Emily Gomez has been in a wrestling room since she could walk.

And her lifelong love of the sport recently led the North Kitsap junior to win the individual state title in the 2A 140-pound weight bracket Feb. 22 at the Tacoma Dome.

“It felt great (winning the title),” Gomez said. “Believing in everything I worked for was hard.”

Gomez suffered an ankle injury in her sophomore year playing volleyball for the Vikings, which prevented her from competing in any sports. She noted the injury did not prevent her in any way from competing for the state title.

“When I had surgery, me and my dad [NK coach Robert Gomez] talked about it, and we really focused on the spring and summer to get ready for the high school season,” Emily said.

Emily maintained an undefeated record at 16-0 on the year entering the tournament, the injury she faced proving to not be a factor in how she competed overall throughout the season.

In the state championship match, Emily went up against Amayrany Rodriguez of Franklin Pierce.

The first round of the match did not have much happen, Emily said, adding that Rodriguez ‘got a little too high’ on her, taking an overall lead at 6-0.

The second round was when Emily was able to take Rodriguez down after asking her coaches if she could “stay on top and get near fall” (a scoring move that occurs when a wrestler on the offensive pins their opponent’s shoulders to the mat for a designated period of time). Emily noted that was how she scored most of her points throughout the match.

In the final round of the match, Rodriguez chose bottom, allowing Emily to do the same thing she did in the second round and secure a 13-6 win.

Overcoming injury

The goal early on that the father-daughter duo incorporated was to purely focus on state in spite of the unforeseen obstacle of the injury. Emily said that there was a whiteboard in her room that stated, ‘Win State,’ serving as motivation and fuel to continue pressing on in spite of tough circumstances.

Robert noted that Emily had the support of her community as she recovered from the injury as well as the assistance ofloving support from her mother, Juanita Gomez.

Juanita prompted Emily to do the “extra things” at the house in order to fully ready herself for when the opportunity came. Robert added that Julie Leslie, the head athletic trainer at NK High School, and NK assistant wrestling coach Dan Hollingsworth helped Emily get to the point to where she was able to get back on the mat.

“It takes a community to raise an athlete at that level, and she’s [Emily] gotta be thinking the same,” Robert Gomez said.