Wrestling | 10/27/2022 12:00:00 PM

DENTON, Texas (October 27, 2022) - I AM A MOM. I AM A STUDENT TEACHER. I AM A WRESTLER. I AM COURAGEOUS.

Alyssa Ayala, a senior Kinesiology major at Texas Woman's University, posed with a sign with the above statements on it at wrestling media day.

Read the first line again.

Alone each of those statements are impressive, but put them together and most would consider it unbelievable, even impossible. Nevertheless, Ayala embodies all of the above identities, personifying the true strength of a pioneering woman.

Ayala grew up near McAllen, Texas in the Rio Grande Valley. With four siblings, Ayala was the true middle child. As the third, she has two older sisters and two younger brothers. Ayala's mother left when she was young, so Ayala was raised by a single father.

"I come from a family where my mom left when she was young," Ayala said. "He [my father] was a single father with five kids, so life has always been a struggle. Through all those struggles, I just had to figure out ways to do everything myself. God helped me get to where I am."

Growing up, Ayala said she was involved in a wide variety of sports.

"Sports was always an escape for me," Ayala said. "I joined all kinds of sports, so I could be busy all the time. I did volleyball, wrestling, dance, track and soccer. Sometimes there wasn't food at home, and joining sports, if we're at a game they feed us. We were a very low-income family."

While Ayala played a variety of sports, she began wrestling her freshman year of high school and quickly fell in love with the sport.

"In high school, I was on the drill team, kind of a girly-girl dancer but then I liked sports too," Ayala said. "My sister was like 'hey Alyssa come to wrestling practice with me.' There had never been a dancer a part of sports. I was doing both. I would go to practice here and then practice there."

While Alyssa excelled in wrestling, earning the title of district champion her junior year and qualifying for regionals her junior and senior year, she never experienced individual instruction as a woman in wrestling.

"What made it challenging was for me to wrestle the guys," Ayala said. "I did wrestle a lot of guys and I think that's what made me strong. I wrestled them in practice. There were probably four or five girls on the wrestling team. There was really no individual instruction for the girls."

After graduating high school, Ayala worked with the local Police Athletic League, coaching and refereeing. While working, she also played for a women's semi-pro football league, called the Sugar N Spice Football League (SSFL) on the Rio Grande Valley Mystics.

Ayala was being paid minimum wage at the athletic league and raising money for her football team during that time. She said she did played football because she loves to compete and loves sports, so sports were always a consistent aspect of her life.

After the football league dissolved, Ayala had her first daughter and decided she wanted a better life for her family, so she began attending college.

"After I had my daughter, I wanted a different life for her," Ayala said. "I want to be able to provide more for them. That's what gave me the drive."

After beginning college, Ayala and her husband made the decision to move to Dallas.

"Where I'm from, we're like five to 10 miles from the border," Ayala said. "There are no opportunities. There are a lot of people there working hard, doing anything to just try to make ends meet. It took a lot for me and my husband to move from there."

Ayala and her husband moved to Dallas, and she continued to attend community college in Dallas, before transferring to complete her undergraduate degree in kinesiology at Texas Woman's.

Since moving to Dallas, Ayala had two more daughters, balancing being a mom and going to school, while doing whatever it took for her family.

During COVID, Ayala even worked nights while going to school to provide for her family during a tough time.

"My husband has his own business," Ayala said. "During COVID, we weren't getting any calls, or any work, so I applied at a lab here in Denton. I worked there at the lab from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. in the morning. Then, I had my first class at 8 a.m. Then, I was at school all day until 2:30 p.m."

Last year, Ayala saw a post about the inaugural women's wrestling team beginning at TWU. With her past in wrestling and dreams of being the coach she never had, Ayala said she went to talk to Coach Randi Miller to be a manager on the team.

"I was like 'oh wow I haven't thought about wrestling in forever," Ayala said. "I went to her [Randi Miller] office and was like 'hey coach - I just want to be a water girl or something so I can be around the team. I told her my age - I'm 31 years old - and she was like 'why can't you wrestle.' I said you know what let me give it a shot."

I AM A MOM. I AM A STUDENT TEACHER. I AM A WRESTLER. I AM COURAGEOUS.

Fast forward to today – Ayala is a mother to three young daughters. She is student teaching, while applying to graduate school, and wrestling at TWU. Additionally, this December, Ayala will be the first in her family to graduate from college. 

"One practice, Coach had us do fireman carries – you're carrying someone your own body weight across the lawn – and I was like can I even do that?" Ayala said. "I carry a girl, and I tell myself to keep going, you got this and don't stop. I did it and if I can do that, then I can just keep going and do anything."

Ayala said her husband has been extremely supportive of her and her dreams.

"He told me to go for it," Ayala said. "He said nobody gets this kind of opportunity."

While practicing and balancing school, Ayala's daughters get a front row seat to watch their mom be strong and achieve her dreams. She said they have watched her practice, and she hopes, through it all, they learn to never give up.

While Alaya is striving to be the mother she never had, she said her grandmother, who was her maternal figure growing up, taught her how to be a strong, Hispanic woman, and she works to emulate her grandmother with all she does.

"My grandmother was a migrant worker," Ayala said. "My grandmother was a strong-willed woman, and I feel like that is where I get it from. She never stopped. She never gave up. She passed away this year, but I have her with me to keep in the back of my mind and to honor her."

With her dreams coming to fruition, Ayala said her ultimate goal is to help others through the field of physical education and teach everyone that anything is possible. 

"I may not be the best, but I am just trying my best," Ayala said. "I'm here because I want to help other people know that you can be a certain age, you can come from any type of background, you can come from a low-income family, but that doesn't mean you're stuck where you are. You can have all these people judge you for who you are, what you have and what you don't have - that does not define who you are. What defines you is you keep on going, you keep on trying and you don't give up. That is what I'm trying to do."

Texas Woman's is home to pioneering women and Alyssa Ayala is a true pillar of strength and a true Pioneer.