“Biri” champions women’s high school wrestling in Selma
Biridiana Mendoza is the lone girl on the Selma High School Wrestling Team.
Read the full story on “Biri” in next week’s Vida.
Sixth-ranked in the nation (133-pound division), Biridiana Mendoza began the sport of wrestling at about five years old, following older sibling, José, to the Selma Wrestling Club to work out under the tutelage of Jose Ramos, Diego Quintana, and several others who formed the club from the ground up.
The club was made up primarily of boys. So “Biri,” as she’s known, took to wrestling against boys. She won a lot of her matches, gaining a huge amount of experience in the process.
Since those days, Biri has championed the cause for girl’s wrestling in the Central Section winning the Hanford Invitational (the unofficial state tourney) last year. She also won numerous individual tournaments. Today, she’s the lone female on the junior varsity wrestling squad at Selma High School. On Jan. 22-23, she’ll be in southern California competing at the CIF Southern Regionals!
Biri Mendoza works out with a teammate at Selma High School.
As she ponders her early days in the sport, she says her parents, from Guanajuato, México, Antonia y José Mendoza, didn’t figure their second-oldest daughter would continue in the male-dominate sport of take-downs and leg-grappling.
“I like working out with the boys,” says Mendoza. “I think it’s giving me an advantage because they’re stronger than me.”
In the last five years, women’s high-school wrestling has grown in popularity and, in 2004, became an Olympic sport, but some areas have problems fielding a women’s team. So competitors, like Mendoza, often wrestle against the boys. Read more about Mendoza and Olympic wrestlers Tatiana Padilla and Jessica Medina in next week’s Vida en el Valle.
