Each month Collier County Public Schools select district high school All-Stars to recognize for being leaders on and off the field of play or for being up-and-rising stars. The Naples Daily News will sit down with some of these student-athletes so you can meet the county's honorees.
Hayle Peck is a senior wrestler at Palmetto Ridge. After two years of falling one round short of the state meet, Peck earned a fifth-place finish in this year's championship tournament. Peck, who helped build the Bears' girls wrestling program as an inaugural team member, took home silver in the district and regional tournaments in the 105 class, all while being dual enrollment student and maintaining a 4.7 weighted GPA. The Naples Daily News sat down with Peck to learn more about her.
Question: What is your favorite memory at Palmetto Ridge?
Peck: I would say my favorite memory at Palmetto Ridge was actually recently when we went to Grad Bash. It was really fun getting to hang out with friends, and the teacher chaperones outside of school, and getting to see people from other schools. I had a lot of fun doing that. And of course kind of like, saying goodbye to the class of 2024.
What's an athletic accomplishment you're most proud of?
Peck: It'd definitely be placing at states this year. My first year that I wrestled, sophomore year, I fell short from qualifying for states by one match. I lost in the regional blood rounds. And then my junior year, I was one match short from placing at states and I lost in the blood rounds again. Then at states this year I made it to fifth place. It was very nice because when you're so close, and then you lose, it's the worst feeling ever. To be honest, I walked in that state tournament, and I was not the most confident. My goal was to place, but I was not like 100% sure I was going to place. I was kind of timid and even wrestling before every match, I was nervous 100%. And then when I secured my placing spot and then I just had to worry about trying to place as high as I can, it felt really nice.
What are some challenges you overcame in your time at Palmetto Ridge?
Peck: Yeah, there were a lot of challenges, especially me and one other girl were the first ones to start the girls wrestling program at Palmetto Ridge. So basically, starting the program was a challenge. Obviously, the coaches getting used to girls being in the room, the boys getting used to girls being on the team, that was definitely a challenge but everyone worked well with us and definitely supported us. And then having, even this year, I think we only had six girls on our team. So having a small team, that was a challenge. We couldn't really compete team-wise, like we never really got enough points to place as a team with only six girls. And then placing was a big challenge. Just improving every year. I wrestled at 100 pounds my sophomore and junior year and then went up to 105 this year. So getting used to a new weight was a challenge. There's quite a few, but I feel like we had good support systems with the coaches, and my parents, and teammates. So every challenge I was able to overcome.
What advice would you give to incoming varsity athletes?
Peck: My No. 1 piece of advice is don't give up. I when I first started wrestling, I lost match after match and had my head down, just thought I would never go anywhere with it. And then one tournament, I won my first match and then it just clicked. But that tournament, I literally was like "I'm gonna quit", I had it in my head of quitting after this tournament. And then I won a match. So you cannot give up, and you have to trust the process because wrestling, it's not an easy sport. You'll leave practice exhausted, your body's tired, you're cutting weight, everything's telling you to give up but you can't. You have to keep pushing.
What was your favorite class or subject?
Peck: I really liked this class because of the teacher mostly. It was world history. My teacher was Mr. Silvanik, he was the best teacher ever. He no longer works at The Ridge anymore. But I am not a big history fan so I took that class and he made things so interesting and obviously, it's history so it's kind of boring, to me at least. But yeah, the way he taught was very engaging and I enjoyed that a lot. Instead of just listening to lecture after lecture and taking notes and stuff, he made the class very fun.
Do you have any pre-meet superstitions or rituals?
Peck: This year, we actually started one. Me and Zoey McDonald were running laps around the school to cut weight because we were always the ones overweight. And we found this plastic pair of green sunglasses and I picked them up while we were running our laps. And I'm like, "Maybe these are good luck." So every single tournament starting from the preseason tournament all the way to states, we brought those glasses and all of us would do a little dance with the glasses on and that was good luck. And I remember one tournament one of our girls didn't put the glasses on and then she lost and everyone else won. So we're like, "The glasses work! The glasses work!" That was our superstition of the year. And now I'm going to pass them down to one of the other girls, of course. But that just started this year. As far as personally, I'm saying a prayer before every single match and asking for strength and for safety and everything before every match. I always do this weird thing where I kind of like slap my legs and fix my knee pads. But it's not like I purposely do it. It just happens.
What's your go-to hype music before competing?
Peck: I listen to Eminem. Eminem is definitely my No. 1 - Lose Yourself by Eminem. That is my No. 1 song to listen to. Just a lot of rap songs.
Do you have a favorite pro athlete or team?
Peck: It was Helen Maroulis, she had a documentary and I went to the movie theater to watch it and it was really inspiring because it was kind of telling her journey on how she was one of the first girls to start wrestling too, and being with the boys and practicing with the boys all her life and I related to it so much. So ever since then, I've been following her and just watching her grow. Recently she was at World Team trials and I was watching her. So definitely Helen Maroulis. I definitely take stuff away from her when it comes to mindset and just motivation, like seeing her and how many things she's accomplished. She started wrestling at a much younger age than me, but it's very inspiring.
What do you like to eat after weigh-ins?
Peck: After weigh-ins when we're all starving, it's a tradition for us to all go to Olive Garden because we want to get a big carb load in so we get big pasta dishes and breadsticks, of course. That's when we weigh in and then have to wrestle the next day. But after meets, I would say I go for the junk food. We go to Chili's, different little restaurants like that, but after weigh-ins, it's Olive Garden.
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