Senior Kathryn Kaminski began wrestling during her sophomore year of high school. She quit halfway through the season when she started to feel as if she was failing her team and coach with her losing streak that year. The summer leading into her junior year Kaminski decided that she would go to some of the wrestling practices after school, last year Kaminski went to state in wrestling and placed 6.
Kaminski is training for the pre-state competitions and the state wrestling tournament that will be taking place on Friday, Feb. 14 and Saturday Feb. 15 at the Berry Center in Cypress, Texas.
“There is a wrestling club in Spring that I go to,” Kaminski said. “They have practices that run for about two hours. I go there when I don’t have practice here.”
Kaminski returned to the wrestling team in the beginning of her junior year after she had decided to give wrestling a second chance.
The moment Kaminski was told that she had made it into state wrestling that year with three of her other teammates, she couldn’t believe it. It was a magical moment for her.
“It didn’t feel real at first, because I didn’t think I would do good. Going into the season I didn’t do too well, especially the previous year,” Kaminski said. “I wasn’t really confident about it and then, when I qualified for state, I was like ‘What the heck, is this real?’”
Kaminski has been preparing herself for the pre-state competitions during these last few weeks and is aiming towards winning gold medals this year in the pre- state competitions before the state tournament.
“Get gold a few times before that, because last last year, it’d be like third place, second place, but it’s gonna be gold this year,” Kaminski said. “Going to some different practices outside of school and going to school everyday so I can be at practice. I’m eating right, getting enough sleep and all that stuff preseason.”
This year is Kaminski’s last year in wrestling, she aspires to be state champ one last time before graduation arrives.
“It’s a little bit sad that it’s my last time, because if I don’t make it this year, I’m never going to have a chance to be a state champ again,” Kaminski said. “This is my last chance to do that. But I’m excited because either way I have a lot of fun doing this.”
Kaminski said throughout her years in wrestling, she learned the sport was more about a person’s mentality over the physical part.
After Kaminski says goodbye to high school wrestling, she plans to keep doing something related to wrestling whether it’s through college or not.
“I definitely want to do some sort of martial arts after high school,” Kaminski said. “I may go to college for wrestling but I’m not sure right now, I’m just going to see who gives me offers.”
