SUFFOLK, VA (WTKR)- This winter marks the second season for VHSL-sanctioned girls wrestling. One King's Fork junior is looking to keep flying high by taking down her opponents.
"I'm quick to let our team know that Ari's the best wrestler on our team, boy or girl," said Bulldogs' head coach Donald Motley.
Motley is talking about Ariyanah Parson, whose wrestling journey began with a take-down, one might say, not of the variety she practices now, but a taking down of her hopes in another sport.
"I think it started when my mom told me I couldn't do football and I wanted to do gymnastics," she recalled. "It's kind of a mix of the two."
That occurred when she was around nine years old and now she's hooked. Parson has grown into a staple for King's Fork in the wrestling room. This mild-mannered student off the mat turns into a fierce competitor upon stepping onto it.
"Probably the tackling," she said of her favorite part of the sport. "If you watch my videos and stuff you'll see that all I do is throw."
"She flips the switch," added Motley. "She's mean as a snake on the mat, she's strong, she's physical and she literally tries to put pain on her opponent."
At this point, Ariyanah wrestles against mostly girls, but at first, boys made up most of her opponents. That's helped her grow and become stronger as an athlete, both physically and mentally.
"I feel like I always have to go harder than I have to do with girls," she said of taking on boys. "I have to prove myself."
"She acts like she's a leader," noted Motley. "It motivates the whole team, especially because she can throw about half the guys that she wrestles in practice that are her size anyway."
Parson has certainly found her niche. Last season saw her finish as state runner-up and she earned a spot in the junior women's national team this past summer. Motley hopes his star gets to a point where she can embrace her talent.
"I don't know who you think you are, but everybody's looking at you like 'that's the girl that's going to beat everybody,'" the head coach said. "Sometimes as a teenager you fail to realize your greatness, so I'm consistently trying to let her know how great she is."
Motley thinks Ariyanah will pull in a handful of Division I college scholarship offers when all is said and done. Right now, she's just doing her best out on the mat and motivating others around her, one championship at a time.
"She goes out there and not only shows that all that hard work is for a reason, she goes out there and dominates every girls she wrestles at this point," Motley pointed out.
"It doesn't really matter who does the sport or who started the sport or who's doing it now," Parson said. "It matters that you're doing the sport now and you have to make the most of it."
