Sophomore Ava Gugino is breaking unspoken barriers and challenging social norms by being the only girl on Algonquin’s wrestling team.

Gugino, who began wrestling her freshman year, recently finished her second season on the team. Gugino’s dad first sparked her love for the sport. As a former Algonquin wrestler himself, he brought his daughter to various matches growing up and introduced her to his friend, the head wrestling coach at St. John’s who ended up inspiring her to pursue her interest further.

Despite being in the vast minority as a female wrestler, Gugino has refused to let anyone push her away from the sport.

“I just tell [people] off the bat, ‘I’m Ava, I’m going to be here. You need to grow to be okay with it,’” Gugino said.

As a freshman, Gugino originally joined the team with another girl who ended up moving away shortly after, leaving Gugino as the only female in a male-dominated sport. Despite initial nerves, she continued her first season and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Gugino grew close with the rest of the team and now feels extremely comfortable being the only girl.

“We say ‘Hi’ in the halls now; it’s not awkward at all,”  Gugino said. “It feels like one big happy family.”

Gugino says her comfort is thanks to both her welcoming teammates and the accommodating coaches, who made sure she would only wrestle boys if she was willing.

“It’s kind of just one of those things where even though it’s an individual sport, the team that you practice with just becomes that thing that you need, because everyone is just standing on the mats supporting each other,” Gugino said. “You could be a freshman, no one could know your name, and you are still going to hear someone on the side going, ‘Do this move, do that one!’”

Midway through this season, juniors Ephraim Dupont and Jasper Gorgone joined the team’s only senior, Luke Daunais, as co-captains. Together, the captains are responsible for running practices and drills, as well as keeping the team comradery. They are happy to have Gugino on the team, and hope more underclassmen follow in her footsteps.

“I was glad that we had an expanding team, because it brings more diversity to the team,” Dupont said. “And the team is kind of small to begin with, so it was good to have more players.”

Despite the support from her team, Gugino’s season did not come without strife. In a match on January 17, Gugino started out strong until her collarbone broke when her opponent pulled her arm in a swift motion.

“The kid just happened to pull my arm across my body in the right way and brought me back down,” Gugino said. “I’m double-jointed in the shoulder so my shoulder wasn’t blocking anything. If it was, it probably would have been my shoulder that broke, but instead it was just my collarbone.”

Gugino is able to laugh about the story now and refuses to let her injury slow her down. She is recovering quickly and should be back for next season with the help of physical therapy.

“It didn’t stop me though,” Gugino said. “I was at every practice, every meet that I could, constantly trying to be there. To me, if I miss something, it’s a chance to miss hanging out with the team, it’s a chance to miss a whole lot of fun.”

Gugino plans to continue wrestling for her remaining high school years and hopefully in college as well. She has begun to consider different schools, yet finds that only some have the thing she really cares about.

“It’s difficult because most colleges will offer men’s wrestling, but they won’t offer women’s,” Gugino said. “So it makes it hard to look at a college and be like, ‘They have everything I want, but wrestling.’ And it’s not something I want to give up yet.”

In her time left on the Algonquin team, Gugino is hopeful that other girls can share the passion she has found for wrestling. When talking to friends who have already graduated, she discovered several girls regretted not trying wrestling because they were too intimidated by its reputation for being rough and dangerous.

“I know a lot of people have the misconception of wrestling that it’s…gross and violent and not fun, and men should stick to it and girls shouldn’t. But, I will always recommend a girl to join,” Gugino said.

This story was originally published on The Harbinger on April 29, 2026.