Mary Minogue needed a break from wrestling.

Entering her freshman year at Libertyville, Mary Minogue was an up-and-coming talent who had already qualified for state as a middle schooler competing against boys.

“I’d been doing wrestling and had been so successful at it,” she said. “But I was just tired of it all.”

So Mary Minogue decided to take a year off from the sport.

“It was a big decision at the time and a little controversial,” she said. “I knew I was good at wrestling, but I just wasn’t as mentally into it as I used to be. I was kind of sick of it. I was just like, ‘You know what? If I’m this stressed about wrestling, I’m just not going to do it.’”

Mary Minogue’s mother, Andrea, just wanted what was best for her.

“She had found great success in wrestling and struggled with the feeling of letting people down,” Andrea Minogue said. “Burnout is real, and we were incredibly proud that she identified it and was able to articulate it.”

Mary Minogue leaped into gymnastics, cross country and lacrosse instead. But she couldn’t stay away from wrestling for long.

A hypercompetitive athlete who had been involved in combat sports since she was 3 years old, Mary Minogue made her return to the mat with a renewed vigor as a sophomore last season.

“She woke up one day with the spark back,” Andrea Minogue said. “It was a much-needed break, and she came back a better athlete for it.”

Libertyville’s Mary Minogue, top, trains with a teammate during a practice on campus on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (Brian O’Mahoney / News-Sun)

Refreshed, Mary Minogue thrived in her first season as a high school wrestler. She qualified for the state meet, where she placed sixth in the 120-pound weight class.

“If I didn’t take that year away from it, I wouldn’t have realized how much I actually do enjoy it,” Mary Minogue said. “I wouldn’t have refound my spark and my passion for it.”

With regionals on tap this week, Mary Minogue’s focus is on leaving sixth place in the dust.

“I’m going to try and win state,” she said. “I mean, there’s no point in going to a tournament if you’re not there to try and win it. You might as well go big or go home.”

Mary Minogue’s confidence stems from her 15 years in combat sports. She was 3 when her parents, Andrea and TJ Minogue, brought her to the Cohen Brothers Judo Club in Vernon Hills.

“We weren’t sure what a 3-year-old could learn about judo,” Andrea Minogue said. “But her dad wanted her to get the confidence of knowing self-defense at a young age.”

By her fifth birthday, Mary Minogue was racking up victories against her peers. Within a few years, she was the best of the bunch. Judo molded not just her athleticism but her mind too.

“Throughout her whole schooling, her teachers always commented on her presence and her confidence,” Andrea Minogue said. “That came from judo.”

At Highland Middle School, Mary Minogue threw herself into wrestling with her signature determination. Libertyville wrestling coach Dale Eggert, a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, said he will never forget the first time he watched her wrestle. She was in seventh grade.

“She wrestled a really good kid from Oak Grove,” Eggert said. “I was like, ‘Oh boy, good luck to her.’ She had only been wrestling for three or four weeks before, and that kid had been wrestling since he was like 5. I thought it’d be a 15-second pin.”

Mary Minogue emerged victorious against that boy — and against most of her other competition back then.

“She just kept fighting,” Eggert said. “She didn’t back down a bit.”

Libertyville’s Mary Minogue, shown during a practice on campus on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, got started in combat sports as a 3-year-old in judo. (Brian O’Mahoney / News-Sun)

Never backing down is what Mary Minogue cherishes about wrestling.

“There’s no limit to how great you can be if you’re putting in your full effort all the time,” she said. “When I’m at practice, and I’m dead tired, and I’m still just pushing and pushing, all of a sudden it goes from a physical battle to mental. It’s like, ‘How badly do I want this?’”

After missing nearly a month with a left shoulder injury, Mary Minogue is her typically assertive self.

“It’s better to be overly confident and wildly ambitious than just set little goals,” she said. “You might as well go in thinking, ‘I’m the best. I’m going to win everything.’”

Sam Brief is a freelance reporter.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/04/libertyville-high-school-wrestling-mary-minogue/