How an 11-year-old Germantown Hills girl became a wrestling national champion

PEORIA — Wrestling has a firm grip on Calliope Willman's heart.

A whirlwind of energy and optimism, the Germantown Hills Middle School fifth-grader is a two-time USA Wrestling national champion in Folkstyle and a national champion in Freestyle.

And she is just 11 years old.

"I love wrestling," she said. "I just love it."

Willman and her father, Ian, who also serves as her coach, want to help build wrestling as a destination sport for girls in the area.

"My dad asked me if I wanted to try wrestling when I was 6, and I was scared to wrestle other kids because I thought I was going to get hurt," she said. "But I loved it after just a few weeks. It was so much fun.

"I lost that first match, I was so nervous. But it was perfect for me, because I can't sit still. I practice 90 minutes a day, 4-5 days a week and wrestle in tournaments on the weekends. I've learned you just be yourself on the mat and accept being challenged and challenge yourself."

She was one of eight girls in the 12-under 80-pound weight class at the 2022 USA Girls Wrestling Folkstyle Nationals at Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs, Colo., on March 18-20.

More:Richwoods paces 14 Peoria-area girls wrestlers headed to the inaugural IHSA girls state

And she won the national title. Willman beat Sophia Hennigh (New Mexico) by fall at 46 seconds, then Tenley Hemmingsen (Iowa) by fall at 1:20 and, in the title match, beat Aspen Walker (Kansas) by fall at 18 seconds.

She departs in May for a national tournament in Texas, where she'll try to win her second Freestyle title.

37-6 against boys on the mat

Harrison, Ohio, is a city of about 12,000 in the Cincinnati area.

It's a big wrestling community, one in which Ian Willman grew up and served as a youth wrestling coach and helped build the Athena Wrestling Club, the first all-girls wrestling club in Ohio.

He moved his family to Germantown Hills when he became president and general manager of Foremost Industrial Technology in Peoria in 2021.

And the family love for wrestling came with them. Calliope Willman and her brothers, Emerson, 7, and Brennen, 13, scrap in a 20-foot-by-18-foot wrestling room in their house.

IHSA girls wrestling state:Peoria-area matches, schedules and results

Those sessions don't always go so well for the boys. Calliope has a 37-6 match and tournament record against boys in her wrestling career. She's played some football, too.

She joined the Metamora Kids Wrestling Club, an Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation sanctioned group that includes about 140 wrestlers K-8th grade. Only two are girls.

"I was scared I wouldn't be accepted, because most of the club are boys," she said. "I just beat a boy in a club tournament recently. But I've earned their respect, and they've made me feel welcome."

Ian Willman wants to build an all-girls wrestling club in the Germantown Hills-Metamora area and grow female participation in the sport.

"Ultimately, we'd like to have a Metamora High School girls wrestling team," he said. "That's the goal."

His daughter hopes to compete on such a team. And later, coach the game. 

"I would love to wrestle in the Olympics and coach when I get older," Calliope Willman said. "And I think I'd like to be a veterinarian specializing in large animals, farm animals. Or maybe a teacher.

"But coaching wrestling, that's already something I get to help younger kids and it's so much I fun, I love to do it."

Ian Willman's idea for a girls wrestling club would incorporate elements of gymnastics, tumbling and other agility drills.

"Wrestling has a certain stigma to it for girls," Willman said. "Most girls don't want to wrestle because they know they'll have to wrestle boys."

You get sand in your eyes

Women's wrestling is a growing sport and the wrestling game is booming on the women's side. 

From 2019:Richwoods girls wrestling team sets the tone in the sport

"The fastest in America right now," Ian Willman said. "I was really happy when we moved here, because it was more opportunities to wrestle. The path from these youth clubs starts you on the way to high school competition, then Pan Am games and ultimately Olympic Trials."

And an occasional beach. Apparently, beach wrestling is a growing thing, too. 

"It's exactly what it sounds like," Calliope Willman said. "First person to get three points wins. You get sand in your eyes. But when the match ends, you just run right into the ocean."

A special fifth-grader

Calliope Willman is passionate about wrestling. She commits to a special diet, very physical workout regimen, wrestles in tournaments most weekends.

"I cannot express how hard this young girl works, and all the difficulties she overcomes to even step on the mat being a female," Ian Willman said. "She is an amazing person, day in and day out, in her school, and in her community."

Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. Reach him at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.