Tiger Girl Grappler Signs Scholarship!
Surrounded by friends and fellow athletes,
Arelys Valles signs a lucrative four-year scholarship to join the women's wrestling team at Missouri Baptist University.
CLEWISTON – It’s on to big time college wrestling for Clewiston High School’s Arelys Valles.
Valles inked a scholarship deal Thursday, May 10, to wrestle for the Missouri Baptist University Spartans women’s wrestling team. The four-year scholarship will pay roughly half of her tuition, saving her family tens of thousands of dollars. She plans to major in Health Sports Exercise so she can be a physical therapist and a trainer.
Valles, 18, chose Missouri Baptist over several other schools that showed interest in her after she actively sought recruitment.
“A lot of schools replied, but this one (Missouri Baptist) offered me the most money, and I preferred a smaller college,” she said.
She credited Westside Elementary schoolteacher Keri Alford, the wife of her first coach, with helping her to get started on the recruitment trail.
Family, friends, coaches, and teammates turned out for the scholarship signing in the Clewiston High School gymnasium. Valles was all smiles as camera and cell phone bulbs flashed.
Valles is Clewiston High School’s first and best female wrestler, and arguably the best ever female wrestler to emerge from Hendry County. She wrestled on the boys team, and Head Coach Robert Flynn said 90 percent of her opponents were boys. Valles wrestled in the 103-pound class her freshman and sophomore years and in the 106-pound class her junior and senior years. She posted a four-year record of 96 wins and 45 losses. She capped her junior and senior years by finishing as the state runnerup in the women’s division, twice losing to friend and rival Daisy Santos of Tampa, this last season by one point in overtime.
Off the mat, Valles behaves one way; on it, another.
“She’s two different people,” says Valles’s father, Jesus. “Out here, she is a woman. On the mat, she’s totally different. She’s really aggressive.”
That’s what Coach Flynn saw in Valles.
“She walked into the room and set the bar high. She was a two-year captain. She set the pace in the room. I’ve seen her pin guys in competition and they never wrestled again. She’s one of only four girls from Florida to place in the National Qualifiers,” he said. “She’ll have to learn freestyle wrestling, but we taught her collegiate style. It’s in-your-face. She’ll have to make some changes, but being the hard-nosed wrestler she is, she’ll adapt pretty quickly.”
That’s what Valles has been doing since 7th Grade, when she first encountered wrestling in a Physical Education class. She took immediately to the grappling and the tumbling.
“I like the physical contact and going against guys,” she said. “Yeah, I’m a girl, but I can still be on a mat.”
Not only has Valles been Clewiston High School’s first female wrestler, but she’s a member of the school’s honor society and is pulling a 3.51 GPA. She’s making another first for her family, too.
“Out of my family’s three kids, I’m the first to go to college,” she said.
One gets the sense that the tough-minded Valles will be achieving at least a few more firsts during her collegiate career and beyond.
Valles inked a scholarship deal Thursday, May 10, to wrestle for the Missouri Baptist University Spartans women’s wrestling team. The four-year scholarship will pay roughly half of her tuition, saving her family tens of thousands of dollars. She plans to major in Health Sports Exercise so she can be a physical therapist and a trainer.
Valles, 18, chose Missouri Baptist over several other schools that showed interest in her after she actively sought recruitment.
“A lot of schools replied, but this one (Missouri Baptist) offered me the most money, and I preferred a smaller college,” she said.
She credited Westside Elementary schoolteacher Keri Alford, the wife of her first coach, with helping her to get started on the recruitment trail.
Family, friends, coaches, and teammates turned out for the scholarship signing in the Clewiston High School gymnasium. Valles was all smiles as camera and cell phone bulbs flashed.
Valles is Clewiston High School’s first and best female wrestler, and arguably the best ever female wrestler to emerge from Hendry County. She wrestled on the boys team, and Head Coach Robert Flynn said 90 percent of her opponents were boys. Valles wrestled in the 103-pound class her freshman and sophomore years and in the 106-pound class her junior and senior years. She posted a four-year record of 96 wins and 45 losses. She capped her junior and senior years by finishing as the state runnerup in the women’s division, twice losing to friend and rival Daisy Santos of Tampa, this last season by one point in overtime.
Off the mat, Valles behaves one way; on it, another.
“She’s two different people,” says Valles’s father, Jesus. “Out here, she is a woman. On the mat, she’s totally different. She’s really aggressive.”
That’s what Coach Flynn saw in Valles.
“She walked into the room and set the bar high. She was a two-year captain. She set the pace in the room. I’ve seen her pin guys in competition and they never wrestled again. She’s one of only four girls from Florida to place in the National Qualifiers,” he said. “She’ll have to learn freestyle wrestling, but we taught her collegiate style. It’s in-your-face. She’ll have to make some changes, but being the hard-nosed wrestler she is, she’ll adapt pretty quickly.”
That’s what Valles has been doing since 7th Grade, when she first encountered wrestling in a Physical Education class. She took immediately to the grappling and the tumbling.
“I like the physical contact and going against guys,” she said. “Yeah, I’m a girl, but I can still be on a mat.”
Not only has Valles been Clewiston High School’s first female wrestler, but she’s a member of the school’s honor society and is pulling a 3.51 GPA. She’s making another first for her family, too.
“Out of my family’s three kids, I’m the first to go to college,” she said.
One gets the sense that the tough-minded Valles will be achieving at least a few more firsts during her collegiate career and beyond.