10/08/2026
The Story of Emma Bauknight
My wrestling journey began when I was 10 years old, but it didn’t actually start with wrestling.
As a bullied middle school girl, my parents had me join jiu-jitsu. I immediately fell in love with it. It taught me how to stand up for myself, and for the first time, I found a sport that I felt like I could actually be good at. I stayed with jiu-jitsu for about five years and eventually earned my orange belt.
My freshman year of high school was the first time I ever wrestled. I joined the team at Springstead High School under Coach Gupton. At the time, we had a decent boys team and a brand-new girls team. This was also the first year that girls wrestling was sanctioned in Florida.
I immediately loved it.
I wasn’t only a member of the girls team; I was also a starter on the boys varsity team. For the first time, I had found a community of people who shared my interests and who I genuinely felt connected to. That same freshman year, I went to Fargo for the first time.
Like anyone, I had moments when I wanted to quit. There were hard practices, difficult losses, and days when wrestling felt like too much. But wrestling had become such a huge part of my identity that I stayed through every hardship.
Around the end of my freshman year and the beginning of my sophomore year, I decided that I wanted to become more serious about improving. I started cross-training with different clubs and eventually chose to train under Coach Mike Joyce. I have an incredible amount of respect and gratitude for him and everything he did to help make me a better wrestler.
My sophomore year started as a peak season for me. I was winning almost every match. I was confident, motivated, and loving every moment of it. I knew that all the miles of conditioning and the intense practices were helping me become the wrestler I wanted to be.
Then, everything started to fall apart.
I began to feel disconnected from my team. I got sick before the state series, and I was dealing with even more bullying. Little by little, it tore me down. Eventually, it affected my performance at states, where I placed seventh.
I knew that seventh was not where I belonged on the podium.
At the end of my sophomore year, I made the decision to transfer to Hernando High School to train under Coach David Pritz.
Starting over during my junior year wasn’t easy. Although I already knew many of the wrestlers from being on an AAU team with them, I still felt like an outsider at first.
Luckily, that feeling didn’t last.
Hernando eventually became the team that felt like home.
Coach David Pritz paid attention to us and built us up every single practice. The same was true of the assistant coaches. They cared about our mental health, our physical health, and our development as wrestlers and as people. They wanted us to become the best versions of ourselves.
During the beginning of that school year, I also left the club I had previously trained with because I personally felt like I didn’t belong there anymore. Two practices a day and more than four hours of training at a place where I wasn’t happy had left me feeling unhealthy, exhausted, and ready to quit.
Leaving that club was the best decision for me, although I still have respect for the people there.
That year, I placed third at states. But even then, I knew I could do better.
My senior year at Hernando was another peak year for me.
I was completely committed. I loved the sport. More importantly, I loved my team and my coaches.
That year, I committed to a university in Kentucky to wrestle at the collegiate level. I also began cross-training at Beebe Trained, a place where I felt much more comfortable. I owe a lot of my success to that environment and the people there.
I placed second at states after what I believe was a great state series run. I also had an extremely successful offseason, earning All-American status at NHSCA Nationals and Scholastic Duals.
Wrestling was everything to me.
There wasn’t a practice sweaty enough or hard enough to make me stop. I was completely in love with the sport, and I was incredibly excited to take the next step and wrestle at the collegiate level.
But when I got there, that excitement disappeared quickly.
I suffered from multiple mat infections that sent both me and other teammates to the hospital and prevented me from competing in several tournaments. The school eventually replaced the mats, but by then, the damage to my physical and mental health had already been done.
My mental health declined rapidly.
The coaching environment and the team environment made me feel worthless. We were screamed at, belittled, and made to feel like we weren’t good enough. Most days, I felt like I had nothing left.
I would go back to my dorm late at night after practice, go to sleep, wake up, and relive the same miserable, cold day all over again.
One thing about college wrestling is that it can become your entire life. It becomes your job. You can’t simply leave practice behind when you walk out the door.
I lost 15 pounds—not because I was cutting weight or following a healthy diet, but because my mental health had deteriorated so badly that my body began taking the toll.
I was sick almost every week. I would break down during practice. I was miserable.
Even when I competed and won most of my matches, I began questioning whether I even loved wrestling anymore.
By December, I had mentally checked out completely.
By the end of the year, I had also lost all of my friends. I felt like I had nothing left.
I decided I was going to quit wrestling as soon as the season ended. Nobody was going to change my mind.
I was going home. I was going to focus on school at USF and work, and I was never going to touch a wrestling mat again.
Then, right before the year ended, something unexpected happened.
I was invited to attend Queens of Florida and coach one of the teams alongside another wrestler.
I didn’t want to go.
But a small voice in my head told me that I should.
So I listened.
I flew out to coach the team, and I absolutely loved it.
The energy was incredible. Seeing the girls' excitement after they won, cheering them on, and comforting them after they lost gave me a feeling I hadn’t experienced in a very long time.
For the first time in months, wrestling made me happy again.
Unfortunately, I’m stubborn.
I refused to let that experience change my mind about wrestling. I was still determined to quit.
But it softened my heart toward the sport.
Eventually, I was invited to join the USF club wrestling team by Coach Lawless.
I immediately said no.
I had made a promise to myself that I would never allow wrestling to take over my life the way it had before. Every time he asked, I told him I wasn’t going to wrestle.
But I became close with a few people on the team.
Eventually, they convinced me to step on the mat one more time.
And here I am.
I still question myself every day. I still wonder whether I really want wrestling to be part of my life again.
But I can say that the USF club team has welcomed me with open arms. They have given me an environment where I feel wanted, and slowly, they are changing the way I look at wrestling.
Maybe I don’t know what my wrestling future looks like.
Maybe I don’t have to.
What I do know is that wrestling has been a huge part of my life. It has broken me down, built me back up, introduced me to some of the best people I’ve ever known, and taught me lessons that extend far beyond the mat.
So, if I could give any advice to young wrestlers, this is what I would say:
Go where you feel welcome.
Never subject yourself to training somewhere you constantly feel like you don’t belong. I promise you, you won’t last if you are miserable every day.
Passion beats talent.
I know everyone says this, but it is true. If your heart burns to become a great wrestler, then you have the ability to get there. Hard work and passion can take you further than talent ever will on its own.
Give it another chance.
Wrestling is one of the hardest sports out there. There will be days when you want to walk away. There will be losses that hurt and practices that make you question why you started. Sometimes, you just need to push through and give it another chance.
Never force yourself.
Never force yourself to wrestle if it truly isn’t what you want to do. Wrestling is a sport you have to love in order to give it everything you have. If you decide it isn’t for you, that’s okay.
Take care of yourself first.
Your mental and physical health should always come before wrestling. At the end of the day, your wrestling will suffer if you aren’t taking care of yourself first.
Every wrestler has a story.
This is mine.
This is the story of Emma Bauknight.
