NATHANIEL MATA | THE MONITOR
MISSION — Serena Cervantes needed more time to get into her wrestling gear than to pin her opponent in the 128-pound championship match of the All-Valley Championship on Saturday afternoon. Unless she put her uniform, pads and headgear on in 51 seconds, the match lasted longer than the wardrobe change.
Cervantes has taken a busy path to become one of Texas’s top wrestlers. A few short years ago, the sport wasn’t really on her radar.
Entering high school, Cervantes was excited to wear the purple and gold on the soccer field for the McHi Bulldogs. Along with soccer, she figured she could contribute on the basketball court and the softball diamond for the school. She still manages to play those sports, but now she has a new love.
“My passion used to be for soccer my freshman and sophomore year,” Cervantes said. “Once I joined wrestling my freshman year and how far I got, I realized that I’m better at it. My passion changed throughout my sophomore year.”
Cervantes gives a lot of credit to Gina Reed, one of McAllen’s assistant wrestling coaches who was a middle school teacher at Morris when she noticed Cervantes’s raw strength.
Reed suggested that Cervantes squeeze one wrestling practice per week into her busy freshman schedule. Even as a ninth-grader, Cervantes qualified for state as an alternate.
“I was winning most of my tournaments, but that was just off of strength,” Cervantes said. “I didn’t know any technique. I was new. Junior year, that’s when I got a better mental game in the sport.”
Her strength hasn’t gone anywhere, but with the help of second-year McAllen coach Hilario Compean, she has combined it with attention and focus on the finer details of the sport. Her coach said it’s a joy to have an exceptional athlete who is also coachable.
“It’s awesome. It makes things a lot easier,” Compean said. “Especially when she starts to understand why we do things, the strategy that we implement, why we’re attacking this leg and not that leg, why we move inside, why the head goes here and so on and so forth.”
Her obsession with improvement is part of the reason her latest trip to state as a junior last year resulted in a fourth-place finish.
“Once she understands those details and she implements them and sees it work, she buys into it and she grows afterward,” Compean said.
The quick starts and early pins that Cervantes is making habit are a product of deliberate effort and training.
“It’s a lot of my mental game. If I’m confident enough in all my matches, I know I’m going to get it, for sure,” Cervantes said. “I just know I have to score first and score last to know that I’m dominating a match.”
Sometimes Compean will ask Cervantes to extend the match to earn points or train cardio, but in tournament play he wants her to “pin and win” to save energy.
Cervantes is working toward a state title, but the road won’t be easy. The defending state champion has graduated, but last season’s gold and silver medalists at 138 pounds are competing at 128 this year, in Cervantes’s path.
Compean says she’s up for the challenge of becoming the school’s first state champion since Sam Mangum earned two, including the Valley’s first wrestling state title in 2009. Cervantes is currently ranked No. 2 among Class 6A wrestlers at 128 pounds on WrestlingTexas.com
Cervantes said juggling sports has gotten easier now that she’s a senior and has been splitting her time for some years now. Her coaches have gotten used to the routine, but they still expect her productivity.
“It was tough in the beginning, but I manage, so right after one practice I go to another,” Cervantes said. “(McAllen High girls soccer coach Pat Arney) wants me there every day, but he knows that I have a good chance at wrestling, so he lets me go to wrestling. And as soon as it’s done, I go to him, and it’s all for him.”
“Serena is a great kid, she’s got tons of athletic ability,” Arney said in a text message. “All the soccer team is hoping she can bring home a state (title)”