TWO RIVERS, Wis. (WFRV) – In the Bianchi family, wrestling isn’t a phase—it’s in the bloodline.
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There are five boys and one girl in the family, and growing up in northeastern Wisconsin, their options felt limited.
“There’s not much to do in Wisconsin besides hockey,” Joey Bianchi said. “My mom didn’t want to spend the money on hockey gear. So, wrestling it was.”
What started in the attic of their childhood home turned into something much bigger.
The brothers staged elaborate walkouts with blankets tied around their necks like Rocky Balboa, building makeshift rings out of twin beds and toy cars. The early days were chaotic with boxing matches, football in the house and Beanie Babies wrapped around fists for gloves.
Eventually, the chaos became championships.
Between the siblings, the Bianchis have claimed 10 WIAA state titles, and three out of the five brothers went on to wrestle in college. Matty has claimed NCAA All-American honors.
The legacy was firmly established.
But the baby of the family, and only sister, never had her mind set on becoming a wrestler.
Angie Bianchi began in dance and gymnastics.
“I never really thought I was going to be a wrestler,” Angie said. “I was a girly girl. But then I saw other girls wrestling in pink singlets and I thought to myself, maybe this is my thing.”
At first, her brothers resisted.
“We’d say, ‘No, you can be the cheerleader. Girls don’t wrestle,’” Matty Bianchi said.
But that mindset didn’t last.
“She’d wrestle us and was so strong,” Matty said. “She’s a pit bull,” added Joey.
As girls’ wrestling expanded across Wisconsin, Angie’s commitment grew with it. By middle school, her older brother Matty was running practices with her. What began as casual sibling workouts evolved into focused training sessions.
“It went from Joey and me practicing together to Angie and me,” Matty said. “And I was like, ‘Let’s take this seriously.’”
She did.
Angie has won two state titles by her Junior year and finished runner-up as a freshman. She also drew national attention along the way.
Yet at home, the teasing continues.
“She doesn’t have cauliflower ear yet,” Joey said. “So, she’s got leaps and bounds to get to our level.”
They call her a pit bull on the mat and a girly girl off it. Her brothers say she loves dressing up for pictures but can dial it in on the mat when she needs to.
That duality is what makes her a trailblazer.
Angie isn’t just wrestling for herself. She says she is wrestling for the next generation.
“I just want little girls to look up to me and hopefully do the same thing I did,” Angie said.
But perhaps the most impressive part of Angie’s rise is how she inspires her brothers, who once paved the way.
“Knowing we have her watching us, and looking up to us, makes us give our best effort every time we step out on that mat,” Matty, a division one wrestler at Little Rock Athletics, said. “It’s like wrestling for something bigger than yourself.”
Although the Bianchi siblings still debate who’s the best wrestler in the family, one thing is for certain.
After a devastating brain injury, one thing never changed: Packer Sundays
The legacy doesn’t just belong to the boys anymore. It’s in the bloodline.
Angie will graduate from Two Rivers High School this year and has committed to continuing her wrestling career with the women’s club program at Oklahoma State University.
