| My journey and experience in wrestling has been absolutely amazing, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything else in life! It was the first sport to give me a chance, as football wasn’t as forgiving, given my size and weight at age seven. From the first day when my parents brought me into the wrestling room over at Foothill high school with coaches Tony Medina and Ryan English, I loved it. I instantly bonded with the sport and knew it was for me. Wrestling was captivating and it kept me intrigued. Matches were won in the practice room. Our team always pushed each other, and took to perfecting moves, so they they could be flawless on the mat for tournament day. I started out on the ‘B’ team, but took so naturally to the sport, that it was only a few months before I was invited to the ‘A’ team practices. My parents saw how I gravitated to the sport so started to fully support me in wrestling, and it wasn’t long before I started traveling for different high-level tournaments. After two seasons of improving results, and placing at State and Regionals, we felt it was time to take wrestling more seriously. It was at this time that I made the best decision of my wrestling career and transferred teams to one of the best teams in the country: Team GV |
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| Team GV had the “IT” factor. They had consistent practices, at least five days a week, and I was doing extra at-home workouts on my own. We pushed each other mentally and physically, in the room. What some might take as too physical, was just a regular practice to us. Some kids would come into our room and couldn’t even make it through warmups. I would not be the wrestler I am today without the support and training at Team GV and Coaches Bill Sullivan, Jake Rollans, Joe Cannon, and Richard Razo–just to name a few. The coaches would always have wrestling camps and guests coaches brought into the room to train our team. The team was always changing and evolving. No one could keep up. I would say, to this day, moving to Team GV has been the best decision in my wrestling career. It was a great growing period in my life, and with that also came a hard year in my life. |
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| When I was in 7th grade, my family had to pull together like never before, as my mom was diagnosed with 2b cervical cancer. With the help of our wrestling family, and friends, I was fortunate enough to keep training through this tough spot. It really kept my focus that no matter what, there are times in life, where all you need is wrestling. For a kid, to understand cancer and the fear of losing your mom, was overwhelming. My mom says that she was grateful for wrestling too, as life is much like the sport. She told me that her analogy was that you have your family in the stands cheering you on, your doctors are like your coaches in the corner, the official was like your therapy, but when you stepped onto the mat–it was just you and cancer. She wrestled for her life with cancer, and thankfully my mom was able to win her fight that some do not. We are forever grateful for our wrestling community–The Van Orden’s, The Warr’s, The Uhlenhopp’s, and The Prunchak’s. Terraza, Whitney, Davina, and Megan were like my other mom’s. One of them came over every day to make sure my mom got to therapy and took care of our home. Our family friend John Merryman came over to keep me focused on school, and my hero, my dad, did everything. The whole wrestling community came together and did something from cooking meals, to taking my sister and I out, taking care of my little brother, cleaning our house, taking me to practices and tournaments. This is what wrestling is really about. It brings people together, no matter which team you’re from. It seemed like a long time, but high school soon came around, and I knew exactly where I would go, because I had been there since I was a child: Green Valley High School. |
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| Going into High School Wrestling, I felt super confident that I was going to have a very successful career because of all the training and tournaments I had done my whole life. My mom and dad had done a great job helping me challenge myself by wrestling up in age divisions, and weights, so that I would be familiar wrestling people older than me. It was also exciting to get to wrestle for Green Valley High School under Coach Jon Ferry! Gator Wrestling was such a powerhouse wrestling team in the State of Nevada! Growing up watching dual meets, dreaming of wrestling in that singlet, and that room one day, was a dream come true. Finally, the time had come! My first year of high school was a very eye-opening experience, as I expected myself to win State. I came up short taking 3rd, but never had I wrestled better. In the off-season I went to Fargo Nationals with Team Nevada and expected myself to place as an All-American (AA). I was disappointed when I came up one match short of AA status, in both styles. Sophomore year was probably my biggest year in making improvements for wrestling. I ended up winning State this year, but knew I couldn’t be satisfied and had to keep working if I wanted to reach my end goals. So, my parents and I made the decision to have me go to Missouri and wrestle there for the summer, with USWA and Bill Mitchell. I’m super grateful to have a lot of really supportive people there that cared for me and really helped me elevate my game that summer. |
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| Coming back to Nevada for my Junior year, I felt like I was wrestling the best I ever had my entire life. I dominated most of that year and placed at some Elite tournaments, like Reno TOC and Doc B. Going into State that year was the most relaxed I had ever felt at a tournament, and I had confidence in myself that I would dominate the whole tournament. I won most of my matches by convincing scores, but I still wanted to get better and knew a National title was my main goal for that season. Leading up to NHSCA, I trained really hard and felt good going into the tournament. I dominated a lot of my matches but ended up losing the round before quarters, and then losing the next day the round before placing, again! My Senior year was pretty good, again as I placed really high at tournaments like Doc B and TOC. I took 2nd this time around at State and finished my high school career as only a 2-time State Champ. I learned that this is a very mental sport, and you have to train just as hard mentally as you do physically. I would soon learn how that would play into my Senior year of 2020. |
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| Covid came out of nowhere. We couldn’t practice, and the schools were trying to figure out what to do for us Academically. My training came in big time, as I had to rely on myself to learn, workout, and focus. No one was pushing me, but myself. I could only hear the constant press in ALL of my coach’s voices, drilling and pushing me to persevere. Their voice had become my own internal voice. I was glad that I had the opportunity to go look at some colleges before Covid hit and ultimately, I was drawn to commit to Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas. Coaches Cody “Gar” Garcia and Jimmy May have been some huge supporting factors in my first year of college, as it is a very extraordinary experience. A lot of Freshman coming into college have never been away from home, they struggle a bit, but I feel that traveling for wrestling and the fact that my parents allowed me to make my own decision my Senior year, really aided in my ease with my first year of college. This past season, as a Freshman, I qualified for NIAA Nationals by placing 4th at the Heart of America Conference. Although I didn’t place a Nationals, I’m very thankful to have been given the opportunities I have been given, and I am grateful for everyone that has helped me get to where I am at this point in my life. I can’t wait to wrestle and experience a “normal year” of college for my Sophomore year. |
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| My road to this time of my life has been awesome. I plan to do a lot more on my wrestling journey, and I am excited for some things I have planned on the mat while majoring in Business Management at Baker University. I couldn’t be what I need to be without all of my experiences, physical push and mental strength that my coaches taught me. My ultimate goal for this journey is to help grow the amazing Sport of Wrestling. I would like to see it become more of a Life-Sustaining income source for wrestlers, if that is the sport they choose to do as a career, because this sport is like no other, and I can see why some never stop competing. As I’ve learned, “Champions always do one more.” This is forever my mindset, because a wrestler’s body may be done someday, but a wrestler’s heart beats for the mat forever. |
| Since originally writing this, I have now made the Junior Greco World Team at 72kgs and will represent the USA in Russia and the Pan Ams. These will be my first International Competitions, and I couldn’t be more excited! |
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