Take a look around any wrestling gym and you’ll notice the sport isn't for the weak of heart. At La Mirada High School, it’s also not just for the boys anymore.
After 58 years, La Mirada is sponsoring the first girls' team in school history, and it already has 10 women on the roster.
“It's not just a boy sport. You can put your mind to anything and you can change a boy's sport to a girl’s sport, a girl's sport to a boy's sport. It doesn't matter," said freshman captain Amanda Salcedo. “For wrestling, yeah, it is very physical, but I just think of it as I can do whatever I want. I can be in however many sports I want, it doesn't define who I am.”
And she’s not alone in her sentiment.
Senior Captain Alexis Sicairos first joined the program as a freshman back in 2015 - a time when she was the only girl on the school's team.
After three seasons with low interest among the girls on campus, one coach began to try to recruit other women to the sport.
“At first I was a little skeptical about it because I've never coached girl's before. I didn't have any experience with them,” coach David Aragon said. “But the more [time I spent], the more I saw that the girls worked just as hard, if not harder than the boys.”
It’s only continued as the team works towards its first true season.
“People always say, 'Oh you're a girl, you can't do it,'” said Sicairos. “It doesn't mean you can't. Obviously, I did it and these girls are doing it.”
And although she's a senior now, Sicairos is just excited for her nine young teammates to leave their mark.