Taci Tapia '21 Recruiting Profile

When I was 7 years old my parents allowed me to wrestle with my younger brother and because my dad coached wrestling it became convienent that I attended practices and joined the fun too. After that year my parents became weird about having a daughter who wrestled so they encouraged me to participate in other sports such as competitive cheer as well as volleyball and soft ball. After much diligence, it wasn’t until my 7th grade year that my parents caved in and allowed me to compete in our home town wrestling tournament, the Castle Country Crack Down. I took 2nd place that year. My parents then realized that my athleticism and flexibility worked in my advantage on the mat. As much as I thought I enjoyed other sports I didn’t understand passion until I was given the chance to wrestle on the Helper Jr. High boys wrestling team. 

Since then, I have placed in several tournaments including High School wrestling tournaments where I have gained great strength from wrestling boys. I am Carbon High Schools first girl to hold a 1st place state title in the Utah Girls High School Wrestling Tournament. I have attended national tournaments and placed 3rd two years in a row at the Oklahoma Marine Corps Nationals as a School Girl and Cadet. For 2018 I was ranked #7 in the top 10 Utah Girls High School Wrestlers. In 2018 I traveled with Team Utah to Pocatello, Idaho for Turf Wars to compete in the first in history Greco Girls Dual tournament. Prior to that tournament I only practiced Freestyle, not realizing that I was to compete in Greco also. I only had an hour to learn Greco and in the end, Greco became my favorite style and the style I excelled in. 

Being an advocate in girls wrestling has given me a great sense of purpose. My girls Team Utah coach, Billy Cox and high school coach, Paul Neese have been a great influences in my wrestling career by encouraging me to stand up for girls who want to wrestle or pushing me to become best of the best regardless of  being a girl.

I look forward to wrestling this year with the University Off Providence as an early Junior  High School graduate of 2020; representing girls all around the nation.

I will continue to support female wrestling for as long as I live and I hope young girls will be encouraged that they also can do hard sports too!