Alejandro Blanco '21 Recruiting Profile

Hello Coaches,

Mental toughness, the fundamental quality needed to be successful in anything a person will ever do in life.   Many people encounter events in their lives where their own mental toughness is challenged.   Some will submit or try their best to avoid challenges life presents, while others will rise to a challenge and push through adversity and gain a better sense of self awareness and capability resulting in a stronger and more resilient mentality.   People will say that “adversity makes us stronger,” I believe this statement is incomplete in that it is in the overcoming of adversity and the lessons we experience and learn from in the process of  overcoming that challenge is what I believe make us stronger and helps to form us into our better selves.  That being said, I myself have encountered  and overcome many challenges throughout my life that have shaped me into a well rounded person I am today.

Throughout my junior high school years, I was bullied for being a little rounder around the edges than most. It did not bother me much until I  felt it bothering me physically.   By the 8th grade summer, heading into my freshman year of high school, I weighed in at 240 pounds.   I was heading into my first wrestling season ever and felt the worst I had ever physically felt in my life.   I had even contemplated quitting a lot during the first few weeks of practice.   Then the competitor in me decided to not let myself quit that easily.   I had finally decided to take each practice on with my head high and with the intent to improve myself mentally and physically.   I started to improve my eating, as well as my sleeping habits, in order to reach the goal I had set for myself.   The season had started in early October, and I had told myself I was going to reach 180 pounds before the hydration test, which was near the end of November.   The odds were stacked against me, but not a single time throughout the process of obtaining my goal did quitting ever cross my mind.   I pushed myself harder and harder every day through each intense three-hour practice.   By early November I had hit 200 pounds, having lost 40 since the beginning of my journey.   However, in order to achieve my goal  I was going to have to do even more than just eating right and going to practice.   I decided to run three miles each morning before school started, in addition to everything else.   Then something amazing happened.   Just two short months after I had thought up the almost impossible goal I had set for myself, I stepped on the scale and it read 179.4 pounds.   That moment had been the happiest moment I have ever had because I finally realized that all the extreme grueling effort I had put in had paid off. 

Every day throughout that journey, my mental toughness increased day after day, workout after workout, mile after mile.  To this day, I continue to push myself and boost my mental toughness to new levels, all, in order to prepare for any adversity life may throw at me in the future.   With a strong mentality, anyone can achieve anything they set their mind to if they commit to a goal, develop a plan to achieve that goal and never give up as having a strong mentality is a fundamental aspect of being successful in any endeavor.   This mental toughness that I carry with me every day and the drive to be the best at anything I do is something that I will bring to the team.   My unrelenting will to win and constantly improve myself is what may contribute to the teams success.  I look forward to learning from my coaches and teammates.  I look forward to being a part of the team. 

Thank you for viewing my profile. 

Respectfully

Alejandro Blanco