pounds as a freshman last year, Temple became just the second area wrestler to make a championship match in the three-year history of the finals, earning second place to conclude a 27-2 season.
After joining Karmen Cody with matching sixth-place finishes at state last year, Temple improved the school’s best girls state finish with her runner-up finish this year and became the program’s first multi-time state qualifier on the girls side. For her accomplishments this season, Temple has been named the Daily Journal Girls Wrestler of the Year.
“I’m the first girl to ever make it to the finals for our school,” Temple said. “Making history, it’s crazy. I just hope there’s more in the future.”
Temple’s high school days have come at a time when girls wrestling is growing rapidly. This year was just the fourth that featured an IHSA state series for girls, and as Temple now has become a youth coach in addition to a wrestler herself, she’s seeing more divisions and girls competitions than she could have imagine during her own youth career.
Comets head wrestling coach Travis Williams, who’s been at the school for 18 years, said the school has had about a dozen girls wrestle in the program since he arrived. This season alone, six girls wrestled for the Comets. While former Comets such as Andrea Pace and Cody paved the way, Williams noted that Temple has quickly added a layer to the program’s standard.
“Payton, the way she chases out-of-season competition, competes as a coach in youth club, the way she balances it out shows she has that passion for competition and just passion for the sport of wrestling, a sport where you have to stay hungry and passionate and a sport that’s challenging and grueling,” he said. “She’s raising the bar, and the first thing she said after that title match was, ‘I’m gonna win the next two.’”
During the wrestling season, Temple spends her weekdays at her own practices after school before coaching the youth level at night. While her own meets were on Saturdays over the weekends, her Sundays were spent matside as a coach.
Part of that level of devotion comes from her own love for wrestling, which Temple calls “the best sport.” But part of it also comes from being at the center of a wrestling-oriented family. Her dad, Jacob, runs the youth program. Her mom, Becky, has taken over the high school girls side, leading the team when the boys and girls are at split meets. Her brothers, Kanin and Gunner, are wrestlers on the middle school team.
“I think they’re almost 100% responsible for the success I’ve had,” Temple said. “My dad has been coaching me since I was 7, taught me everything I know and motivates me for all these big tournaments and practice. My mom being a coach gives us a representative so we actually have a say in what happens.”
Temple has two more years of high school wrestling left, and she’s not shy about the lofty goal of winning titles both years. But she also knows that both directly as a coach and indirectly as a source of inspiration for the girls who will come after her, the Payton Temple effect will be long-lasting.
“We have a lot of youth girls I plan to coach after I’m done with high school and college,” Temple said. “Hopefully, they’ll win like I will next year.”