To help get the Lawndale wrestling program started last year, all the wrestlers sold shirts as a fundraising activity.
When Alyssa D’Aguilar approached a boy to sell a shirt to and told him she was a wrestler, he laughed at her. She said nothing back.
“This is a really hard sport,” she said. “So I just let him laugh because he can’t do it.”
D’Aguilar’s quiet determination has her getting the last laugh, as she is one of Lawndale’s best wrestlers both on and off the mat.
Last year, she made it to the Masters tournament, only one step away from State. And that was just her first year wrestling.
In fact, it was her first time ever doing a sport. Everyone else had something to hang their hats on: they were part of a club or a team. She wanted to be part of something. In wrestling, D’Aguilar found confidence, mental toughness and a team that pushes her.
“Now, I want to finish everything,” she said. “I’m going to keep trying just like I’m going to try in the match, like if someone kept taking me down. It made me stronger.”
Lawndale head coach Brent Koch said D’Aguilar also makes the team stronger. She was named a captain this year for her leadership abilities and determination. Because she often wrestles boys, her opponents will put her on her back early in the match, but it rarely stops her.
“Maybe in my career, I’ve seen five kids battle off their back as hard as she does,” said Koch, who wrestled at Drexel. “She doesn’t quit. Her drive is exactly what a quintessential wrestler should be.”
D’Aguilar said she sometimes struggles with her confidence when she wrestles boys because she knows they’re often stronger than her. But in moments of weakness, she relies on her team, which she called “a family.” Her teammates encourage her, but they also relentlessly push her, because in the wrestling room, success is blind to gender.
“The wonderful thing about having boys and girls in a room is that ‘wrestlers’ is a non-gendered word,” Koch said. “I thought maybe she kind of shied away from wrestling boys as much (at first), but I was like, ‘You’re a wrestler, wrestlers are male and female, it’s the same thing.’ A wrestler is a wrestler, and her confidence level at that point meshed in with everyone else.”
In its first year of existence last year, Lawndale’s wrestling program had two female wrestlers. This year, it has five. To have someone like D’Aguilar from the beginning sets a strong foundation for the young program, Koch said. She sets goals and works hard to achieve them, taking motivation from anyone who doubts her.
One of her first goals from last year was to beat a boy. She crossed that off the list this year when she won her opening match at the Warrior Invitational, a varsity tournament hosted by West Torrance, in the 108-pound division. She fought back after trailing on points in the second and pinned her opponent in the third round. She celebrated like she had won State. The crowd gave her a standing ovation.
“I’m really proud of that because that’s really hard,” D’Aguilar said of knocking off a boy at a varsity event. “I gave it my all.”
ALYSSA D’AGUILAR
School: Lawndale
Sport: Wrestling
Year: Senior
Weight class: 106/111
Notable: Took second at South Hills Tournament this year at 111 pounds, losing a close match to the tournament’s eventual Most Outstanding Wrestler in the finals. … Defeated a boy for the first time at a varsity tournament at the West Invitational this year. … Advanced to the Masters tournament last year after placing seventh at CIF regional tournament.
Courtesy of: Daily Breeze