When the dismissal bell at Vanguard High School rings during the winter months, the race is on.
Vanguard seniors Ariel and Gabrielle Walker aren’t afforded the same post-school day luxuries as their classmates. After-school conversations are short. Invitations for a quick bite to eat are likely met with, “Sorry, we’ve gotta get to wrestling practice.”
But… Vanguard doesn’t even have a wrestling team?
Correct.
So instead of simply marching across campus for practice, the Walker twins quickly hit the road and head south, racing to get to Belleview High School’s wrestling practice before it starts at 4 p.m.
And this year, all the hustling around Marion County paid off as Ariel became Belleview wrestling’s first girl to qualify for the FHSAA state tournament and the Rattlers’ first state qualifier since 2022 – a feat for which Gabrielle gets just as much credit as her sister’s partner throughout wrestling practice.
“It takes two people to make a state qualifier,” Ariel said, referring to the impact her twin sister has had on this year’s success.
West coast beginnings and bullying mom
While the FHSAA only recently started recognizing girls wrestling as a sanctioned sport during the 2021-22 season, the Walker sisters picked up the sport long ago – albeit all the way across the country.
Growing up in Washington state, the twins had an uncle who was big into the wrestling scene there and encouraged the pair to give it a go when they were just 7 years old.
It stuck. And when their family moved across the country to Ocala, Ariel says she knew she wanted to keep wrestling.
“I had been wrestling for so long, and we moved across the country so I wanted something I could at least keep the same,” Ariel said.
The roadblock? Vanguard, the school the twins chose to attend due to the rigorous IB program there, didn’t field a wrestling team, so neither wrestled during their freshman year.
But eventually, school choice for sports opened, which opened the door for them to return to the sport and, as Ariel recalls, emails were sent to every wrestling program in the county to ask if the team had room for the twins.
“Belleview was the first to come back to me. They were closest to my house also, so it kinda worked out like that,” Ariel said.
At the time, Ariel and Gabrielle weren’t old enough to drive, meaning either their mother or step-father would need to pick them from Vanguard and make the quick drip south to Belleview.
The issue of logistics gave Ariel and Gabrielle Walker’s mother pause. But it was the fact that her daughters would have to spend most of their season wrestling against boys that really made her mom apprehensive, Ariel says.
“I bullied her into it,” Ariel said. “We powered through.”
Making history with the Rattlers while still making the Knights proud
While Ariel and Gabrielle roam the halls of Vanguard during the school day, it isn’t lost on faculty members that the twins wrestle for Belleview.
“We don’t have a team at Vanguard, but a lot of our faculty have wrestled – not only for Vanguard, but around the county, too,” Ariel said, adding that teachers frequently ask for updates on her season. “It helps not compartmentalizing everything and keeping it coagulated.”
During Belleview’s senior night, Vanguard athletic director Edwin Farmer made the trip across the county to support the Walker sisters.
“It’s huge,” Belleview first-year wrestling coach Dakota McGough said of Vanguard’s support. “They get to go and do what they want academically while not having to make a sacrifice athletically.”
With the support of two high schools behind them, Ariel and Gabrielle Walker have given both of their fanbases plenty of which to be proud.
“If I’m being blunt, we can talk about both of their successes. They’re both right there,” McGough said. “Gabby was right there in the last match… got herself on her back. It’s wrestling; it happens sometimes where you lose a match you shouldn’t. (Gabrielle) should be right there with Ariel.”
And though Gabrielle Walker’s season ended in regionals, she’s yet to miss a practice as Ariel continues training for state. This, McGough says, is just one example of the intangibles the twins possess.
“They’re always mentally ready. I don’t gotta question what they’re doing off the mat… Their grades are always present, and they do everything together,” McGough said. “So, even though Ariel is the one continuing her season so far, Gabby has been here every day, which is huge and shows what their mentality is like. They do the right things and stay out of trouble and are both really good girls.”
That mentality and the commitment of both sisters is what helped Ariel etch her name into the history book as Belleview wrestling’s first state qualifier in the girls classification – something Ariel said she knew she’d do.
“I never doubted that I was going to qualify for state this year just because of how hard I worked but also because I made it to regionals the last couple of years and the only girl that kept beating me was a senior last year, so I wasn’t really nervous about qualifying,” Ariel said.
Ariel Walker is set to represent both Vanguard and Belleview at the FHSAA individual state wrestling championships on March 5-7 from Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee.
When asked what her focus is heading into the tournament, Ariel’s answer came quickly.
“I think everyone is looking to be No. 1. State champ is always the goal,” she said. “I think throughout the week, just kinda staying relaxed, being focused, working on taking good shots and being smart on the mat.”
This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Why both Vanguard and Belleview are backing Ariel Walker at FHSAA wrestling finals
Reporting by Ainslie Lee, Gainesville Sun / Ocala Star-Banner
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
