[New] Lyla Devereaux finds her calling in wrestling

ROBBY FLETCHER Sports Editor

Lyla Devereaux likes to prove a point.

The multi-sport Powhatan freshman athlete has tried her hand at a multitude of sports over the past four years, including flag and tackle football, ice hockey and track and field, but right now, her attention is directly aimed at wrestling with the Indians. With wrestling, Devereaux wants to prove that anyone can be great at it if they’re willing to put in the work.

“I love proving a point that you don’t need to be a certain size, a certain shape or a strength or age to be good at wrestling,” she said.

“It’s just how hard you work for it. You can show a lot of improvement really quickly like that.”

Starting with the junior varsity team in the eighth grade, Devereaux says it took her a month to get the hang of the sport and all its intricacies, but in that time, it became a passion for her. So much so that she put aside sports like hockey, another sport she says she loves to play, to make time for her practice on the mats.

Her experience playing hockey, which she played two seasons as a left wing with the U14 Richmond Generals, and football, which was spent with the Powhatan Chiefs youth football team, prepared her for the physicality of wrestling.

Being the first girl to ever play on the seniors level for the Chiefs in tackle or flag, it also prepared her for how to handle being one of a few girls in generally male-dominated sports, something she relished as a chance to prove she belonged.

“I think that I stood out more,” she said. “I felt like a role model for younger girls who want to go try something that they’re not used to.”

Now, with Powhatan wrestling seeing a rise in female wrestlers and the hopes of a full girls wrestling team on the horizon, Devereaux says she’s excited to be a part of the expanding wrestling community.

After her first season on JV, she didn’t take a break from wrestling, spending much of the offseason at local wrestling clubs, wrestling camps and with Blackhawk Wrestling so that she could catch up beyond her status