Jasmine Rene - '22

Meet Jasmine Rene, a current sophomore at Wheeling High School. She is the youngest of five older brothers and graduated from Mark Twain Elementary and Holmes Middle School. During her time at Twain a very memorable experience was her gym teacher, Mr Oberman.  “He would always push you out of your comfort zone with exercises which really sticks with me now because whenever I work out I know I can do better then I think I can do.” She goes on to say how grateful she is that he taught her to “do better than what you think your body can handle.” This now helps her a lot in her training for wrestling. 

In middle school Jasmine had her first spark of desire to join wrestling, but that was quickly overturned when a friend asked her to try out for volleyball and she made the team. Flash forward to her freshman year. The season had already started and Jasmine was at first uncertain on whether she should join the team. Then when she was wandering past the wrestling room she saw the girls practicing and asked if she could still join. They were thrilled to have her especially with that being the first year for the girls wrestling at Wheeling. 

With that, Jasmine flourished through her season as she became Wheeling High School and District 214’s first girl state qualifier and placed fourth. Following that she placed first in an Illinois Freestyle State Championship. Due to this win she was invited to join the 2023 Illinois Women’s National Team. At the time of this interview Jasmine is currently in Florida competing in the Scholastic Duals. 

Through her wrestling career the challenge of finding matches stayed prevalent due to the small numbers. Some events the girls would have to drive hours just to find a team with enough people to compete with. For the younger kids who are considering wrestling or wanting to try something new, Jasmine encourages them to “Go for it, even if you have just the slightest thought about joining” 

Jasmine took the risk of trying something new and it opened doors for amazing opportunities and life changing experiences. She has now found her passion and is following that path of success. The future holds many amazing things for Jasmine Rene.  

Contributed by Sofia Horwitz, Intern