Billions of dollars are spent every year on weight-loss programs.
La Costa Canyon High School senior Alexandria Perez has lost more than 40 pounds the last two years.
Her plan isn’t for everyone, and it takes loads of dedication.
Perez is a wrestler, a very good one. Her goal this season is as easy as 3-2-1 … as in third place in the state as a sophomore at 190 pounds, second place as a junior at 170 and, hopefully, completing the countdown, with a championship this year at 155.
It might have been 4-3-2-1 or even better but as a freshman she suffered a broken arm in the closing seconds of a state tournament match and could not continue. Perez finished eighth.
“There were 30 seconds left, and she was up by eight points,” said La Costa Canyon coach Dwayne Buth. “She put the bad arm behind her back and won, but the doctor said, ‘Sorry, she’s done.’”
Perez knew it, too.
“My adrenaline was so high, I didn’t really feel the pain until about 20 minutes later,” she said. “By then my arm was super swollen. My opponent was very tired, and I knew I could finish the match. I went to the hospital when we got home.”
For the next few weeks, she wore a wrist-to-shoulder cast and missed three months of training.
Perez is 30-2 this season. Her record lags a little behind last year, when she rolled into the 170-pound championship 32-0 as the third seed only to lose to No. 1-seed Leilani Lemus of Clovis, 5-0.
“So close,” she said, “but I got right back in the wrestling room.”
And she dedicated herself to losing weight.
“I went on a diet that included no processed food,” said Perez, who heads into the San Diego Section Division 2 championships Saturday at Santana High School. “I ate a lot of chicken and rice. I eliminated chocolate and other sweets. At the time, I had a lot of baby fat.
“Being in the wrestling room every day also helped me lose weight. I’ve competed mostly at 155 this year.”
Perez started the season ranked No. 3 by CalGrappler at 145 pounds. The top-ranked wrestler was 2024 state champion Delarie Juarez, who transferred from Brawley to Covina Northview. Olivia Davis, who moved from Monte Vista to Anaheim Esperanza, was second.
Davis handed Perez one of her two losses this season. The other came against Santa Clara’s Angelinah De Leon, who started the season ranked No. 1 at 155 pounds.
Perez took the lead against De Leon early in the match at the 25th Napa Valley Classic, but De Leon rallied for a 13-5 victory.
“She got a third-period takedown, so I tried some different things, but they didn’t work,” said Perez, who is looking to become the first La Costa Canyon girl to qualify for four state championships. “I learned, though.”
Perez started wrestling and learning jiu jitsu at age 3. Buth said he noticed Perez during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The coach says Perez could be the fourth state champion — and the first girl — in La Costa Canyon history if she takes full advantage of the things she does best.
“She’s the nicest kid you could imagine,” Buth said. “She just lights up a room when she walks in, but when she steps on the mat, she clicks the switch. She’s very aggressive, but if she just stays where she is, she can win.”
Perez is one of only two girls on the Mavericks’ roster. She trains against the boys, which she says doesn’t feel that unusual; Perez wrestled against her older brother, Joe Anthony Perez, until he went off to Palomar College. He is now at Humboldt State.
Perez works on her quickness when she wrestles the lighter-weight boys and focuses on her strength when she faces the heavier ones.
It’s a win-win situation — one that could pay off big for Perez as a senior.
“She has a goal of winning that state title,” said Buth. “And she actually might have had an even better chance at 190 because she’d beaten all those girls. But she’s much healthier at 155.”
Buth has offered her a reward if she can reach her goal.
“We have a summer camp for the boys and girls and everyone gets a T-shirt with the pictures of La Costa Canyon’s three state champions (Ryan Williams, Bryan Grubbs and Ian Baker) on the back,” Buth said.
“I’ve told her we’ll make room for her. She has already said she wants the T-shirts to be pink. We’ll do it.”
