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Maggie Simonyan

Junior Karissa Aguilar tackles an opponent during wrestling practice on Sept. 22. Aguilar is a new student athlete expressing her long-time passion for wrestling on the BCCHS girls wrestling team.

For the first time, there are two girls on the wrestling team, each with their own unique path to the mat.

Junior Karissa Aguilar and freshman Farrah Marquez are two new student athletes who are tackling the sport of wrestling. Students at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School are able to witness the two female student athletes, who are on the Birmingham Community Charter High School girls wrestling team, take on the challenges and rewards this sport has to offer. 

Karissa Aguilar has been wrestling since she was as young as in kindergarten and found her love for the sport early on. She experimented with different sports but soon realized that she liked wrestling the most. 

It’s Aguilar’s first year on the Birmingham Community Charter High School  girls wrestling team. The season will begin in November where she aims to push herself to succeed in the tournaments she competes in and strives to do her best. 

“I expect myself to place in every tournament,” Aguilar said. “If I don’t, at least I tried and at least I know I tried.”

Unlike Aguilar, Farrah Marquez just recently discovered her interest in this sport and is adjusting to her new teammates, drilling, practices and the sport as a whole. At first it wasn’t something she was completely interested in doing but when a friend recommended she try out the sport, it ended up being something she liked. She explains that the transition of joining and experiencing a new sport was different but not as difficult as she thought. Marquez is on the JV team at BCCHS and enjoys the new skills she’s learning and the experiences that will develop. 

More females are becoming more involved in what has been mostly known as a male-dominated sport. Wrestling has always strongly been associated with the thought of masculinity. BCCHS has had a girls wrestling team for almost two decades and over the last few years women wrestling has finally been acknowledged and gained more popularity. There are still challenges that females face in sports like wrestling that men wouldn’t.

“Well, I do boxing and stuff like that too, so I’m kind of already acclimated to playing in a male dominated sport, but sometimes it’s definitely weird,” Marquez said. “Like I’ll get looks or sometimes people will make comments, but then you win and it kind of just makes you feel better about yourself and you feel proud that you did the same thing they did but better.” 

Both student athletes agree that this isn’t the easiest sport to get into. They train often and have to adapt to many different components in order to succeed.

“It’s definitely challenging, but if you really put your mind to it, it’s worth it,” Aguilar said. “It’s just doing what I love and you have to do what you love.”