Isabelle Chiu
Online Sports Editor
The Mira Costa wrestling team has plenty of new faces this season, and all of them are girls.
This is the first year at Mira Costa High School that wrestling has had enough girls to fill the roster for a girls wrestling team. The girls are coached by Rick Gurrola, who coached boys wrestling last season. This year he is only coaching the girls.
“The girls are taking it one step at a time and they are progressively getting better,” Gurrola said. “If they continue, they are going to be the toughest girls in the school, because wrestling is a highly disciplined sport.”
In previous years, the few girls who wrestled would have to practice with and compete against the boys. This year, the girls exclusively compete in all-girl tournaments. Originally this year’s team started out with around 25 girls, but some dropped due to various reasons, such as scheduling conflicts.
“This year I have a lot more opportunities to wrestle and I feel like I’ve improved a lot over the summer,” sophomore team captain Sasha Medvidovic said. “It’s great to be able to wrestle with more girls.”
According to Gurrola, girls wrestling has been getting more and more popular across California, so it is no surprise that the interest level at Costa was higher this year. Before the season started, Gurrola visited all of the freshman PE classes to do a demonstration and encourage girls to join wrestling.
“I was thinking that we should form a girls wrestling team because times are changing,” Gurrola said. “Girls wrestling is growing so fast that all these other schools have started competing and Costa’s been left behind.”
The girls team’s practices are separate times from the boys. They practice Monday through Wednesday, and on Friday and Saturday. The girls practice for one and a half to two hours.
“I wanted to join a sport that nobody thought any girl would join,” freshman Emily Ayers said. “I also wanted something that would get me better into shape and it definitely has.”
All of the girls on the team, with the exception of Medvidovic, are freshman who are new to the sport. Only Medvidovic has competed this season since the others are still learning the basics of the sport.
“I don’t want to be result driven right now, and I want the girls to learn how to wrestle first,” Gurrola said.
Medvidovic remains undefeated in the five tournaments she has competed in this season. Although she has only wrestled for a year, she is very accomplished, as she has defeated state qualifying girls in her competitions. She has been practicing two to three hours every day after starting wrestling.
“There isn’t any guy from Costa that can say he has been undefeated in the last five tournaments,” Gurrola said. “Sasha’s put her work in during the off season, and now she’s reaping the benefits of all of her hard work.”
Last year, Medvidovic competed in the individual California Scholastic Federation (CIF) qualifiers. She is on the club team, Future, and takes private lessons from Gurrola. She also helps out the other girls.
“Sasha’s tough, and she is definitely going to set records for Costa,” Gurrola said. “She wrestles extraordinarily, and her skills are incredible.”
Girls wrestling will next compete at a tournament at Tustin High School on Jan. 23.
“We are going to have more girls next year to inspire and lead the team to victory,” Gurrola said. “My goal is for Mira Costa is for it to be known for its girls wrestling team.”
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