After just being introduced to the sport in the preseason, Maya Juarez(‘27) has dominated her first official campaign with the Amador Valley Girls Wrestling Squad. Racking up multiple top three finishes, Juarez has been a bright spot in Amador’s athletics.
“She has impressed the team because she came out early and was working hard in the offseason in interest and was ready to step into a varsity role early on and has an over 500 record as a varsity wrestler as a freshman, which is very impressive,” said Head Wrestling Coach Travis Chubb.
Juarez hasn’t been a stranger to sports as she has done gymnastics since she was a kid and also plans to take part in Amador’s softball program.
“I started wrestling around August during preseason. I was looking around the Amador website trying to find sports because I also play softball, and I was trying to find something to fill the time between now and softball season, which is in the spring, and I stumbled upon wrestling,” said Juarez.
A major turning point this season was the third Annual Lady Grizzly Classic tournament in San Lorenzo where Juarez finished in 2nd place in her division. Other notable finishes include first place JV finishes at the Roger Briones tournament in early December and the Albany Girls Tournament in late December.
“It’s been huge for me because each tournament we get a medal and seeing them kind of build up now, it’s really huge for me,” said Juarez.
The girls team consists of only eight girls, so a big part of the team’s success this year has been the motivation to get better during practices.
“We don’t have a lot of girls on the wrestling team, so we’re pretty tight knit and close together for the girls wrestling team, which is really nice,” said Dakota Ionescu-Catrina(‘24), a teammate of Juarez.
Juarez’s future looks bright as she’s getting better every game. The AV girls wrestling team has been on an upward trend in the last few years thanks to athletes like her.
“My goals for at least this year is to finish strong, go to NCS, and go to league. As for next year and maybe the year after that, I want to try to show my commitment to the team and become team captain for the girls team,” said Juarez.
