“I think my dad made me who I am today.

I used to be shy and small, and now I'm bigger. Everybody that knows me knows that I'm loud, supportive and rough. I like that about me.

I like fighting. I can withstand a lot because my dad pushed me around. My mom is the opposite.

During wrestling meets my dad would yell to make me go faster, but my mom, whenever I got hit, she started screaming like she's getting hit. She’s gentle. So whenever me and my dad pushed each other around, she started yelling.

I started wrestling my senior year because my brother does wrestling, so I wanted to do it. I wanted to beat up my brother at home, but I got closer to Emilio, a lot closer because of wrestling. Getting better at wrestling really boosted my confidence. I made a lot of friends on and off the mat. Even though I was already big, I got better at wrestling so I could win more fights.

[I thought wrestling] was going be way easier, because I saw my brother do it. But then whenever I did it, I sucked a lot. I was really humble. My brother was able to tumble me to the ground. It was way harder than it looked. It is awesome how much progress I’ve made in just a little time.

Sports tied to wanting to study kinesiology. I used to get knots in my back because of wrestling. I was able to get advice from my coach and medical people, so that inspired me to do more kinesiology in college.”