Boys wrestling: McHenry’s Brody Hallin commits to Northern Illinois

Brody Hallin will get a chance to live out his dreams this fall.

The McHenry senior recently announced his commitment to wrestle collegiately at Northern Illinois University. The decision came after a year of uncertainty of whether he would wrestle or play football in college and where it would be, but he’s excited for the next step in his wrestling career.

“It’s been a dream of mine since middle school,” Hallin said. “I’m the first one in my family to be able to do this, so it’s really cool.”

Hallin wrestled and played football throughout his high school career. He earned a Northwest Herald All-Area Honorable Mention in football for his senior season as a running back and linebacker for the Warriors and he was named to the Northwest Herald All-Area First Team for wrestling this past winter after finishing fourth in the Class 3A individual state tournament at 170 pounds.

Hallin wasn’t sure if he would play football or wrestle in college but after looking at the offers for each sport, he realized that he could succeed the most as a college wrestler.

“Even though I love football, I’ve been playing it longer than I’ve been wrestling, but I knew I had a better opportunity to make it somewhere with wrestling,” Hallin said. “I stuck with that and worked a lot harder with wrestling and showed out. A lot of colleges saw what I can do and what I can achieve.”

Hallin’s recruitment process started slow like many seniors’ because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a junior, he played football in the spring and then went on to wrestle during the summer in an adjusted IHSA calendar.

After he finished wrestling he went straight into summer football camp before playing football in the fall and jumping back into wrestling this past winter.

Hallin didn’t get a chance to check out the colleges he was interested in until this spring, after the wrestling season.

Northern Illinois head coach Ryan Ludwig offered Hallin a scholarship after he watched the senior compete at the Sycamore Invitational in early January.

Hallin had offers from Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, Bellarmine and The Citadel, but the wrestler liked the idea of staying close to home and competing for a big school like Northern Illinois.

“It’s really close to home, and I like how I can have the opportunity to win championships at home almost,” Hallin said. “It’s really special and a lot of family can come watch me wrestle, especially my grandparents.”

Former McHenry coach Jake Guardalabene , who stepped down following the season, watched Hallin grow as a wrestler during his time at McHenry and try to balance an abnormal recruiting process. Guardalabene said it was a tough process for one of the better wrestlers in the state, but he thought both Hallin and his new school will benefit from the delayed connection.

“I think they’re getting a steal with Brody,” Guardalabene said. “I think the best is yet to come for him.”

Now Hallin is looking forward to finishing his senior year and for what’s next for him in DeKalb.

“I’m ecstatic,” Hallin said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. I can’t wait to train with the team.”