Picture a blotchy blue bruise on her knee instead of a little blue engine, and a slew of red cuts on her arm instead of a red caboose.

She isn’t the first female wrestler in history, nor the first at her own high school. But her story is unique in that she isn’t a wrestler at all. Or at least she wasn’t until she told her mother she was attending cheerleading practice after school, only to have her mom pick her up from wrestling practice.

“I lied to her…,” Allyson admitted. “I wanted to see if I could actually do it first before I told her.”

Head coach Paul Clough didn’t have a 106-pounder and Allyson is a few pounds short of that. “I’m proud of the fact I’m a little Tomboy,” said Allyson, who certainly doesn’t mind telling you her weight; in fact, she’s trying to gain.

Submitted Photo Youngsville Allyson Henry, left, prepares to wrestle earlier this season.

“I’m definitely proud of the fact I had the guts to go against what everyone else said,” said Allyson.

Don’t get her wrong, her parents were concerned about her getting hurt.

Her brother, Mason Henry, is also on the wrestling team.

“My brother said I wasn’t allowed, but I said I was,” said Allyson. “What excited me is that I was putting myself out there.”

The “why” part was an honest question a few wrestlers initially had.

“She had expressed interest in wrestling in the past, but was nervous about it,” Clough said. “We were pleasantly surprised that she decided to give it a try.

“Ally’s biggest strength is her eagerness to learn; she’s always trying to figure out what to do in different situations,” said Clough. “Her biggest weakness is a lack of experience. Having never wrestled until this year puts her at a disadvantage against other wrestlers with more experience. Also, because the PIAA does not officially sanction girls wrestling, she has to compete with male athletes. I hope she continues with the sport. She could really close the experience gap if she put in the work this summer and have quite a senior year.”

Other than a forfeit win, Allyson had not won until this weekend, with a 14-8 decision over Elizabeth Adcock of North East at the Union City Duals. Adcock is also a female wrestler.

Henry, a junior, said she was scared before her first-ever varsity match (well, first ever match to be completely accurate) on Jan. 25 .

“The thing that scared me the most was that I might get hurt,” said Henry. “I had no idea what I was doing.”

Her teammates have embraced her.

“The wrestling team is like one big family,” said Clough. “She’s another member of that family. Nobody treats her any differently and she doesn’t expect different treatment. She shows up to practice every day and wrestles to the best of her abilities no matter who she’s practicing with.”

Ian Mancuso spars with her in practice as they are similar in weight; when Allyson approached him to ask what he thought about her joining the team, he said, ‘It shouldn’t matter what everyone else thinks.”

Now, whether she could hack it was another story.

“I knew the conditioning would kill her,” said teammate Caden McCune.

“I am the type of person that does a lot of workouts, but easier workouts,” said Allyson. “And I hadn’t really been doing that because of COVID. I didn’t really have the motivation.”

Two hours of extreme physical conditioning (running, wall sits, sit-ups, push-ups, wrestling) is quite the change.

“I even noticed my asthma wasn’t as bad anymore,” she said, after getting in better shape.

Practice is difficult, “But then, (that first) Monday, when I went on the mat, I was so scared,” Henry said of her match with Maplewood’s Ricky Atkins at 106 pounds. Even the weigh-in from the boys locker room was a unique and scary experience. All eyes are on the scale.

“He didn’t take it easy on me, but he didn’t kill me,” Henry said of her loss by pin in 1:55 of the first period.

Now, they’re fast friends.

“You were the best match that I’ve had all year,” Henry said Atkins told her. “He’s helping me now…”

Allyson, even all bruised up, doesn’t define her experience by an injured rib, or badly bruised elbow, which she has now. Heck, she was hit by a car in kindergarten, so she knows she’s tough enough.

It’s more about learning how to wrestle, how to twist and turn her body during practice and matches so she doesn’t get hurt.

“If you know how to escape and do everything, it’s more likely you won’t get hurt,” she said.

She had X-rays on her elbow Thursday.

How does it feel?

“Horrible,” she said.

“I can begin wrestling again on the 14th, which is the day after my last match,” said Allyson. “I’m not going to quit because wrestling makes me extremely happy. Honestly, if I’m tough enough to get beat up by a bunch of guys for months, I can guarantee that I am tough enough to continue wrestling through senior year.”