Rocklin High School has a brand new addition to their sports program; an official girls wrestling team. Girls have always been allowed to wrestle, but this year an official team was created.

The team is small, with only five girls, and one of them being freshman wrestler Sarah Leiper.

“I started wrestling in 7th grade,” said Leiper, “and at first I didn’t like it because of how nasty the smell was and how much of a contact sport it was, but I gave it time and grew to love it.”

Along with altering her appearance for the sport she loves, she also has to make difficult decisions everyday in order to stay in the best shape she can be.

“It even really get to eat this past Thanksgiving so I could make weight,” Leiper says, “ and the constant conditioning and eating less than what I normally do is brutal, but I know that it will benefit me in the end.”

Sarah has won many tournaments over the past three years she has been wrestling, but none of these victories would have came to be without the many difficult sacrifices she has made.

“One of the hardest things I’ve had to do is cut my hair for wrestling because instead of wearing an ugly haircap I decided to chop my hair off which was kind of hard because it was almost like cutting off half of my identity,” Sarah says

Sarah is very open about being a female wrestler and is extremely proud of all the accomplishments she has earned through all the hard work and perseverance she has put forth.

Sarah, along with the rest of the girls wrestling team, have worked extremely hard this past season and hope to make the first season of girls wrestling a memorable