Three girl wrestlers from the Bronx are raising money to participate in the Fargo Nationals —the world’s largest wrestling tournament— this summer in Fargo, North Dakota.
Different GoFundMe pages are currently raising money on students’ behalf, including Esteicy Mora Gil and Monique Teal from HERO High School and Angelina Ramirez from Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy.
Girls’ wrestling is a rapidly growing sport, with more than more than 74,000 girls participating at the high school level, according to the National Wrestling Coaches Association.
But many schools do not pay for students to participate in tournaments and the costs for travel and high-end equipment can total well into the thousands.
The Bronx Times spoke with Ramirez, 15, who started wrestling in seventh grade and quickly became a standout.
Ramirez said she’s always been athletic, and when she met an older female wrestler at the Bronx High School of Science, something clicked. “I was like, oh, this is pretty cool. I like throwing people.”
Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy has a co-ed wrestling team but no girls-only team, so started with the girls at Bronx Science. For months, she practiced after school every day, went on a strict diet, and flexed her time management skills to balance homework, practices and other commitments.
Her hard work soon paid off, as she won the city championship with Bronx Science and went on to place first in her weight class and age group at the state tournament. From there, she placed fourth at the regional tournament and qualified to compete at nationals in July.
This summer, Ramirez said she plans to participate in tournaments in both Indiana and North Dakota. But her quick success in the sport left her family somewhat unprepared for the costs, she said.
“You’re supposed to start saving up beforehand, but I didn’t really know that, because we didn’t expect me to go to nationals this year.”
Wrestling can be a surprisingly expensive sport when you have to buy top-notch shoes, headgear, kneepads and singlets and pay for travel and accommodations, Ramirez said. The GoFundMe has thus far raised about $2,300 out of a $7,000 goal.
Ramirez said she’s truly found her community in girls’ wrestling. She said she’s made many friends from all over, and girls even do each other’s hair before matches.
“In wrestling, if you see a girl, they’re typically really nice,” she said. “If they’re better than you, they’ll help you and provide support.”
As for representing her school in the upcoming nationals, “My approach is really to have fun and to do my best, and see where I’m standing and what I need to focus on to get better for next year.”
Ramirez’s mom, Raquel Oriol, said she was completely “taken aback” by her daughter’s interest in wrestling — and how quickly she showed real talent for the sport.
When Angelina mentioned interest in the team, the first image that popped into her mom’s mind was of WWE-style smackdowns.
“I was actually driving and tightened my grip on the steering wheel. I was like, what?” Oriol said.
Angelina was already involved in martial arts, but Oriol saw how much her daughter loved wrestling. At one point, she found out that Angelina was skipping an afterschool program to “sneak into the boys’ practices every day.”
“She was wrestling in jeans,” Oriol said. “I was like, this is something my daughter really loves and enjoys.”
In fact, Angelina was so committed, she made the ultimate sacrifice to better her wrestling performance: “She’s giving up candy. So it’s definitely a passion of hers.”
At times, Angelina was the only freshman on the all-senior roster and the only female starter.
“It’s definitely an emotional experience to see your daughter go out there and wrestle with some boys,” Oriol said. But she too started learning the technique of the sport and saw that both RKA and Bronx Science were teaching care and safety for the young athletes.
With her daughter set to compete on the national level, Oriol said she’s proud.
“She loves it, and I enjoy being part of this journey with her.”
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
