Female wrestler a mat whiz

Then there's that whole wrestling thing.

Hughes, a 17-year-old junior, is the only female member of the Falcons' varsity wrestling team, and one of just a handful of girls in the state who participate in the primarily boys-only sport.

That she is a girl among boys would be more than enough to make Hughes stand out from the rest of the pack. The fact she's good enough to be a state champion makes her stand out even more.

"I think she's got all the tools," Foothills coach Greg Bishop said. "She has got determination like no other young lady."

That determination enabled Hughes to start wrestling when she was an eighth-grader in Elizabeth City, N.C. She said she was asked to try it by her middle school soccer coach, who also ran the school's wrestling program.

"In soccer I'd run and always knock over the other girls, so I guess he thought I'd be rough enough for (wrestling)," said Hughes, who managed to get approval from her mother to wrestle only after first asking if she could play football.

"I didn't even know (wrestling) was around. I only knew about soccer and football."

Hughes had a moderately successful freshman year at a high school in North Carolina but really took off last season after her family moved to Tucson. She went 30-9, placed second in the 4A Kino Region at 103 pounds and finished fourth at the Class 4A-I state meet.

Bishop said Hughes was only the second girl in Arizona history to place at the state meet.

This season Hughes is doing even better. She won her first 12 matches — eight by pin — before falling to a wrestler from Sahuarita in the finals of the Douglas Invitational on Dec. 16.

Her secret?

Hughes says it's a combination of using the lower center of gravity that women tend to have — "a lot of it is my leverage and hips," she says — and capitalizing on the fear of embarrassment she believes most boys would have about losing to a girl.

"A lot of people think guys won't go so hard because I'm a girl, but they'll go even harder because they don't want to lose," she said.

Hughes' petite 5-foot-5 frame doesn't convey a very tough image, either, which works to her advantage.

Teammate Matt Pisciotta, a senior who wrestles at 119 pounds, recalls the first time he grappled with Hughes during a practice.

"I was just expecting her to be a typical girl wrestler, but she wrestled like a guy," Pisciotta said. "She's really determined to do well. She has some high goals set for herself."

Hughes feels she has a good chance to win state this year, as well as repeat as champion at the Arizona Girls State Meet, a competition held a week after the high school finals that is not affiliated with the Arizona Interscholastic Association.

Hughes said more than 100 girls competed in the event last year, and any time she sees another female on the mat it makes her feel less different.

"But that changes when I have to wrestle them," she said.

Hughes' father, Kevin, said he felt trepidation when his daughter first informed him of her wish to wrestle. He said he didn't think she knew what she was getting into, but his perspective quickly changed once he saw Andrea compete.

"She had to keep up with the guys, since the practice was not tailored for her," Kevin Hughes said. "She was so motivated to do better."

Andrea said she doesn't get much grief from friends or classmates about being a girl wrestling boys — in fact she says most of her female friends get a kick out of it and wish they could do it too.

Maybe the only facet of typical teenage-girl life that wrestling has affected is dating.

"I normally don't go for guys my size, because I can probably take them," she said.

Hughes went 4-1 at an event Dec. 29-30 in Cottonwood before suffering a right shoulder injury. Bishop said Hughes should return in time for the Flowing Wells Invitational on Jan. 12.

Profile

● Name: Andrea Hughes

● Age: 17

● Height, weight: 5'5", 105

● School: Catalina Foothills High School

● Year: Junior

● Sport: Wrestling

● Career highlights: Became just the second girl in state history to place at state, finishing fourth in the 2006 Class 4A-I meet last February … went 30-9 as a sophomore with 13 pins … went 23-19 as a freshman in 2004-05 in Elizabeth City, N.C.