OHS Female Wrestling Earns State AAU Title Pair of Opelika 8-year-olds Get Team USA Invite

BY WIL CREWS SPORTSCREWS@ OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM

OPELIKA —

Opelika High School’s female wrestling program hasn’t been around for long, but one of its pupils is shaking up the sport that has long been associated with men.

Heidi Peralta, a 16-year-old sophomore at OHS, has only been wrestling for three years.

“I got interested in wrestling because I heard it was the same as jiu-jitsu, and I was already doing jiu-jitsu before,” she said.

But on Feb. 4 in Thompson, Alabama, she captured the AAU Alabama Youth Wrestling Organization (AYWO) State Championship.

“I won by points,” she said. “I didn’t know I had won it until they were calling out for the awards.”

Peralta wrestled in the 113-pound division, but due to the limited number of female participants, she wrestled girls weighing up to 130 pounds at the state meet.

“They were tougher because in my weight class, it ranged all the way to 130, so I had to wrestle bigger girls than me,” she said. “I wasn’t nervous, but I guess I was excited just about getting to wrestle.”

Peralta had to win two matches to advance to

SOCCER >>

FROM B1 on the field except goalkeeper; he’s going to play a huge role for us. But our two strikers that were also two of the leading goal scorers last year, Moe Forbes and Dexter Graham, we have those guys back up top. I would expect those four to play huge roles.”

A change in goalkeeper is one of the most notable differences in the Bulldogs’ lineup going into this season.

“We have a new goalkeeper this year; his name is Eduardo Moran,” Hovell said. “He didn’t play with us last year at all and is now stepping into a starting role and has done great.” the championship round of the tournament. In her time between matches, Peralta said she scouted her opponents to try and gain a competitive advantage.

“I was watching the match before to see what [my opponent in the championship] did on bottom or on top,” she said.

For her achievements, Peralta earned a special lunchtime announcement at school last week. While she knows the significance of her accomplishment, the quiet-natured high schooler said she didn’t love the extra attention.

“No, [I didn’t like it],” she said. “Not fun.”

While Peralta often dominates on the mat, off it she is just another everyday girl, according to Opelika High School head wrestling coach Tucker Brown.

“Heidi is very quiet and nice and just your everyday girl that you wouldn’t think would be aggressive and dominant on a wrestling mat,” he said.

When she is competing, however, Peralta quite literally gets her game face on.

“As soon as she hits the mat … she wears glasses all day long; … as soon as she takes those glasses off, she will go out there and it’s a different Heidi,” Brown said. “That’s when it gets serious.”

Brown, in his first year

Despite having a slew of returning players, Opelika will be without two of last year’s biggest contributors — all-state players Ethan Nieman and Said Rujana.

“We had an all-state player at center back last season, Ethan Nieman,” Hovell said. “His junior year, he was selected to the all-star game in Montgomery. That’s obviously one leader that’s left the defense. We also lost a three-year starter, Said Rujana. So, we’ve lost two key leaders from last year’s team.”

While playing in a new classification brings plenty of new challenges, as well as opponents, this season will be a crucial time for the Bulldogs to adjust to as head coach at OHS, said it has been a pleasure watching and coaching Peralta this year. Additionally, he said it’s impressive just how much she has kept up with boys who train alongside her.

“They practice the same as the boys do,” Brown said. “She was held just as accountable as they were, and I had the same expectations for her to keep up.”

Peralta was also recognized with the Governor’s Award for Excellence at the state meet Feb. 4. Brown said when describing Peralta that one trait in particular separates her from her counterparts.

“Grit,” he said. “She just has that fight in her, and at the end of the day, when it comes down to who is going to win in those six minutes of a match, she is going to be the one who is going to take it all because she wants it more than the other girl.” playing at a higher level.

The sport of female wrestling is still growing at the high school level in Alabama, with about 300 girls competing in AHSAA this past season. Peralta, who said her favorite part of wrestling is her “teammates,” is doing her part to help inspire other girls to get involved and help grow the sport in her home state.

“I have heard other girls come up to me and ask if they can join wrestling,” she said.

“Scheduling-wise, you’re scheduling extra games with those teams that you used to just play once a year,” Hovell said. “This year for our schedule, we went ahead and just went all out. Over half of our games are 7A opponents because we know that’s what we’re going to have to play to get to the goal of a state championship, so we started scheduling 7A schools.”

The Bulldogs have started their season 2-0, with wins over Eufaula and Trinity Presbyterian.

Stay tuned for a preview of the Opelika girls soccer team’s season next week.

BY NOAH GRIFFITH FOR THE OBSERVER

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OPELIKA

In the first year of the East Alabama Jaguars youth travel football league, two of its players are already moving onto the national stage.

In 2020, Opelika’s Skylan Holstick went to Mexico to play for Team USA at age 12, garnering national attention. Now, his younger brother, Jonah Eaton, and his Jaguars teammate, Karter Blackmon, will get a head start at age 8.

This June, Jonah, son of Jaguars President Tianna Summers, and Karter will hop on a plane to Monterey to play Mexico’s National 8U team.

In addition to Skylan, Jonah is Summers’ second son to play for Team USA, so she is familiar with the benefits the boys will reap from getting to travel out of the country to play the game they love.

“It feels good to get an early start because I feel like when my son Skylan went [to Mexico] it really put him on the map,” Summers said. “When you Google his name, all this pops up, and you don’t find too many kids who come up when you type in their name. So, I feel like he really gained a lot of exposure. … It gives [Jonah and Karter] a chance to see what they got to look forward to.”

The boys are going to familiar territory, too. Jonah and Karter accompanied Skylan to Mexico three years ago, but that was just the start of a football journey for them. When they put on a helmet for the first time at 6 years old, they both fall in love with the physicality of the game.

“Hitting [is my favorite part of playing football],” Karter said. “I love being on defense.”

Also, Jonah has tagged along on his brother’s visits to colleges such as the University of North Carolina and the University of Texas, as well as camps in Las Vegas, Nevada and several other states across the country.

While this might sound like another day in the life for them, there are many firsts happening — starting when they lift off the ground. When Skylan went to play in Mexico three years ago, they drove.

Jaguars Vice President Nellie Torbert, Karter’s mom, said this trip will help prepare the boys for school ball and serve as a big social stepping stone early in their journeys. The boys will experience a lot of cultural diversity by seeing a team with another playing style and values, participating in three practices alongside them and spending five days in the heart of Monterey. There will be many lessons learned, but the trip serves as a reward for the hard work the children have put in, according to Summers. In the Jaguars’ first year of existence, they made it to the second round of the playoffs.

Jonah already knows exactly what reward he wants.

“As long as there’s food, I’m happy,” he said

See JAGUARS, page B3