By Aly Miranda | Photo by Aundre Sheppard |
For Mia Wright, who has a chance of being a state placer this year, it’s either wrestle, or go home. Wright, an ETA senior, and her five other fellow female wrestlers and more than 40 male wrestlers, practice every day to get as many students as possible to state. The stakes get greater all the time with only three varsity and two JV tournaments left and three duals left before district.
“They’re a good group of kids, they’re working hard,” coach Patrick Swoyer said.
As a female wrestler, Wright has experienced the popularity of more females joining wrestling since she joined.
“This’ll be my fourth year and it’s [females joining the wrestling team] has become more popular since I’ve joined. The school didn’t really know about it then,” Wright said. “I really love how the wall between male and female is broken when I wrestle. For girls, there’s no broken nails, no ‘Oh, my mascara is messed up.’ It’s either you wrestle or you go home.”
Most people don’t think of females when wrestling is mentioned. Wrestling has been only just males as far back as the 12th or 13th century B.C., but females have been wrestling for that amount of time as well. It wasn’t until the early 20th century, when American women began to wrestle in public, against each other for entertainment.
“For me, it doesn’t matter who you are. You can be really shy or really social, but when you get on the mat and start wrestling, the person who you really are comes out,” Wright said.
Wrestling is all about physical competition between two, or sometimes more, competitors, involving clinch fighting, throws, joint locks, pins and other grappling techniques. Whether between male or female, the whole point is to win and represent the school, team and oneself.
While Wright works on getting herself to state, Andres Farrera, D.A.T.A junior, also has a chance to make a great wrestling achievement. He will be working on finishing his year with 90 or more career wins.
“I’ve been wrestling for seven years, and I’m focusing on state this year. I’m at 70 and more wins right now,” Farrera said. “I’m going for 100 or more wins.”
Upcoming wrestling events include the Hill Country Invitational on Dec. 22, at Vista Ridge High School in Austin.
