Recent Red Raider ready to guide girls wrestling
HUNTLEY — Gannon Kosowski completed his high school wrestling career as a state qualifier, just a few years ago, at 152 pounds at the 2019 IHSA State Meet. He was coached by current boys head wrestling coach BJ Bertelsman.
Kosowski may now wear a whistle for drills as the new head girls wrestling coach for the Red Raiders. This is the first season of separate head coaches and teams for girls and boys wrestling. He is eager to get going and continue success of the girls squad. Kosowski won 108 matches for the Red Raiders. He described his career on the mat.
“I competed in wrestling for 12 years and my last four years were with coach Bertelsman at HHS. During my 12 years, I qualified for state twice in high school and competed in multiple state series in IKWF and IESA. This is my first season coaching, I have coached some off-season wrestling but that is the extent of my coaching experience,” Kosowski said.
Kosowski is ready for a successful season as workouts led to the first tournament at Minooka and duals at Palatine Fremd.
“The beginning of the season is off to a good start,” Kosowski said. “Most of the girls are relatively new to wrestling but we have a large girls program with a lot of athletes and I hope we will bring more girls down to state this year. Currently, we have about 23 girls and I’m hopeful we can get a full varsity lineup but we still need to fill in a couple of weight classes.”
Huntley placed three girls at the IHSA State Meet, as then freshman Janiah Slaughter led the way with a third place win at 100 pounds; junior Taylor Casey 110 and freshman Aubrie Rohrbacher at 125 also qualified. A senior this season is senior Jessica Olson at 140 pounds.
“The three returning state qualifiers do a good job of leading warm-ups, but as I look around the room, I see a lot of girls who could be state qualifiers,” Kosowski said.
The Red Raiders’ wrestling room is the place where seven state qualifiers and three place winners worked on their skills. Hundreds of colleges offer scholarships for women wrestlers. This year, it should be noted a regional round has been added to the IHSA post-season.
“The growth of girls wrestling just here at Huntley High School is awesome to see,” the coach said. “When I graduated in 2019 there were two girl wrestlers and now I am hoping to have a full varsity lineup.”
Coaching at the school where he learned the sport is special.
“It’s a nice change of pace,” Kosowski said of coaching. “I went to the University of Missouri and to be honest, was kind of tired of wrestling, but I missed it. I worked with wrestlers at Omega Training Center in Huntley.”
The girls, like the boys team, will travel to the Dan Gable Donneybrook meet at Coralville, Iowa, Nov. 30 – Dec. 2.
Early-season results
Sophomore Janiah Slaughter, who finished in third place at the 100-pound IHSA State Meet last season, went 3-0 and won the 105-pound bracket at Minooka’s tournament Nov. 22. Slaughter prepared for the season by competing at the National Junior wrestling tournament in Fargo, ND.
Senior Jessica Olson advanced to the final at 140 pounds but lost a 4-3 decision to end 3-1.
Senior Taylor Casey, a returning state qualifier who was 1-2 at state last season, finished 2-1 at 110 pounds for runner-up. Casey, like Slaughter, competed at Fargo this summer.
Sophomore Aubrey Rohrbacher, a returning state qualifier, was 2-1 at 130 pounds for runner-up.
Sophomore Alyssa Aguilar took fourth, with a 4-1 record, at 155 pounds.
