Wrestling at 115-pounds, Dialeen French was the Greater Wichita Athletic League Outstanding Female Wrestler last year as a junior and she led the women’s program at North High School to win the inaugural GWAL women’s wrestling championship. Now a senior, French is carrying a 4.0 GPA and has accepted a full ride academic scholarship to the University of Chicago. Her journey to this point started her freshman year in high school.

“I started wrestling my freshman year of high school in October of 2017. I always wanted to do a sport once I went into high school as I didn’t do any during middle school and I thought that wrestling would be a fun sport to do as well as a good opportunity to get out of my comfort zone,” said French.

Being part of the team at North takes hard work and dedication to the sport and to each other.

“I love my team and teammates so much because we’re like a big family. We might argue and hate each other at times but we will be willing to defend and support each other whenever we need it, especially if someone from another team is talking bad about them or if they had a bad match. We support each other through all of our wins and our losses. We can always count on each other for comfort, words of encouragement or that boost of confidence before a match,” said French.