"We went from winning little regional tournaments around when we were unknown," said Marina Doi in October of 2011. "And now we're competing for the U.S. It's really cool to do that."
Now fast forward about a year and a half, and the Doi's are still taking care of business on the international stage, fresh off a pair of cadet division titles in Sweden last month.
"It's great," said Marina Doi. "We always have a partner. We always have someone there after us, we always have someone there to motivate us and push us."
"And it scares the other people because they don't just see one person they see two opponents," said Regina Doi. "So when we're out there drilling you see Russia and Japan, and they're all staring at us when we're drilling our stuff."
Competing in the 88-pound division, Regina won all four of her bouts, capturing the international tournament win of her career.
"I wrestled four matches: Russia, Japan, Russia and then Poland," said Regina Doi. "They were all really good wrestlers but I was able to come up on top." 8:51
And after winning a Cadet World Championship last year, sister Marina dominated her only match in Sweden, in the 84-pound division.
"It feels amazing even though I only had one match," said Marina Doi. "I wanted to show how good I was against the other people. I wanted to put everything out there just on that one match."
"These girls have been taught to go out there and make a statement: Inspire the world," said Isaac Pumarejo, Marina and Regina's wrestling coach. "Show the world how to wrestle. And that's what they did. Nobody wrestles like them. No other girls for sure."
And the sisters are still taking care of business in the classroom as well, maintaining 4.0 GPA's despite missing a good amount of classroom time for wrestling trips across the country and around the world.
"We're growing, not only representing Kingsburg or California, but the whole United States," Marina Doi said proudly. "It feels great to carry that on my back. Every day strapping on that singlet, it's a great honor to have U.S.A. on my back."
"They have a lot of character on and off the mat, and around other people," said Pumarejo. "And now international, they're making big noise internationally."
That's the kind of double vision of which the Central Valley can still be proud.
