Good Sports: Clovis East wrestler Isabella Gonzales dominates the mat

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- It's a rest day for Clovis East wrestler Isabella Gonzales.

"Feels really good to be honest. I mean I've been working for this all season so it feels really good to just secure it again," Gonzales said.

The junior has earned it after all - winning a second consecutive CIF state title in Bakersfield this February.

"It's always amazing when she gets her hand raised but CIF is extra special," Clovis East Timberwolves women's head coach Ray Blanco said.

Gonzales is not only the best in California - she's the No. 1 ranked 115-pounder in the nation.

"Bella just seems to shine under the spotlight," Blanco said.

"I love the spotlight like I love when everyone watching me and everything," Gonzales said.

But before her rise to dominance on the mat - Gonzales had to make a decision back in elementary school.

"At the time basketball was an outdoor sport and it was winter and I didn't want to be in the cold so wrestling was the only other option," Gonzales said.

As the first wrestler in the family - Gonzales and her dad Geoffrey got to work.

"He would look up wrestling videos on YouTube and that's how we started from there," Gonzales said.

A year in - Gonzales turned things up a notch.

"But I didn't take it seriously until my 5th grade year and that's when I started doing club and outside of school," Gonzales said.

That's when coach Blanco came in.

"She liked it. She liked the grind she liked the hard work about it," Blanco said.

That grind became a lifestyle.

With Gonzales training three to four times a day.

"I got to tell you it's hard but I just manage my time when I have something to do, I just got to do it," Gonzales said.

Outside of school, Gonzales has qualified for the junior Pan-American games three years in a row, winning a title for team USA at each turn.

"And the goals just started getting bigger and after that she just started making her own goals and here we are," Gonzales said.

Despite the section titles, state championships, and international medals in hand.

It's still onto the next for Gonzales.

"But we're onto bigger things, this was the first part of the year now we're onto world team trials," Gonzales said.

With the world team trials coming up in April.

Gonzales can earn a trip to the under 17 world championships in Amman, Jordan.

But she's hoping to represent her country in something much bigger.

"Olympian. Why not? Why can't she do it. She's done everything else," Blanco said.

With the summer games coming to Los Angeles in just four years. Gonzales has her eyes set on the ultimate homecoming.

"It would be the world to me getting to represent my country and getting to do the thing I love," Gonzales said.

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