Girls wrestling: Glenbard West’s Alycia Perez is the Suburban Life wrestler of the year

At first glance, Glenbard West senior Alycia Perez might seem like a beatable opponent on the mat.

She’s not a veteran in the sport, picking up wrestling only three years ago.

She wears glasses.

She doesn’t carry herself in a strong manner, preferring to stay in the background.

She’s not physically imposing.

And she wrestles in the lightest weight class at 100 pounds.

But judging Perez by her looks or demeanor is a big mistake.

“I’m definitely a mixture of introvert and extrovert. To people who don’t know me, I can be a very quiet person,” Perez said. “Off the mat, I’m a very different person. I like to do things like craft and read. But on the mat, I’m very aggressive and focused. For me, wrestling brings out a very different side of me.”

Glenbard West girls wrestling coach Alberto Guevara said several opponents have paid the price for misjudging Perez’s personality before matches.

“Alycia is super quiet,” Guevara said. “She’s introverted and humble and would probably spend more time working on paintings. But there is a wild ferocious beast inside her and it comes out in that wrestling room and on the mat. When she’s in that mode, she’s definitely firing on all cylinders, but after practice she’s the sweetest girl.

“But what makes Alycia a special wrestler is her determination. She’s focused on one thing and that is to win. You can see it in her warmup and you can see it when she steps out into the match. She’s laser focused and it doesn’t matter who her opponent is, she is going to go through you.”

Perez, the 2023-24 Suburban Life Newspaper Girls Wrestler of the Year, left a memorable mark on the Glenbard West wrestling program. She completed a historic run to the program’s first state championship, defeating West Aurora’s Kameyah Young 1-0 in a thrilling 100-pound state championship match at Grossinger Arena on Feb. 24.

Perez (35-0) is the first state champion in the young program’s history, joining boys senior teammate Collin Carrigan in raising the bar higher for the entire boys/girls program. Carrigan, the 2023-24 Suburban Life Newspaper Boys Wrestler of the Year, won the boys first – and second total – state championship since Fred Beilfuss won a title in the 1965-66 season.

“The biggest thing that helped me win my state title was my attitude,” Perez said. “I had to trust my training, to believe that I could get what I really wanted because I worked very hard for it. That was something I had to work on from last year and I definitely improved on my mindset.”

Perez credited her family and her coaches and teammates for helping her make program history in Bloomington.

“My whole family does wrestling, so they were very happy that I decided to start wrestling, especially my dad,” Perez said. “No one was really that surprised that I stuck with it but me. I never thought I would be where I am right now.

“Something that was very important to my growth as a wrestler was all the people who supported me, from my practice partners and all my coaches. I couldn’t have done it without them.”

Guevara said Perez’s three-year career was marked with memorable victories that will motivate the younger wrestlers for years. Perez was a back-to-back West Suburban Silver Division champion, a regional and sectional title winner and closed her career with 79 victories, including 40 pins and 91 takedowns – all records for the program.

“For a growing program, she has set the bar for Glenbard West girls wrestling pretty high,” Guevara said. “We’ve been blessed to have some great girls in our short time and Alycia’s accomplishments will be celebrated for a long time. We know her teammates and future Hilltoppers would love to make their own mark. We’re still a growing sport and hopefully young girls can look at what Alycia did and say, ‘Hey, why not me.’ ”

Perez, a state alternate last season, pointed to finding stability and support in Glen Ellyn and Glenbard West as a key growing point in her career. Before high school, she moved “about five times” before finding a home at Glenbard West in her freshman year.

“When I was younger, I was a very shy and quiet kid, so it was very hard for me to adjust to the consent moving and different schools, but when I moved to Glen Ellyn, I finally found stability,” Perez said.

Suburban Life All-Area girls wrestling team

Kayleigh Loo, Downers Grove North, sr., 170; Alycia Perez, Glenbard West, sr., 100; Nadiia Shmkiv, Glenbard East, so., 105.