Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Fremont High School wrestler Amantha Hordagoda started wrestling on the boys' junior varsity team as a freshman. Now a junior, she is the only girl on the boys' varsity team.




Just a Girl

For Amantha Hordagoda, being on the boy's varsity wrestling team is no big deal

By Daniel Hindin

Fremont High School wrestling coach Bobby Soto looks at 100-pound Amantha Hordagoda differently than the other wrestlers on the team.

He singles her out because of her enviable work ethic--Hordagoda hasn't missed a practice since last year. Soto calls her the most consistent wrestler on his team.

Other people may single Hordagoda out because she's the only girl on the varsity team, but Soto says he's seen many female wrestlers. To him, it's no big deal.

"It's less of a shocker these days," says Soto. "Ten years ago we might have jumped up and celebrated [if a girl won a match], but nowadays it's just like, 'Congratulations, you won.' It's not a huge hurdle any more."


Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Hordagoda, left, gets temporarily pinned by an opponent from Wilcox High School during a wrestling match earlier this season. She was the only female wrestler competing that evening between the two high schools.




Soto admits that some people do make a fuss when they see Hordagoda on the mat. Opponents get nervous because they're afraid of losing to a girl. The crowd worries that she'll get hurt. Even her teammates were wary at first, he says.

"It was striking for the guys on the team at first," Soto says. "But when they found out she was actually serious, they gained respect for her."

Hordagoda says she confronted a lot of hostility when she first decided to wrestle.

"Some people thought I just wanted to do it to be with boys," Hordagoda says. "They said, 'Oh, she just wants to roll around with them.' I thought that was crazy. I said, 'No, they hurt me.' "

When she tried to wrestle in eighth grade, there was another girl on the team. The coaches' logic dictated that the two girls wrestle against each other. However, the coaches overlooked the fact that Hordagoda, who weighed in at 90 pounds back then, but weighed 40 pounds less than the other girl. She ended up badly injured.


Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

During practice, Hordagoda shares some laughs with Josh DeSherlia, right, a fellow teammate.




Another coach, at a summer camp, told her she was a disgrace to the sport, and that she didn't belong on the mat.

"It gets to you when you hear those things a lot," she says. "Sometimes I'm treated differently. Sometimes I feel out of place. Sometimes I feel like I want to go home. I say, 'What are you doing here with these people?' "

But anyone who talks to Hordagoda knows that's just a passing thought. Only a junior, Hordagoda has already started researching college-wrestling programs.

Of her experiences in wrestling, she says, "It's tough. You can't go in there half-hearted--you have to go all the way. You have to keep working for it."

Hordagoda's hard work has already earned her the rank of fourth among female wrestlers in California. She failed to make it to the Central Coast Section finals by just one point this year. However, Coach Soto says he likes the possibilities for next year. He says he's confident Hordagoda will really make a splash.

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