By Karenna Reyna
Abran Rodriguez, freshman criminology major, is the captain for the first-ever wrestling team at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. Rodriguez has wrestled since his freshmen year at Wagner High School.
“I really loved it [wrestling] in highschool and that was my goal. It is the reason I wanted to be here, because UTSA already had a team. I wanted to make it here,” Rodriguez said.
Through freshman orientation, Rodriguez met kinesiology major Luis Orta, a fellow wrestler. The two of them decided to make a club on campus.
Rodriguez took the initiative to fill out the proper paperwork on JagSync, an online campus student life database, to make the wrestling team an intramural sport on campus.
“I knew Luis and we both had the idea and were wrestlers,” Rodriguez said. “I took action and actually did the paperwork.”
The two increased their membership by interacting with other students in the game room. So far, they have four members in the team.
Mariah Cortez is the only woman on the team. She started wrestling because her coach at Brooks Academy High School saw something in her. It was a small school and wrestling program but something she continues to do and enjoys.
The team practices three days a week, including two days of weight training and one day working on wrestling techniques.
The campus’s wrestling team made their debut at the University of Houston Downtown campus, competing in individual tournaments.
To be eligible to compete in matches, students must register through JagSync as well as through the National Collegiate Wrestling Association online and must have medical insurance. Out of the 12 team members, four qualify to participate in competition through the Association.
“It is folk style wrestling, it’s kind of a blend of freestyle and Greco Roman style, it’s like high school wrestling but on a collegiate level,” Rodriguez explains.
Rodriguez also guides the team by coaching and conditioning them on wrestling techniques and drills at their weekly practices at Mission Concepcion Sports Complex.
“There are two different styles, basically freestyle is what they do at the Olympics, that was kind of harder for me,” Cortez said. “I think it was different because if I was going to wrestle this [match] it was going to be free style and at UHD was folk style, I can’t tell the difference sometimes, I just forget, I just wrestle.”
The tournaments are individual matches based on the wrestlers weight class.
“My weight class, since I am 185 lbs, I had to go to 200 lbs. weight class, 209 lbs, those girls are big, I was nervous at first, I was scared, I was shaking, on the way but at the end I was like, I got this,” Cortez said.
The entry fee for each match ranges between $35 – $50 per person. The wrestlers recently received their maroon singlets and are now preparing for an upcoming match in February at the University of Texas in Austin. This is just the beginning of intramural wrestling at A&M San Antonio and the team is looking forward to the future.
“I want to get better and I won’t stop for this team,” Cortez said.
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