How Wrestling Has Influenced My Life

Now i knew the kid my brother had gotten hurt by was still on the team and this year he was a senior captain. He was 152 and i was a 160 pounder. I couldn't wait to see our captain go against him because i knew it would be a great match. We were losing throughout our lighter weights and i was coming up at 160. I was pretty confident i was going to have an easy match but when their 152 pounder didn't go out for that weight i got a little nervous because i knew i would face him. I went out against him and the whole first period there was no score. He chose bottom the next period and immediately got a reversal on me and it was 2-0 close to the end of the second i was able to get a reversal but got up and got one right away. Going into the third he was up by 1. The third period started and 20 seconds into it i got a reversal and was up 4-3. Riding someone out for over a minute is a tough task and with 30 seconds left he got a reversal and a point for me locking hands. The score was now 6-4 and i had short time to tie it up. We started back in the middle and i went to stand up as fast i could, he dropped me back down to the mat but i caught an ankle and came up on top of him

At the beginning of seventh grade, I would always joke around that I would do wrestling, like with all the other guys. Later on that year when wrestling season was starting I decided to sign up. I didn’t know what being in wrestling was going to be like because it would be like nothing I’ve ever done before.

I started wrestling in sixth grade. Even though I didn’t win one of my first seven matches, I developed into a successful wrestler. In high school I won tournaments and beat high-quality wrestlers. During my junior year I was determined to become a great wrestler. I worked harder than ever and didn’t let anyone stop me. That year I lost the Illinois state wrestling tournament championship match by one point. Over the next six months between my junior and senior season I was runner up at AAU national tournament and wrestled at Disney Land in Florida at the Disney Duals with over 50 other teams and only lost 1 of 8 matches. These are a few of my achievements in high school. Now that I am in college there are many

If you aren’t humble in wrestling then you will get cocky and mess up during a match, because you will think that you are better than everyone else in your weight class. This lesson taught me to not be a sore loser or a sore winner, but to be grateful to have the opportunity to go out and do what I love; this will help because later in life if I don’t get a job, I won't go home and cry myself to sleep, I will get back up and start again and again.

Then, high school came along and I received a rude awakening that I was no longer top dog on the wrestling team. I lost more matches that first year of highschool wrestling then I had my whole junior high career combined. I was devastated that year I thought that I would never want to wrestle again. However, when wrestling rolled around that next year I was the first in line to show up.

Sports have been a huge part of my life ever since I was about five years old. It has impacted my life so much. The biggest challenge that I faced was with my injuries during basketball and soccer season. I recently had to quit soccer and basketball, which was difficult for me.

It never happened to cross my mind to actually join the team, however; I did the next best thing. When I was only twelve years old I joined the wrestling program the only way I thought I could. I became what my school calls a “Mat-Maid”. However, being so young I still could not help the team as much as I wanted to. I worked concussion stands and helped fundraiser that was it. It wasn’t in till my freshman year in high school that I learned what being a Mat-Maid truly means.

Wrestling. Literally one of “The toughest division sports” out there. So tough, it can’t be compared to football. With heart rate upping to its max, so fast it feels like your heart is literally about to burst. It’s you vs someone you don’t know, nor their intentions.

When I qualified for the AAU State wrestling tournament I never thought I would have done so well. Being in 8th grade and it being my last year to go to AAU State I put in the hard work and qualified for AAU State and I was overjoyed with happiness. For the next 2 weeks, I practice my heart out trying to get better for AAU. The day that wrestling starts the older group doesn’t wrestle till 4, so we went to the mall till 12 then Wells Fargo. The team started to warm up around 3:30 and I was one the first matches up. I won my first match with a pin and my second with the 11-3 win. My third match was against the kid that won the tournament and I lost to him 2-5.

Most of the kids stayed inside of the house and played their video games. Things for me changed and I was not as active as I was in Louisiana. This is when I noticed that everybody in the world were not as whiling as I was to play a sport or to go outside. This was a very sad moment in my life and I knew that things had to change quickly. When I got in middle school I was introduced to wrestling, I noticed right away that this was the sport for me. My parents saw that I was very passionate about wanting to be a part of the wrestling team so they decided to invest in me. I was very fortunate to have parents that could sacrifice and pay for me to do something that I really wanted to do. Some of my other teammates were not as fortunate as me, they often struggled with team dues and sometimes would even have to quit. I then realized that some people didn’t play a sport because they didn’t want to, it was that they couldn’t because they couldn’t afford it. This made me extremely thankful and appreciative of my parents and all that they do for

Wrestling has showed me to not show how you feel when you step on that mat. “Never show your opponent's weakness.” That is exactly what I do when I’m around others, I don’t show weakness. It’s not really good to show others how you feel. Reasons why people don’t try to put me down. They know I’ll fight back. I don’t let anything get in my way of being successful; and if something does, all I do is push it out of my way. I am different compared to any other female athlete in my school. Wrestling has shaped me into a person who enjoys challenges. “If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.” I’ve changed so much, I love to be challenged now. Wrestling identifies me in my personality and sense of humor. Makes me very unique. My teammates too we are all very different in many ways. And it shows others that I’m not like everyone else. I have learned over the years that I am a strong, independent person and I don’t let anything get in my way. I thank that I have found an interest that I love and that defines who I am. If it wasn’t for this sport I would never be known as much as I am. I am a leader who loves to overcome challenges that try to stop me from moving forward. I don’t interact much, I’m very quiet at times, but I am a fun

There I was with 2 wins and on my way to the semi-finals. Only 2 of my teammates had made it that far. My first opponent the next day would be Bryce. As our team left the Pepsi Center and started heading for our hotel, there were some people disappointed and some proud of how we had wrestled. We got to our hotel and got settled in with

The Truth about wrestling is that it's tougher than it looks for sure. I’ve been doing to for about three years now and well it's been the best thing to happen to me. When you're a freshman in high school coming out of a failed football season. And your friends talking you into doing wrestling. Well I was hooked by the awesome time and funny atmosphere back in freshman the team was fun and the seniors were even better. Out of the three captains Jamie, Mike, Brody. Jamie and Brody were the best and they knew just about every move their was. I will always look back to my freshman year in wrestling because there hasn't been a year like it since. Though it was tough always going out there and wrestling a senior or Junior, I never really care about

Ever since I was little and saw WWE RAW, a wrestling TV show, for the first time, I enjoyed watching wrestling on TV. I would always jump up throwing my arms in the air when my favorite wrestler was winning. I would invite some of my friends over on Saturdays to mimic the wrestling moves that the wrestlers were doing from the TV on a trampoline in my backyard during the afternoon because it looked awesome and it was very fun. The wrestling TV show inspired me to join wrestling in High School.

At the age of three my parents decided to put me in gymnastics, I excelled immediately and after a couple months I entered into the pre-competitive program. My love for gymnastics continued and I became a provincially ranked, high level gymnast until the age of fourteen when I shattered my ACL and meniscus in my knee which required surgery. However, my years of gymnastics taught me a great deal of skills that I carry with me to this day. Primarily, I learned exceptional self-discipline, time management, and balance (metaphorically and physically). Gymnastics is exhausting on the body and the mind as you need total cohesion of both to excel. During my peak, I was training five hours per practice, upwards of five days a week and during the summer I would train six hours a day, six days a week. Gymnastics taught me that if you want something badly enough you will work as hard and as long as it takes to reach your goals. After shattering my ACL I pushed to continue training and I competed in my final competition and was the provincial champion on the bars event for my age category. I refused to let this surgery end my career. Six months after the surgery, I joined a competitive cheerleading team who I competed with for three years. Cheerleading was very different for me because it required all of the skills I had learned from gymnastics and on top of that I had to learn how to work with a team. I believe gymnastics is a huge part of who I am and has helped me to become the