It didn’t take a lot of arm twisting to get Maddie Aguiluz to try out for El Dorado’s wrestling team.
“I did soccer from fourth grade to eighth grade,” she said. “When I was in eighth grade, my P.E. coach, who was also my health teacher, was like, ‘Yeah, up at the high school I have a wrestling team. Next year, you should come up there and join. You could be our lightweight,’ because we had to weigh ourselves for a health examination or something. He said, ‘you’d be perfect for our lightweight spot.’ I was like, ‘O.K. I’ll be there.’
“And then when I got there, he’d already left but I still stayed.”
That’s it. That’s the story of what drove the 5-foot-1, 100-pound sophomore to the rugged sport of wrestling.
In just her second year, Aguiluz has emerged as a contender in the girls’ 100-pound division. She also competes against 105-pound girls and against 106-pound boys in Louisiana.
“Maddie is very aggressive,” said El Dorado coach Wes Ables. “A lot of times, like tonight she was going up against boys, she’s more aggressive than a lot of the boys she goes against.”
In a JV match on Tuesday, Aguiluz pinned a male wrestler from Evangel in about a minute, using a head throw. Her style is sort of technical aggression, using her quickness to pounce and solid technique on the ground.
“Technique matters a lot because you have to know the moves,” she said. “The moves you know, you have to be good at them. You don’t have to know very many moves, you just have to be good at the ones you do know. You can win with just a few moves. You also have to want to win and have the drive to win.”
At 100 pounds, Aguiluz is undefeated in Arkansas this season at 5-0. She said the weight rules allow for two pounds over 100. She weighed in at 101.6 for Tuesday’s match.
More than half of her matches this season have been against boys. She was 1-1 against boys from Evangel last week. Aguiluz doesn’t have any issues competing against males. In fact, she said it’s an advantage, “because they’re scared of losing to a girl, it’s already in their head. Girls are also a little more calculated and smart when it comes to wrestling. Boys, I think they just want their strength to save them. Girls are smart and they’re patient.”
“She is not afraid to get out there and wrestle whether it’s against boys or girls and takes it to heart if she loses, always wanting to get better and win,” said assistant coach James Faith.
Aguiluz, who placed third in Riot on Red in Bossier City this season, said this season has already been an improvement over a year ago, when she had just three victories.
“Last year there would be meets I’d go and I wouldn’t even get to wrestle. There were two or three I didn’t get to wrestle,” she said. “But this year, even if there wasn’t someone in my weight class, I’d try to get an exhibition so I could wrestle.”
A wrestling exhibition means competing up in a different weight class. Her in-state loss this season was to a girl from Sylvan Hills in the 105-pound division.
“I feel like this year I have a lot of extra support from my team and I feel more confident. Support from your team matters a lot, knowing they’re there cheering you on. It helps you a lot.”
Ables said quickness has been an asset for Aguiluz. The pace of her matches is much more frantic than others. Her energy might only be matched by her tenacity.
In her match against Evangel, she threw her opponent but his momentum flipped her over to the ground for a two-point deficit. She had to fight from underneath, eventually scrambling back to her feet where she quickly threw him again, this time holding his shoulders down for the pin fall.
“She works hard. She’s in practice every day. She’s a technician,” Ables said. “She’s very good with her technique. She doesn’t quit. She’s going to battle you for three rounds every match.”
At this point, it’s clear Aguiluz is a wrestler. What isn’t clear is why she was so eager to try out for the sport in the first place.
“It’s nice to be apart of a team,” she said. “I feel disciplined more. I feel like I have more motivation to do well in school. I have a routine and a schedule.”
After discovering wrestling, she said she didn’t even try out for the high school soccer team as a freshman.
“At that point, I had started wrestling.“ Soccer was too time consuming and, “I wanted to give wrestling all my time.”
The fifth of 11 children (7 brothers and 3 sisters), Aguiluz didn’t really have an explanation for why she tried wrestling initially. The discipline the sport requires is definitely something she likes.
Everything about the sport requires discipline, including making weight.
“I just cannot eat junk,” she said. “It’s hard to discipline yourself when it comes to eating right because you want to eat all this junk that your body does not need.”
When asked about the lack of females in the sport, she said she hopes that changes.
“I think a lot of girls wouldn’t want to do it but I want to show girls that it’s something to do. I think a lot of girls could do it. Anyone can do it, really,” she said. “I don’t want girls to feel afraid to do it.”
Aguiluz said the discipline from wrestling has seeped into her life off the mat.
“It makes me feel more confident. I feel like I’m accomplishing something. And, I feel proud of myself because I know I’ve been working hard and I feel proud that I’ve been working hard, that I’ve been putting in the effort. I feel my self esteem is going up. I feel more comfortable.”
Has wrestling changed her personality?
“I don’t think so. I think, if anything, I’ve become less reserved, less quiet. But I’ve always been kind of a loud person.”
Still a baby in the sport, Aguiluz admitted not knowing the names of some of the moves or the proper wrestling terms.
“I like to throw people,” she said.
Her favorite move is a head throw, which is similar to a hip toss or a judo throw. It’s a move that requires leverage and quickness.
She also described a move she called the snake.
“So you get them in front head to where they’re on all fours on the ground. You’re in front of them. You’re holding their chin and you reach under with your arm and go under their shoulder and kind of get under them and flip them over.”
With her positively sunny disposition, Aguiluz makes a debilitating wrestling hold sound like preparing chocolate chip pancakes. It’s serious business for her, though, with big-time goals.
“We expect her to be competing for a state championship in that 100-pound class,” Ables said.
Her goal?
“I want to win state.”
Aguiluz went to state last year. When asked how far she got, she answered succinctly, “No where.”
“I lost in the first round. I lost my first match. I lost my second match. And in my third match, the girl wasn’t there and I got a forfeit win.”
It wasn’t a total loss, however.
“I learned some more moves. The girls that beat me threw me and I hadn’t been thrown in a match, really. So this year, that’s what I’ve been doing to everybody I’ve wrestled. I’ve been throwing them around. But, she threw me and I landed really hard and I was stunned. I think I learned to do that, to stun people because that can catch them off guard.”
With less than two years in the sport, Aguiluz has the experience of a novice with the goals of a seasoned veteran. Her rapid rise on the mat has her thinking about the sport long-time.
“It’s something I’m considering doing after high school. If I could get a scholarship for it, I think I’d take it. Going to college is very important to me,” she said.
“I think, right now, I’m doing very well. I heard my coach telling me that some college coaches wanted to talk to me but they’re not allowed to because I’m not a junior, yet. They can’t talk to me until I’m a junior. It’s exciting. I kind of want to talk to them. I want to hear what they think or hear them say, ‘Hey, we want you to wrestle for our school,’ or something like that.”
Her enthusiasm for wrestling is a treat for spectators. Her victory on Tuesday drew the largest roar from the crowd at Wildcat Arena. From the look on her face, the wrestling mat has become a happy place whether the opponent is male or female or even in a bigger weight division.
“I’m really happy. I’m happy that a lot of people are going to get opportunities like this. They see this is something a lot of people like. It’s something a lot of people can take part in,” she said.
“It’s very important to me to be a good role model for young women. I want young ladies to see that this is very possible and real. It’s very attainable. It just takes hard work and effort and you have to want it.”