As the season comes to an end, the Girl’s Wrestling team is working hard to close their season with the title of League Champions. The girls celebrated their seniors on January 8th, wrestling for the second to last time on their home mat.

Hoping for a fourth title of League Champions, the team has one more match to earn that trophy. “You have to get 43 points to win,” Darren Norris, Cypress High School’s Girls Wrestling Coach said, “once we get to 43, we win and then it’s just icing on the cake after that.”

Varsity seniors Nathaly Granillos, and Jordan “JP” Puluti, find that wrestling is their way to “release anger and aggression on the mat.” “The hardest part is having the will to keep going. It’s mentally and physically draining, so you have to mentally prepare yourself for what you’re going to take,” Granillos explained. There are many challenges that come with wrestling, one being the discipline of maintaining a consistent weight for weigh-ins.

Senior Kayla Pablo, and Ariel Peneloza, Captains for the Girls Wrestling team, have spent the past few years learning the challenges and responsibilities of being a team captain. “Becoming captain, you had to be the one to lead everybody, and lead by example and show them what we’re supposed to be doing,” Peneloza explained. Along with the responsibilities of being a captain, the girls have spent their seasons at Cypress growing their passion for the sport, and working through challenges that they faced along the way. “You get a certain feeling from winning, and you have to have a lot of heart for the sport, if you don’t, there is no point in being there,” Pablo stated, “…it’s very time consuming and your mind can take a toll, if you have a poor mentality you’re not going to do good in the sport, so you have to believe in yourself.”

Wrestling is a tough sport that requires discipline, commitment, and hard work. These seniors are preparing to take what they learned through wrestling, and input it into their lives after high school.