Kane County Chronicle Athlete of the Week: Tyler Perry, Marmion, wrestling, senior

Name: Tyler Perry

School: Marmion

Sport: Wrestling, senior

Why he was selected: Perry won the 170-pound title to lead the Cadets to the Moore-Prettyman Memorial Invitational team title at Barrington. The Kane County Chronicle Athlete of the Week is presented by Don McCue Chevrolet in St. Charles.

Sports reporter Jacob Bartelson caught up with Perry to discuss his season.

Bartelson: What was the key to prevailing for the 170-pound title?

Perry: I’d say [maintaining] a high pace; [making] sure my feet are moving and my hands are moving the whole time. [And] wearing kids out and going as hard as I can during the match.

Bartelson: I haven’t seen you wrestle in person yet. How would you characterize your style of wrestling?

Perry: I’d say [again maintaining] a really high pace. I don’t like to let my opponent breathe. I just like to put it on people, just wrestle really hard and break kids as much as I can when you get those bonus points.

Bartelson: Have you always approached your matches in a seemingly more aggressive way?

Perry: I do take it a little more defensively in the beginning and then I really turn on in the second and third periods. Then those bigger guys are worn out from me wrestling so hard.

Bartelson: Do you play football? Do you use it to stay in shape and wrestling is a vice-versa thing?

Perry: No. I was a small kid. I wrestled 106 pounds my freshman year. When I played football [back then] I didn’t really like it. I would hit people as hard as I could. ... It just didn’t work out for me. But now that I’ve grown to 170, I wish I did play football because there are a lot of benefits and I’ve seen it through my teammates like Jack Lesher.

Bartelson: What drew you to wrestling and what does it give you?

Perry: My dad was a wrestler and he introduced me to the sport when I was about 5 years old. [At first], I didn’t like it. ... Then a couple years later, I started to warm up to it. I started to see some success and see my hard work pay off. I just instantly fell in love because if you can just keep putting hard work into something and you see the success, it’s mind-blowing.