UPTOWN — On the Uplift Community High School wrestling team, 18-year-old Teshell Elverton spends most of her time beating the boys.
Elverton has been wrestling for the Uptown school's team, which is made up of mostly boys, since her sophomore year.
Before a friend encouraged her to join the team, Elverton said she "had no idea girls could wrestle." But it didn't take long for her to be hooked on the sport. She pinned the first boy she wrestled in the first 15 seconds.
"I was like, 'Yeah, this is what I want to do,'" Elverton said, adding that she "fell in love" with the sport then.
That victory was the first of many to come for Elverton, who now defeats boys in wrestling "a lot," according to her coach, Rick Alboyd.
Mina Bloom says Elverton brushes off any negativity:
At one of the school's tournaments, a different coach asked her if she'd like to join another league — one without boys. Eager to wrestle as often as possible, Elverton jumped at the chance to join the all-girls league, Team Illinois.
It was through this team that Elverton, who lives in Ashburn on the South Side, recently became a girls wrestling state champion. This month she won first place in the league's state competition and fifth place in the Girls Folkstyle Nationals competition, held in Oklahoma City, Okla.
The senior practices for at least two hours a day and considers wrestling her life. In fact, she recently accepted a partial scholarship to wrestle for a women's team at McKendree University in Lebanon, Ill.
"There are times when I'm like, 'I want to be a normal girl for once,'" Elverton said. "I practice every day so there's no point in getting my hair done or my nails polished. But the more I wrestle, the more I want to take it far."
When Elverton's not wrestling for Team Illinois, she's grappling for Uplift's team, where she mostly wrestles boys. She calls herself and her friend "trailblazers" because eight girls joined the predominately boys team her junior year after Elverton and her friend were the only girls on the team the year before.
She said wrestling boys made her feel "so scared" at first, but that the fear only motivated her.
"I don't like conflict, that's not my thing," Elverton said. "But kicking a boy's butt ... that is awesome."
But the "challenge" goes both ways, she said.
"Some guys are like, 'I don't want to wrestle her. She's a girl,'" she said.
She also recalled a time when she beat a boy and his friends teased him, saying "You lost to a girl!"
"I wouldn't want to discourage anyone [from wrestling]. He looked pretty sad," she said.
Elverton's family, while very supportive, aren't sure what to make of her wrestling career, she said.
"My grandmother is like, 'Why are you wrestling boys?' She's concerned for my safety. But it's something I love to do," she said.
Alboyd has been coaching wrestling at Uplift since the school started offering the sport eight years ago. He also coaches other sports like football.
He said Elverton is his first state wrestling champion since he started his coaching career in 1993 — boys included.
"My policy was for a while that [wrestling] is too tough on girls, but [Elverton] won me over," he said.
"She's disciplined, she listens and she's smart. She uses her mind on the mat. I think she's going to be great at the next level," he said.
According to Alboyd, girls wrestling is growing in popularity.
"It's moving so fast, it's amazing," he said.
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