Ruby Camejo

9/30/20

“I don’t know why but I actually want to get in a sport this year” I had expressed to my parents

“what sport are you thinking?” they both had asked

“Wrestling, I wanted to do it for a while as we all know but I was always busy”

“Find out where and when and do it!” they both said very supportive

“Hey”

“Uhh hi” I said back

“ what sport are you here for?”

“Wrestling…”

“That’s cool!, coach should be getting here in a few minutes and tell him you are here to be on
the team!”

As I looked around the gym I saw how the boy’s set up the mats before practice, I then noticed I
was the only girl that was in the wrestling gym. There was a whole bunch of boys starting first,
and then as the first week went by it was only 10 of us left.

It was just a week or less for me in practice and it was the day of the first match ever, me not
knowing if I was going to be able to wrestle the first home match because I had joined a week or
two late. I was put into the heavyweight division due to my weight. Later that day I had a talk
with my coach and teammates.

“Hey coach do you know if you’ll put me in a match today?”

“Hey Ruby it’s really up to you if you think you're ready, I know you started a bit late but it's all
up to you!”

“​Do you guys think I should take a match today? Or wait for the next one?” I had asked the boys

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“Take it! It’ll help with a little bit of experience and you’ve done good for just your first week!”
they all said in a positive way

“Coach I’ll take my first match today!”

“Good! I’m pretty sure shelton has a JV heavyweight for you”

*On the phone with my mom*

“MAMI IM HAVING MY FIRST MATCH COME AT 6!”

“REALLY? I’LL BE THERE!!!!”

When 6 comes I see my Mom, little brother,older brother, and one of my cousins who traveled to
visit who used to wrestle before all to come through the door.

“ Ruby your next! Start warming up!”

*Whistle goes off*

Once I heard the whistle I knew it was time to see what I know me and the boy were going back
and forth to is hustling each other, soon i’m on my back to the mat, but I don’t let him pin me
easily, I keep fight while hearing my family and teammates cheering me on from the back to
keep pushing like I’m doing… then a few seconds before the first period was over I was pinned.
All my teammates and family were so proud of me and said I didn’t give up the fight, I kept
fighting until I couldn’t.

One month later exactly, I had a duel with a few schools and I was nervous because I wasn’t sure
how everything will go, so I woke up not in the best mood but made the best out my day...

*6AM alarm goes off*

“UGH I’m so tired and don’t feel good” I had told my sister

“ Better eat something and wake up you have a few matches today”

*Me and my sister pick up my manager and two wrestlers*

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“ AYE AYE AYE AYE AYE AYE AYE” we yell as we’re trying to wake up in the car as my
sister drives us to cross to catch the bus to Staples highschool.

Once we arrive all the boys in the gym are doing weigh-ins in the room and I have to wait for all
the boys to be done, once they are done my coach started the boys up for warm up and sent me to
the weigh in room to get checked and dressed, I come back in the gym and they are basically
done warming up and matches have already started, me thinking to myself wow such a horrible
morning i’m having can it get any worse?

“Ruby your first match is with the shelton boy you went against a month ago” my coach had told
me

“I’m not letting him beat me this time I have some anger to take out because my morning was
horrible!”

“ you learned so much since your first match you can definitely beat him now Ruby!” my
teammates said with excitement

“RUBY YOUR UP!”

Once that whistle went off I fought with everything in my power. I wasn’t letting him get the best
of me this time, we kept scoring on each other all match… Finally came last period I knew I had
to get out of bottom and score on him. Once that whistle went off I fought to get up and I
reversed on him and I saw I was ahead now, 15 seconds left of the match I look over and see I’m
up so I wasn’t going to let him escape me “WHISTLE GOES OFF”

“WOOOOHOOOOOOOO” shouts my coaches, teammates, and family as they are cheering for
me on the side and then tackle to hug me

“YOU JUST WON YOUR FIRST MATCH!!!” everybody was cheering me on and saying

“Your Dad was smiling so happily from the top of the bleachers, your mom was so happy
recording, and your sister was jumping in excitement” said my manager Mia
That really put a smile to my face

I then had a match with fairfield prep, me and the boy had scored on each other but he had ended
up beating me, but I didn’t care I was still happy about my first win ever”

After some time went by I heard

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“RUBY YOU HAVE ANOTHER MATCH” says my coaches dad in excitement

“REALLY?!” I asked him back excitedly

“ He thinks he can beat you but I know you can beat him!!” he tells me laughin and confident

It's my turn to go up for my match, and I see the boy and I think to myself this can go either my
way or his so I just have to push myself and try my best. As I'm wrestling I hear my coaches and
teammates shouting at me to do what to do, finally I take my opponent down as he’s crying and
pin him! I’m just in shock because I got my first two wins the same day! And my teammates are
jumping with my coaches in shock and excitement, and it was time to shake the hands of the
other team and my coach sent me to the front of the line because he’s so proud of me.

*A Few weeks later*

It was the last home match for us and I see the Johnathan Law team come in and I see another
girl come in around my weight and taller than me.

“Hey I’m Ruby nice to meet you!”

“Hey I’m Ashly! Nice to meet you too!”

*conversation proceeds*

“Ruby you’ll be going against the girl” my coach says

We are both excited to be going against each other and we grab each other’s social medias and
then we wait for each other’s match to go up.

*whistle blows*
*15 seconds later I pin her*

“WOAH you were all sweet and then once that whistle went off you changed and went into
attack mode!” she says to me as we both proceeded to laugh

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After a great first season I knew I wanted to continue wrestling because I loved the self
confidence I gained from it and it taught me more and pushed me more to my abilities, so I
continued on to make sure I was ready for the next season.

It’s the first day of the new season but I wasn’t able to attend practice because I had a physical,
but then later coach adds a ton of people in a group chat and I get excited because their was two
new girls on the team on the lighter weight classes and I made friends with them pretty quick,
they said I looked so serious during practice all the time and they were scared to approach me but
then found out i’m actually nice.

It was the last duel of the year, the 28th of December and I was feeling really confident the
night prior to this day, so I went to sleep feeling confident and woke up feeling even better and
ready to make the best out of this day.

*okay guys first school we are up against is Notre Dame* my coach says
* Ruby your up!”

I jokingly tell my coach “ This for you coach”

*Whistle goes off I pinned him in the first round*

“I told you” I said as I’m getting cheered on by my teammates and family

“You did say you were going to win” he says laughing

After we took a little rest and break it was time to see the next school we would be going up
against.

“Guys we’ll be going against Jonathan Law”

“Ruby your facing him” * as he points on who im facing*

“Coach this one for you again i’m going to win”

“Let’s see” he responds

*I’m throwing and hip tossing this boy all over the mat until I finally pin him*

“ I told you coach” I had said to him once again laughing

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“You did tell me”

Once again we took a few minutes break and went on to the next school to get the day done and
ready to pack up and go home.

“Ruby start warming up, your last match are you going home 3-0 today?”

“Of course coach this for you”

*I pin the boy with a head lock*

“I told you coach”

That day I had one my first three matches of the season the same day and I was proud of myself
because I fought and made my parents proud and seeing the smiles in their face made my whole
day, and my teammates recording me and saying “RUBYYYYY 3-0” and I just felt excited
because I knew I pushed myself everyday in practice to have out comes like this.

​ On January 15th, we had another duel against a few schools and I was feeling a little confident and
nervous at the same time because I wasn’t sure what to expect and what kind of day it’ll be.

The team and coach waited so long for the bus to come pick us up to drop us oC at amity because we had
another duel and it came over an hour late so we thought we might’ve missed weigh-ins, but we still kept a
positive mindset.

*Ruby you’ll be wrestling in this mat over here* my coaches dad said to me

Me thinking to myself when I saw that tall boy how I was going to dominate him, during the first
period of the match we had gone out of bounds and I started on bottom and him on top and once
that whistle went off right before I knew it I had pinned him! And was so happy because I saw
my parents were proud of me and they told me you see height doesn’t matter if you beat
someone way taller than you and so fast!

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 ​ On Wednesday February 12th, I had woken up to school made sure I had everything I was going to need
for my match later on and went on to school, I was feeling tired as usual but felt pretty good and confident
in myself for some reason, but I knew my mom wasn’t going to be able to make it because it was a far
match so I knew I had to push myself today to make sure I get to call her and tell her I took a win.

This day we had a match at morgan and It was a far school so my mom and sister couldn’t make
it but they wished me luck before hand, but during warm up once we saw who I was going
against the boy and his friends were laughing because I believe they thought just because I was a
girl I couldn’t dominate him, and one of my other teammates named Zai saw them laughing and
underestimating me.

“Ruby you see that?! They are laughing and underestimating you just because your a girl, you
better go out their and beat him”

“I will” I responded to Zai

Once the match started on the first period nobody scored on nobody and we went on to the
second period, I started on bottom and him on top, I reversed on him a few seconds after the
whistle went off and I ended up pinning him while his friends were in shock and I took the
smiles off their faces,and the boy I beat looked embarrassed.

My teammates mom then comes up to me

“OMG girl you did so good what’s your moms number?! I’m going to send her the video and tell
her how good you did chica”
*I proceeded to give her the number and thanking her”

Once I got into the bus I called my mom

“Hey mami”

“CONGRATULATIONS I HEARD YOU WON I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!”

“Thank you mami! I’m so happy I did i’ll be sending another video to the groupchat of you, me,
pa, helsuz, and ka” (my siblings).

​It’s now February 14th and I’ve had the worst headache all week and nothing would make it go away but it
was the second biggest event of the season for me so I wasn’t going to complain about it, I went to school
got over the day did what I had to do and then went to cross and took a little nap. I was woken up when the
coach came and we got warmed up and drilled a little before we headed out to SCC’s.

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On this day it was SCC day and I had the worst headache for the whole week which never
went away and I was in pain, also I was hungry because I just ate 0 calories yogurt until
dinner time because I had to go from 250 to 235 for states in just two weeks,so I generally
didn’t feel good, going to Mercy highschool it was a long quiet ride and I had music with
butterflies in my stomach because I really wanted to win a medal. My first match had went
from the Notre Dame boy and I purposely took the match slow because one wrong move
could've gone the other way around. I ended up beating the boy once again, then I was
nervous again for my next few matches.

“You got this just don’t overthink it” my parents said to me

“Watch some matches mainly of your weight class”my dad tells me

“I think im facing both of them that are going against each other next I believe” I tell my
dad

“ Good watch them and watch what moves they use”

I then got into my second match and I was fighting the whole way through but ended up
getting pinned...

“Don’t worry you have another match after you got this” my mom said to me

“Sit down, drink some water and relax yourself a little before your next match” my dad tells me as I
proceeded to do.

My next match comes and I’m wrestling the boy great abc and forth,then the referee doesn’t county my
pin because we were “ out of bound”, so I hear my coaches yell DO IT AGAIN and I did, and
throughout the match my points were getting cheated on,and I ended up losing by points but then after
the kid I just went against coach had told me

“Look I know you beat my kid you were suppose to place second not him I’m sorry that happened’

“You wrestled great” my coaches and family proceeded to tell me.

I ended up placing third place in the SCC and was happy to take a medal home to hang up.

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It’s now the biggest event of the season for me which is girls states. I​ woke up nervously confident because I
know today I have to show and do everything I’ve learned all year long . But I was ready​, ​ready to get it over with
and see how far i’ve come.

On this day it was the first ever state tournament for the girls, and I was nervous because I was
going to be wrestling the highest weight class, but I had my teammates and family there to help
support me and get over the nervousness. I knew it was the biggest match and last match I will
be having for my season and I knew it was no joke.

“Go around and watch people wrestle and see what people in your weight class can pull off” my
dad says to me

“ you got this I know you are going to do your best” my family kept repeating to me.

As i'm walking around pacing back and forth to get my nerves down I hear all the wrestlers
celebrating victories, some warming up, others drilling, and whistles going off. I watch matches
slowly approaching by. I was warming up all day and then my match was taking forever so I had
went with my mom and dad to get a drink in the concession stand and my coach comes and says

“Hey Ruby they keep changing the matches all around I’m not sure if your up soon or not, I’ll
come back to let you know’.....
*a minute later”
“RUBY THEY JUST PUT IT LAST MINUTE GO RUSH TO PUT YOUR HEAD GEAR ON
I’LL MEET YOU ON THE MAT” my coach said stunned

As i’m nervous and rushing into the mat the match start instantly, and me and the girl are
fighting through and I finally grabbed her and hip tossed her to pin her and win the victory, as
my coaches,family, and teammates are screaming in joy because I made it to the finalist match
and we took pictures and after that I said “Can I go get my sprite now?” as all my teammates
laughed at my comment.
A few hours later I had the finalist march, and soon the matches began, me and my opponent
went back and forth for 5 minutes and 22 seconds until she pinned me. I was kind of
disappointed because I had her pinned in the first round but the referee said my legs were out of
bound but I still had one in,but after all it was a good match and we wrestled to the best of our
abilities, I was nervous throughout the whole day.

Even though I didn’t feel like I did such a good job because I ended up second in the state for the
235 weight class my teammates and family reminded me and showed me how well I did that

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night. Now everytime I search my name up I am proud to say I was second place in the first ever
girls invitational state tournament.

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