Mize eyes a championship prize

One of top female wrestlers in her weight class, senior Logan Mize will be a top contender at the state meet Friday and Saturday.

Don Sidler

One of top female wrestlers in her weight class, senior Logan Mize will be a top contender at the state meet Friday and Saturday.

For many girls, the early elementary school years are a time for princesses, dance or maybe soccer or softball. But for senior Logan Mize it was something else; something she still has a passion for more than a decade later.

“I had a friend named Jordan in first grade and I always hung out with him,” Mize said. “He was like ‘hey you should try wrestling’ and I was like ‘alright’ and I just instantly fell in love with it.”

Finishing 4th in state her sophomore year, Logan is the defending state champion in the 119-pound weight division and is seeking to defend her title Friday and Saturday at the state meet in Cypress.

I just instantly fell in love with it,

— senior wrestler Logan Mize

Repeating as a state champion is first and foremost on her mind this week, but she is also thinking ahead.

“I don’t know where I’m going to go to college yet but I have a few scholarships lined up so hopefully I can get into a good school,” Mize said. “I have the top 8 nationally girls wrestling ranked schools and then one from Canada.”

With only twenty colleges in the United States sponsoring a women’s varsity wrestling program, Logan and her family are ready to see what she can do at the next level.

“Just to see competition on a more elite level,” dad Milton Mize said. “The college wrestling programs are designed to prepare you for the Olympics so there’s always that possibility.”

Unlike sports such as soccer or basketball, there aren’t many career options for wrestling, which means many wrestlers stop competing after high school. But according to assistant wrestling coach Tim Brennan, that’s not the case for Logan.

Amanda Session-Pharris/Tyrone Pharris
Senior Logan Mize finished with a gold medal at the regional tournament in her junior year. Mize’s pin in the finals clinched the team title for the girls.

“She’s driven to do it at the next level she wants to wrestle in college and unless you have that drive, that is not a goal of yours,” Brennan said. “She wants to continue to do it in college and she loves doing to and she’s good at it.”

A sport many participants don’t pick up until middle school or high school, wrestling with others was in Logan’s DNA long before she began doing it competitively.

“I was kind of a rough child,” Logan said. “Not beating up on people but wrestling basically it was just fun having someone I could compete with.”

Beyond the competition component, Logan’s dad says wrestling has taught her many life skills.

“It’s been a blast, watching her grow and get bigger, as she’s matured,” Milton said. “She’s always been pretty strong and athletic but she’s gotten smarter, more technical, and wiser. I have noticed how it has taught her a lot of self confidence. It’s kind of been neat to watch her physically, mentally, and socially develope.”

Logan’s desire to be one of the best in the state is noticed by her teammates.

She attacks one hundred percent of the time and that’s what makes her so good,

— assistant wrestling coach Tim Brennan

“She’s like me in the sense that we both dedicate a lot and a lot of our time to getting better at the sport,” 2016 152-pound state champion Jordan Robison said. “What she does outside of school and stuff really shows when she’s at the end of the season leading up to state.”

In her final days as a high school wrestler, her coaches see a difference since she began wrestling four years ago.

“She has improved to where she totally dominates her opponents, early on there was wrestlers out there that could beat her she didn’t place in state her freshman year,” Brennan said. “Now she attacks one hundred percent of the time and that’s what makes her so good.”

Repeating as a state champion is a tough challenge in any sport, but as Logan seeks to do just that, she feels she is prepared for whatever comes her way this weekend.

“Wrestling is a mental game, you are competing with people, you have to get your school work done, you have to be in practice all the time,” Mize said. “Physically it’s pretty draining but it kind of comes easy to me because I have been doing it for so long.”