Chris Hawthorne had to choose between two equally good options when it came time to pick a high school.
The Oak Park resident could either go to Fenwick or Oak Park and River Forest.
Both institutions offer excellent academic and athletic opportunities, so Hawthorne couldn’t go wrong.
The decision turned out to be Fenwick, though it wasn’t his to make.
“Really it was a decision by my mother [Tammy],” Hawthorne recalled. “But when I got to Fenwick I saw why it was a great decision.
“I really love Fenwick. The academics are great but I really love the people there. They’re always looking out for you and want to help you succeed.”
Hawthorne, now a 5-11, 220-pound senior, has succeeded beyond his wildest imagination. The football and wrestling star has earned seven varsity letters and will play football at either Illinois Wesleyan or Loras.
Hawthorne is waiting until after the wrestling season to decide on which college he will attend. That makes sense because he’s a little busy putting the finishing touches on an outstanding high school career.
Hawthorne’s talents on the football field, where he was a three-year starter on the defensive line, were evident before he came to Fenwick. But his wrestling success – he finished second at the Class 2A Elmwood Park Regional championship at 220 pounds last Saturday to qualify for the Antioch Sectional – came out of nowhere.
Though Hawthorne had wrestled a little bit in fifth grade, his middle school did not have a team so he had little practical experience when he enrolled at Fenwick and thus no idea he would morph into such a tough grappler.
“Not at all. My freshman year I got pulled into the varsity to fill a hole in the lineup,” Hawthorne said. “I lost every one of my matches freshman year. My confidence was really low and I didn’t know whether I wanted to continue.”
Hawthorne did persevere and the Friars are glad he did. Now a co-captain along with Ben Uphues, Al Aguilar and Matt Bindon, Hawthorne (21-10) leads the team in wins.
The transformation did not happen overnight and took a lot of hard work, but Hawthorne has become consistently good.
“My eye-opening moment was junior year,” Hawthorne said. “There was a kid that I lost to earlier in the year and I felt like I couldn’t beat this kid even if we wrestled a million times.
“Then I faced him at [the Chicago Catholic League meet] and I beat him and something clicked in me.”
Hawthorne finished third at that Catholic League meet. He did not advance out of regionals last winter but this season has placed in every tournament he has entered.
“This season has been going better than I expected,” Hawthorne said. “I just feel confident wrestling this year.”
Fenwick coach Tony Poro appreciates the effort Hawthorne and the Friars’ coaching staff have put in.
“He’s meant a lot [to the program],” Poro said. “A lot of kids come to Fenwick as freshmen and it’s the first time they’ve wrestled.
“Chris has an eagerness to learn. He’s always asking about movement and skills, how to manage a match.”
Hawthorne is somewhat of an anomaly in that he moves well for a big man and scores a lot of points. Many matches in the upper weight classes can be plodding affairs because it is hard for big muscles to move other big muscles, but Hawthorne doesn’t have that problem.
Hawthorne said he comes from a family of natural athletes. His mother was a three-sport athlete in high school in Louisiana.
“He moves well,” Poro said. “His speed is very rare for someone at 220. A lot of heavier weights take a lot of head shots and don’t move around, but he shoots well and he’ll hit low singles. He’s more offensive-minded.”
Part of that mentality comes from Hawthorne’s football training, where he’s accustomed to attacking quarterbacks and running backs. But it also came from necessity.
“My entire life I’ve always been the fast big guy,” Hawthorne said. “But when I was a freshman we only had one other big guy and he was a heavyweight who wasn’t very good.
“So I was always practicing with guys below my weight. I just mimicked them because I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Rest assured he does now. The only remaining question is: how far is he going?
Hawthorne is unranked by IllinoisMatmen.com but he and Poro both think a trip to the state finals in Champaign is within reach.
“I think he can make it downstate and if he works hard, as we’ve seen in years past, anything can happy at state,” Poro said. “Upsets happen and kids that no one expects anything from end up doing very well.
“Chris is a good worker. He’s got the hard work and the tools and the mental toughness to succeed.”
While Hawthorne doesn’t regret attending Fenwick, the irony should he qualify for state is that he’d have a higher profile if he attended OPRF, the defending state champion in Class 3A.
“The goal is to get downstate and experience that,” Hawthorne said. “I don’t know what that’s like but a lot of my friends from the OPRF team, they’re already talking about what they’re going to do when they win first place. I just want to experience it because I’ve never been there before.”
Regardless of how his wrestling season ends, Hawthorne has already experienced plenty of memorable moments at Fenwick. He was a key cog on a great defense that sparked the Friars’ run to back-to-back playoff appearances, including a Class 7A quarterfinal berth last fall, when he registered 40 tackles and four sacks and earned All-Catholic League honors for the second time.
“That was amazing,” Hawthorne said. “It was a great season. A lot of people didn’t expect for us to get that far.”
A lot of people, Hawthorne included, didn’t expect him to get this far in wrestling. It all goes to show, you should never doubt the big guy.
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