For over 15,000 years, wrestling has been exciting fans, breaking hearts, and forging champions, from Ancient Greeks and French Cavemen to the over 300,000 High School wrestlers across the USA as of 2023. La Jolla High JV Wrestling Coach Vinny Iudici explains, “This is a sport that will really teach you how to push yourself beyond your limits,” describing the hours of work and discipline he and his wrestlers endure during and outside of practice. Wrestlers give up almost every Saturday to participate in tournaments and adhere to a strict diet and exercise schedule to maintain their weight. However, it’s all worth it, as Iudici describes the feeling of winning as “an unexplainable feeling of euphoria like all my hard work led up to this moment.”
This is a sport that will really teach you how to push yourself beyond your limits.
— Vinny Iudici, JV Wrestling Coach
Although there is much to love about the sport of wrestling, one group seems to be enjoying it substantially more than the other. Isabella Itkin, a freshman at La Jolla High and a Girls Varsity wrestler, notes, “You see 5 girls for every 20 or 30 guys.” She expressed her desire for more girls to join wrestling, saying that it feels like a family. Isabella further elaborated on the hardships of wrestling, saying, “lots of teachers don’t understand how much work you put into it… I don’t really have time to do my homework.”
Moreover, numerous other wrestlers, including Stanley Vishnevskiy and Noah Pace, agreed, saying finals week was extremely difficult to balance school and sports. Despite all this, many of the wrestlers say it is worth sticking through the trials and tribulations, with Iudici telling all athletes to, “Never Say Die,” encouraging them to always persevere and never give up. To never say die is what drives and defines the sport of wrestling in all its aspects and is what pushes normal high schoolers to the top of the podium and to victory.
