SMHS WRESTLING
She might have been relatively unknown before the start of the season, but at the end of the UIL State Wrestling Tournament, sophomore Mila Juarez’s name is now known throughout the state.
Juarez took home the silver medal at the state tournament in the 120 lbs weight class this past weekend, marking her name in the history of Rattler Wrestling.
“It means the world me,” Juarez said. “I’ve worked really hard this season. It’s not exactly the outcome that I wanted, but it shows all the improvements that I made. To show that I really just wasn’t even on the radar to place at state then I ended up in the finals and shocked everybody. It’s a nice feeling and shows that my hard work was all worth it.”
It wasn’t a shock for Head Coach Dr. Garvin Smith, who saw the potential in what Juarez could do all the way back in her freshman season.
“I’ve worked with her for two years now,” Smith said. “All along I told her she’s gonna be a state champ before we’re done here. So it wasn’t quite shocking to me.
“I knew the talent that she had and the hard work that she puts in because she works hard. I had faith in her.”
During the regular season, Juarez dominated, winning multiple tournaments and even cracking the state rankings.
However, her season was not without challenges.
“I’ve had a lot of injuries,” Juarez said. “Just hurting really bad, and I just had to push through it. I just thought this outcome is gonna be better than how I feel right now, so I just got to push through it.”
Another obstacle Juarez had to overcome wasn’t just on the mat but mentally.
“I also had mental blocks,” Juarez said. “We have the last ten minutes of practice.
“It’s just full conditioning, and a lot of times, I just hear [the coaches] push me. And they’re like, ‘Everybody needs to beat Mila on the sprints,’ or, ‘Mila, you need to beat them in the sprints.’ It makes me mad, and I just wanna go.”
Mental blocks were a challenge Juarez dealt with during her freshman year. However, Juarez put in the hard work during the offseason and overcame the blocks.
“My freshman season, I had really huge confidence issues,” Juarez said. “I just wouldn’t believe in myself. I’d lose matches just cause I was like, ‘Well, I should be losing these matches.’ This season, I put more faith in myself.
“The only thing that I should really fear is God. I shouldn’t be afraid of any opponent. I can just go out there, let it fly, just have some fun and wrestle the way I want to wrestle.”
One of the ways Juarez worked on preventing her mental blocks was doing difficult workout sessions that broke down her blocks.
“I just worked really hard,” Juarez said. “After you just worked really hard for a long time doing these hard workouts, it makes my mental [blocks] break it down a little bit. It’s now okay, well, I’ve been mentally broken. I can persevere in these moments after all those hard workouts, all those times where I’ve wrestled in these positions.
“I can do this, and then I think of it and it all out there, be the aggressor and just push the pace.”
After finishing second in district, Juarez entered the regional tournament and dominated on her way to the Region IV title, clinching her spot in the state tournament.
“It felt amazing,” Juarez said. “It was just, I can do this, I can wrestle up to my potential and then it puts me in good seedings for state, too. So I was like, this is gonna be nice.
“Even though nobody expected me to place, I still went out there and did my thing.”
On her regional performance, Smith credited Juarez’s performance to her tough mentality.
“The main thing is her mental resilience,” Smith said. “She is able to be put in very tough situations now and overcome them, and she is getting better at that. She is just becoming a beast on the mat now.”
Advancing to state, Juarez continued her dominating run, pinning her opponent in the opening match of the tournament before taking on returning state medalist.
Undeterred, Juarez won her second match of the tournament to advance to semifinals.
“One of the things that we’ve always pushed her, she is extremely explosive in her wrestling,” Smith said. “[She] has a lot of speed and good technique. It’s hard for a girl to stay with Mila. I had basically just told her all along, make sure you’re wrestling your match.
“Nobody can stay up with Mila Juarez if you will wrestle your match. She wrestled her matches extremely well and busted through, all the way through to the finals.”
Going into the semifinals, Juarez faced a difficult challenge in her journey to the state championship final.
“I went into that match just thinking, wrestle your own match,” Juarez said. “At the beginning, I was wrestling my own match, and then I pushed her out of bounds. We come back to the center, and I try to feel her out. She takes me down, and I don’t really get taken down a lot. I’m really good at neutral, and I’m just great on my feet. So that was just like a shocker. Then I’m on the bottom, I can’t get up.”
Despite the obstacles, Juarez’s mental strength allowed the sophomore to regroup and secure her spot in the championship final.
“It’s the second period, and I was like, you just persevere,” Juarez said. “I knew I could beat this girl. I feel that I’m better. I know I’ve worked harder, and so I persevere. I get up, take her down then I ride her out for a bit. I end up pinning her and putting her to her back.”
Clinching her spot in the championship final, Juarez faced off with a familiar opponent, her training partner at her local wrestling club.
In a fierce battle, Juarez came up short of the gold medal but still finished in second place at state. Despite losing in the final, Juarez was still proud of her accomplishment and the fact that both her and her training partner finished first and second.
“It did suck,” Juarez said. “But in reality, it was also pretty cool to see that me and my practice partner are number one and two in the state.”
Now a recognized name, Juarez is ready to start the offseason to prepare for capturing the gold medal at state.
“It shows that I can compete with the top people, and I can take people down,” Juarez said. “I can upset people, and it puts my name out on the radar. People know my name now, and I’m getting a lot of looks. … I’m not an underdog anymore.
“I have to just stay at my level, and it makes me want to work even harder. I want to go out there and keep working, get stronger, get faster, get better at wrestling, get better technique, and I just wanna go out there and have an even better season than this season.”
cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc
