HUDSON- Junior Julia Da Costa has dominated the ring as the only girl on the Nashoba and Hudson co-op wrestling team this season.
Da Costa has been wrestling since she was around 14 years old. She got dragged into wrestling by her best friend’s dad who is a coach in Ashland named Adam Quit.
“He was a great coach and I really look up to him. He’s like my second dad, it’s amazing.”
Quit started to notice how Da Costa really liked to fight, so he encouraged her to start. Da Costa said that he kind of pushed her into doing it.
“He motivated me to start wrestling because I had all this built up stress and I really liked fighting.” Da Costa said.
Da Costa had some challenges when wrestling but also had the pleasure of overcoming them.
“One moment that I’m really proud of has to be when I was wrestling at All States and I was able to beat this girl. And this year when I also made it to States, it was really fun.” she said.
Starting a new sport with no experience at 14 was something that also motivated her to continue and stick with wrestling.
“Getting started at 14 was hard because I never played sports in my life, but as I kept practicing and training I got better and was able to achieve great things.” Da Costa said.
She thinks that wrestling as a girl has both ups and downs.
“Wrestling as a girl is fun because people doubt your ability. Having coaches tell me how much potential I would have if I just tried harder sucks but it just made me want to get better to prove to them I can do it.” she said.
Da Costa is able to balance school and wrestling, although sometimes it can be tough on her physically and mentally.
“I try getting all of my work done in school, so after school I can just train or go to the gym immediately after.”
Da Costa is a little bit tired of being the only girl at HHS to wrestle, so a message to all of the girls from Da Costa.
“Just do it, just start wrestling please just start wrestling, I’m tired of being the only girl from Hudson wrestling.”
