When a team opens its season by winning a championship it didn’t even know it won, there’s a good chance that’s going to set the tone for a pretty special campaign.
And that has definitely been the case for the Hamilton West girls wrestling team.
One year after garnering enough wrestlers to field a full lineup for five dual meets, the Hornets kicked off its 2025-26 schedule at North Hunterdon for the Lions Classic. West did not have an individual champion but did have three girls reach the finals and eight place-winners.
When it was over, the Hornets headed back down Route 31 content that they put forth a good effort.
Little did they know how good.
The final team scores had Hamilton’s 167.5 points beating out second-place North Hunterdon by 19 points.
“We didn’t even know we won until we were on the bus home,” coach Jessica Simon-Estepp said. “One of our assistants looked at me, looked at his phone, looked back at me and said ‘We won.’ I said ‘What? We won what? The tournament?’ I was like ‘Oh wow that’s awesome!’”
It was more awesome for senior Mia Rodriguez, who started when the program was barely noticeable four years ago.
“I was shocked,” Rodriguez said. “I was like ‘There’s no way we just won a tournament.’ In a million years I never thought we were gonna win a tournament. I was so proud to be a part of a team and be part of feeling good and winning. I was like ‘Oh my God, I made it.’”
That was just the start of what turned into a magical ride.
Hamilton entered a its regular-season finale on Feb. 21 against Pemberton and Riverside with a 12-4 dual meet record, an unofficial championship at Freehold Township’s Lady Patriot Tournament (no team scores were kept but had they been, West would have won), a third-place finish at the competitive Rebel Rumble at Howell, and a second-place showing to perennial champion Trenton at the Colonial Valley Conference Tournament.
“At the (the Lady Patriot), there were 36 teams and we won out of all them,” Rodriguez said. “I think that just hyped the whole team up and encouraged everybody. Just knowing we could do it, that made a drastic impact on everybody.”
It was a typical showing for the Hornets, Again, they did not have a champion, but 126-pounder Kayla Rivera took second, while Layla Rivera (120) and Milene Rioz Ordonez (152) took second and Elizabeth Olaiya (185) and Melerys Rivera Robles (235) both placed.
It was that kind of depth that also helped the CVC Tournament.
“We brought 11 to CVCs, 10 of them made the top five, six were in the top three and we had three in the finals (Salma Abdelnabi, Hana Abdelnabi and Rios Ordonez),” Estepp said. “I can’t be mad at that. It was a great two days, the girls showed up. We were neck and neck with Trenton. It was awesome to see. We looked at each other and said ‘Hey, we’re the two best programs in the CVC, we must be doing something right.’”
They sure are and their growth has been as rapid as a first-period pin.
The program started in 2021-22, and in the first three years West only had enough wrestlers to go into individual tournaments.
“My freshman year (2022-23), it was six girls on the team and three of us were freshmen, and I was like ‘I’m scared,’” Rodriguez said with a laugh. “But the older girls really just helped me a lot and inspired me to do better. My sophomore year a couple more came.”
Rodriguez and a teammate developed a simplistic recruiting pitch.
“We used to just go up to people in the hallway and say ‘Hey! You should join our team! It’s honestly so much fun.’”
Combine that with the hiring of Estepp prior to last season, and things started happening.
“Oh my gosh, she made a drastic impact,” Rodriguez said. “When I’m wrestling all I hear is ‘You got it girl!’ I just hear her encouragement. Honestly that makes a huge impact.”
The kind of impact Athletic Director John Costantino figured she could make.
“The moment I knew girls wrestling at Hamilton West was going to explode, I targeted Jess to coach,” Costantino said. “I have known her for a long time and she has the enthusiasm to promote the sport and, more than that, she has the respect of our students.
“She is someone that kids gravitate to because she is as real as it gets and she pulls no punches with the kids. Jess comes from a wrestling family, and when I say wrestling family, I’m talking about one that probably talks wrestling at the dinner table.”
Her brother, Joe Pollard, was a standout at Nottingham and Peddie and is now a Rutgers assistant. Jessica and her family were constantly around the sport when Jess attended Nottingham.
Estepp had coaching experience, helping out the softball and track & field teams at Hamilton when she began teaching there in 2000.
It had been 20 years since she last coached, however, and she never wrestled. Thus, when Costantino offered her the job, there was hesitance until she made some phone calls.
The first was to boys coach Gerard Belviso, who she taught when he was a West student.
“We had a conversation and it was the exact mood I needed to feel good about it,” Estepp said. “He said ‘Listen, you know how to teach, you know how to coach. This is more than just wrestling, it’s about building these kids, it’s about character, it’s about helping them be successful on and off the mat.
“That really resonated with me because that’s my teaching mentality as well. It’s like ‘You’re gonna leave here in a couple of years, what can we do to make sure you’re more successful when you leave this place?’”
She then called her dad, whose short-but-sweet speech was “Yeah, just go for it.” That was followed by a call to Pollard.
“He said ‘Jess, you can 100 percent do this,” Estepp said. “I said ‘Joseph, I’ve never wrestled before.’ He said ‘How many coaches in high school have coached a sport they’ve never done? The difference is, you know the sport more than you think you do.’”
So she took the reins and between the recruiting by herself and her holdover wrestlers, 15 wrestlers helped Hamilton to a 4-1 record last year and Hana Abdelbani qualified for the state tournament as a sophomore.
“When I came into the wrestling room junior year and saw all the girls show up I was shocked,” Rodriguez said. “I was like ‘Oh my gosh, there’s so many! I’m so happy.’ I never thought I was going to be able to think about being in a (full) girls lineup throughout my four years. Now we have even more where we can get girls for JV matches.”
This year’s main starting lineup (with records as of Feb. 20) features senior Karla Salguero (100 pounds), Keira Villatoro (107; 15-15 record), Empress Shine (14-6) and Sam Barker at 114, junior Layla Rivera (120; 27-6), freshman Salma Abdelnabi (126, 23-10, CVC finalist), junior Kayla Rivera (126-32; 14-8), senior Sam Garcia (132, 21-7), Hana Abdelnabi (138, 7-3), Rodriguez (145, 16-9), junior Milene Rios Ordonez (152, 24-6), senior Angelina Santiago (165, 13-11), junior Elizabeth Olaiya (185, 19-9) and Melerys Rivera Robles (235, 14-13).
The Hornets sudden rise can be attributed to several things; one being that they now have a coach in the building. When Belviso oversaw the program he was at Grice, and with Estepp teaching at Hamilton, she was there all the time (Belviso is now teaching at West).
“Speaking for the team, having somebody in the building to go to, whether it’s something about school, or whatever, really helps,” Rodriguez said. “She just came with open arms and I honestly couldn’t ask for a better coach.”
Another factor is that the boys’ coaches and wrestlers help the cause. Belviso and his assistants Zach Harding, a former Hornet standout, and Marco Gauman, a former Nottingham grappler, all help teaching technique. Harding and Gauman go with the girls when they are on the road.
And there are times the girls will go to their male counterparts for help.
“We have joint practices and they help us a lot,” Rodriguez said. “Sometimes the coaches will be going a little too fast. I know I’m a four-year varsity wrestler but sometimes I forget things. Having the boys help us out, we throw ourselves in live with them, just to get a feel of more aggression.
“They’re not gonna go easy on us just because we’re girls. I love that they don’t try to hurt us but they’re not gonna hold back. They’re always willing to help us and we joke around so it’s like a huge family.”
Estepp laughed when she recalled coming in last year. She has gained knowledge about teaching moves and techniques over the past year, but had to work at it.
“I told the girls last year, ‘Listen, I know what you’re doing is wrong but I don’t know how to fix it,’” she said, chuckling. “That became the running joke. I would not have been able to step into this program without the guidance and knowledge of Gerard, Zach and Marco.”
Estepp still does her share of coaching. She is in the corner for matches and in the room for every practice. She also puts the stats on line, checks in with trainer Jen Bauer for health reports and makes sure of the bus schedule, among other things.
“Last year was a whirlwind, not even knowing what the structure of practice looked like, or what we did, or how things ran,” Estepp said. “At the end of the season I was more knowledgeable in those fields. It was a wild ride having a girl go to states my first year. My brother said some guys coach for 30 years and never have that and I had it in year one. I said ‘It’s pretty cool, I’m enjoying it.”
The coach has also been aided by her seniors, who have taken on a leadership role on the mat, in the hallway and in the classroom. They have patience when working with the underclassmen, and there are times they will intercept girls to give advice after a match before Estepp can even get to them.
But make no mistake, the coach has valuable things to say.
“Her best quality is that she can motivate kids to do better, be better and be the best version of themselves which they will take with them the rest of their lives,” Costantino said. “She is a difference maker.”
With the District 19 Tournament coming up on March 1, Estepp and Rodriguez both feel the Hornets can get a good amount of girls into the regions and possibly a few more to states.
“It’s been a wild ride this year,” Estepp said. “I don’t think we anticipated the success we’ve had. It’s been amazing. Just the vibe in the building is great. Coaches will stop some of my girls or stop me and say ‘Coach, you had another win last night.’ I’m like ‘Yup, it was pretty cool.’”
But within all the success is still the core mission – make better human beings. Wins are nice, but they aren’t everything.
“I don’t think the plan ever changed that much,” Estepp said. “I want the girls to learn; not just in the room but out of the room. I want them to have fun. I want them to form a camaraderie and be a team with the boys, and to be there with each other.
“Winning matches is awesome but it’s the losses that also help build character. If they come off the mat upset I say ‘You’ve got two minutes. And then fix your face and handle your business.’”
For the most part this season, business has been booming.
The Hamilton High School West girls’ wrestling team for 2025-26.,
