Hononegah's surge, and lots of NIC-10 changes lead area wrestling storylines for 2023-24

Things are starting to really get cooking around Thanksgiving in the NIC-10 wrestling world, and there have been a lot of changes from last season to now.

There seems to have even been a lot of changes of late.

More: Rockford-area wrestling Freeport's Cadence Diduch has another national wrestling title

All the movements, newbies and different faces will make for a fun and interesting season, which is just kicking off.

"It's definitely a different time," said Danny Martinez, the head coach of the Belvidere co-op program, which has over 60 kids in the wrestling room, but lost its top two wrestlers to transfers. "I don't think Belvidere has ever seen anything like this before. It's a complete program in the making, and we expect to be competitive and good for the forseeable future."

Belvidere's growth and change is just one of the big stories that are surfacing heading into the Rockford-area wrestling season.

Here are the top 5 storylines headed into 2023-24 wrestling season:

1) Hononegah has two new Cassioppi's

First it was Tony Cassioppi, who earned back-to-back state titles for Hononegah in 2017 and 2018; then Giovanni Cassioppi placed fifth in the state in 2015; followed by Rose and Angelina Cassioppi's state titles in the first IHSA girls state wrestling championships in 2022. Angelina did it again in 2023. Rose is now just starting her first season as a member of the first-ever Iowa Hawkeyes women's wrestling program.

Now it's Rocco and Bruno's turn to give it a try. These younger brothers were each Fargo All-Americans, and each medaled at IKWF state more than once and were both members of Team Illinois multiple times as well. Now they are freshmen at Hononegah, and ready to help spark this team.

"They just might turn out to be complete studs," Belvidere sophomore Geren Stapleton, around the same weight (120), said of Bruno and Rocco. "I know a lot is expected of them because of their last name. Everybody will be ready."

Late last summer Rocco was a double champ for Freestyle and Greco at the U15 Pan American Trials. He will follow in the footsteps of his brother Tony and his sister Rose by representing Team USA in the Pan-Am Games. Before that, Bruno was a national runner-up at the USA Nationals earlier in the summer.

2) Dakota's state champ T.J. Silva migrates to Hononegah

And, Hononegah got another incoming star when T.J. Silva moved in. Silva placed second as a freshman and won a state title as a sophomore at Class 1A Dakota last year. Now he will give it a shot at 2A Hononegah.

Silva went 38-2 last year and won his first state championship with a late-match hip toss. He finished runner-up at 132 the year before, but dropped down to 126 where he won it all the next year. It will be interesting to see what weight class all of these middle-weight stars wind up wrestling at.

"There are a few of those kind of weight classes this year," Martinez said. "At least it looks that way now. A lot can change. A lot already has."

3) So... Hononegah is stacked

So the Cassioppi twins aren't the only weapons that Hononegah brings to the table. Hononegah looks like a state-tournament contender early on this season. This is a team that won six straight NIC-10 championships, including 11 of 14 NIC-10 up until 2019, and won 12 regionals from 1992-2016. But the program struggled for a handful of seasons.

Now, after battling hard but losing out on the NIC-10 tournament title to Belvidere last year, Hononegah appears poised to take that back, and could be in contention for more.

4) Belvidere’s 2 stars left, but the Bucs still look strong

Belvidere's co-op lost Brayden Teunissen (Marian Catholic in Woodstock) and Colin Young (IC Catholic Prep in Elmhurst) in the offseason, one that placed second at state (Teunissen) and another took fourth (Young). They left for private-school programs that are in lower classes than Belvidere's 3A.

Still, Belvidere had 60-plus wrestlers on the roster, and two NIC-10 champs return to try and help lead this team to another conference title. Bryson Teunissen and Dominick Girardin both won conference titles.

The coaches' son, Diego Martinez, comes in as an instant threat at 106, and freshman Malacha Heath took over the spot at 190 early on, and he will be one to be reckoned with in the NIC-10 right away as well.

So they just might be able to weather the storm.

"We'll see, but these kids are here everyday, working hard, and doing what they need to," Coach Martinez said.

5) Cadence Diduch poised for another run

Along with Hononegah junior Angelina Cassioppi and Boylan junior Netavia Wickson, Freeport senior Cadence Diduch will be returning looking for another state title. Diduch and Cassioppi will each be shooting for their third in a row.

"I'm really looking forward to all of it. This year is a big one," said Diduch, who was getting ready to help host the first Freeport Women's Wrestling Invitational on Saturday. "There are just a lot more tournaments and a lot more girls to wrestle against out there now... I want another state title."

Diduch, who has never lost to another girl in an IHSA match, just signed to wrestle on the women's program at Iowa next season, alongside Rose Cassioppi.

"My future is looking fun, so I just want to finish this off strong," Diduch said of her high school career. "First another state title, then next up: Iowa."

Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @JayTaft. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a wide variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears to youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star, and for over 30 years all together.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Check out 5 storylines to watch for as new prep wrestling season begins