It's the fastest growing sport in the country and last night girls wrestling arrived for the first all female meet in Kern County. Last year Golden Valley head coach Aaron Wherry saw colleges start to offer scholarships and knew it was time to start a team.
"I didn't know if we'd have two girls come out or 200 girls," said Wherry. A dean at the school, Wherry found a unique starting point for recruiting. "I found all the girls that had been in trouble, been suspended for fighting and needed an outlet; I got those girls first."
Wherry got his tough group of girls, but his toughest was someone who never got in trouble but might have the toughest name to say.
Junior Avealoumamalu Lefotu made everyone remember her name last year. In her first year wrestling, during the valley championship, she blew out her knee. “The only thing left was just head and arm and I just did it," she said.
Despite the injury, she finished the match with a win, qualifying her for the state championship. A match she’d have to sit out due to the injury but an experience that has her re-focused on this year. “She knows last year what she could have done, was right there, now we’re ready to go for this year," said Wherry.
This season she hasn’t lost a single match including a 27 second take down win against Shafter.
As the marquee wrestler for a sport on the rise, she has a message for young girls watching. “It takes up all your time, but that’s a good thing," she said. This year she’s hoping all that time can equal an extra week of competition at state.
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