Throughout her final wrestling season at Campo, senior Piper Lalli has made tremendous progress and made her way up to state championships. Lalli began wrestling her freshman year as an agreement with her mom that if she got to do football, she had to do wrestling as well. Lalli ended up liking wrestling more than football, and “by my junior year, I was only wrestling,” said Lalli.
For this wrestling season, Lalli decided that she “needed to work hard for something” and she set her goal as state championships. By working hard to reach her goal, Lalli found that she “improved more than any of my teammates or coaches expected,” she explained.
Lalli’s determination to improve has made her an inspiration to her teammates. “She definitely had a big presence in the room and was definitely a leader for everybody to look up to,” said junior Isabel Zabronsky. She has also been a great team captain, “Piper is probably the best team captain I’ve had in 19 seasons. Very hard worker and very motivating to the other kids, organized, and probably going to make a great coach one day” said Wrestling Coach Phil Freeman.
Going into state championships Lalli was confident in her skills, with her main focus being to not get too nervous before her match so that she would be able to focus. “I ended up being really proud because I went in there unafraid, and even though I lost I put it all out there and I never gave up,” said Lalli.
Lalli’s journey in wrestling had some road bumps, like when she was injured in her junior year and wasn’t able to do much wrestling. However, this setback only made Lalli more eager to do more during her senior year. “This season she came in really ready to work hard and improve on just everything,” said Zabronsky.
Lalli’s mindset of self-improvement and hard work is an encouragement to student-athletes at Campo, that even if there are roadblocks or unwanted outcomes, the best thing you can do is keep pushing forward.
