Maria Sifuentes '23 Recruiting Profile

Wrestling is my medicine. It has helped me overcome adversity. The expectations of being a wrestler pushed me to combat the symptoms of trauma, it set me on my healing journey. My journey began with my friend convincing me in the 8th grade at a cross country meet to attend a wrestling camp with her. I went, then I wrestled ½ middle school wrestling season and I quit; PTSD interfered. Although it interfered, I overcame the symptoms due to wrestling. The discipline and focus has been overwhelming & transformative for me. Come 9th grade, I had a better idea of what to prepare for mentally and emotionally, and I haven’t stopped since. Columbia High School wrestling woke up my competitive self. It sparked my passion and respect for the sport. Wrestling has helped me become the person I am today. I have been enrolled in the advanced SUPLES wrestling club since September 2021 my junior year. My Coaches & I are surprised at how fast I am developing as an athlete since I joined this internationally/nationally renowned wrestling club environment with its world class, Gold Level coaches. I would be proud to present Letters of Recommendations from my best coaches, analyzing and critiquing my past, to my many contributions to wrestling and society for the future.

I am passionate, competitive, loyal, hardworking, dedicated, faithful, and humble as an athlete. I aspire to be a strong, dedicated wrestling partner as I realize that my performance or lack thereof as a partner greatly affects the rate of my partner’s improvement to the top, as well as our ultimate Team’s rankings. I am fearless, resilient, and I like to be the strongest asset to improve my wrestling partner. I always challenge myself to be the best I can be. I am internally driven, and vow to myself to progress even one step better than the day before, and thus far I have kept that promise to myself. I strive for excellence and love the high I feel when I am on the mat competing; all time and space stands still. I have been told I am very coachable, disciplined, dependable and persistent; and put into practice the corrections fast. I love feedback and it is easy for me to put it into practice right away. After every match, as long as there is a recording of it, I watch, I reflect, and analyze my mistakes. I’ve always kept a strategic wrestling journal so I can return to the times when I’m at the top of my game before a slump occurs; and then capture my thoughts and lessons learned after a match or tournament. I am open minded and love going to practice and working hard. I am not one who expects to be given anything, rather I always expect to earn what I receive. I do mindful practices. I watch what I eat. Something else that motivates me is that I am a second generation U.S. born Mexican, I take pride in lifting my family up. My family were hardworking, honorable farmworkers. We are resilient people. 

My current GPA does not reflect my high ambition to be a pediatric physician. In my defense, I am overcoming the negative impact adversity had on me. Against all odds, I graduated my junior year as a Certified Nurse Assistant. Working as a CNA will be my part time summer job to help pay for me to go to off season tournaments, besides selling tamales. My full-time summer job is club wrestling, and integrating the most powerful combat skills from all sources for success. My undergraduate work will be nursing or psychology. Nursing will get me into and through med school, or whatever I can do with a psych degree. I feel this is a practical stepping stone. It will make my goal to be a pediatric physician achievable. I have always loved doing school work, turmoil at home disrupted that. I remember being a child sleeping with books, not teddy bears. Sitting in the classroom engaging with my teachers feeds me. As one of my coaches has said, I will work harder than the rest, I will always do my best, I will pursue everything with relentless enthusiasm, and then together we will all have fun.  I am grateful for you to consider me as a prospective wrestler and leader in your program. I vow to be the strongest asset, and wrestling partner to help build and elevate your program to the top of the national standings. I look forward to making you proud.  

Maria Sifuentes