This is the story of a girl striving to be the best at what she does.
The best in a sport that doesn’t get much recognition: girls wrestling.
Miyuki Pugrad a junior at Kennedy High School has worked her way to the top of the wrestling ranks in California and the Nation.
In only her third year competing in the sport, Miyuki, wrestling in the 126 pound weight division, has already qualified for the State championships three times running.
She holds a record of 37-5, is ranked 2nd in California and 3rd in the Nation, and is a 2015 Girls Folk style Jr. All-American in her weight division.
She has beaten opponents who’ve wrestled over three times as long as she has, which speaks of her natural ability.
But natural talent can only get you so far.
Miyuki knows this first hand as a tough loss in the final match of her sophomore season caused her to doubt her direction.
“No one wants to end their season with a loss and being so close to stand on the podium made me even more hungry to come back even stronger the next year,” said Miyuki. “I felt as if no one could stop me in my tracks. Little did I know that the person who could destroy me the most was myself.”
Miyuki trained hard all summer leading up to her past season, but the stress of school and wrestling got to her during her Junior season.
“Hours of my summer seemed to go by too fast as I started wrestling off-season with my coach,” said Miyuki. “‘It will all pay off in the long run,’ I kept saying to myself. Practice, practice and more practice every day of the week. I was learning new techniques and strategies every week until season came around.”
Miyuki says she trained until she wouldn’t gas out in a match. She trained to never give up until the match was over, but a lull in the season caused her to want to give up before the match even started.
“I went through a plateau this past season, something that most wrestlers get in their junior or senior year and this was mine,” said Miyuki. “I’m not going to go into detail how stressed out I was but the main person that got me out of it was my coach (Mike Kim). He said, ‘we will change up your workout but you need to keep coming to practice. You need to push through this. Everyone goes through it.’”
Miyuki says she’s glad she took Kim’s advice because without it she would have never achieved her junior season accolades. Miyuki wanted to only reach the top eight in State, but she ended up reaching the CIF finals where she took second.
Miyuki says she didn’t even know there was a girls Nationals tournament in Oklahoma, but her resilience and skill earned her 3rd place in that tournament.
“2nd in California and 3rd in the Nation was mind-blowing to me. It proved to me that I was capable of doing things that had once seemed impossible,” said Miyuki.
Now, with her senior season coming up next year Miyuki has a one track mind: to stand on the winner’s podium again, but this time in the first place position.
“I believe that Miyuki can be the first State wrestling champion for Kennedy,” said Kim.
After her senior season, Miyuki wants to continue wrestling. She holds a 3.8 GPA, which coupled with her tantamount wrestling skills has already attracted the attention of several colleges.
Her goals don’t stop there. After college, Miyuki hopes to pursue an MMA career and maybe, some day fight in the UFC. Who knows, maybe one day she might face off against the likes of Ronda Rousey.
Until then, Miyuki says she will work until she reaches her goals.
“I was trained to keep going and don’t ever stop.”