Starting in third grade, Alyson Millaras joined the wrestling team and was the only girl for many years who took part in the wrestling team. She had the support of both her parents and her two younger brothers, who both wrestled with her on the same team. “I was so happy to be apart of the team even though I was the only girl.”
Millaras and her bother John were both in the same bracket for wrestling. This meant that had to wrestling against each other many times and compete for the same goals. “Whenever my bother and I had to go against each other we would both cry our eyes out after, because we hated competing against each other.” This was one of the many challenges that Millaras had to face, but one of the biggest challenges was being the only female on the team. “It was hard to convince people that I was actually good at this sport and not just any girl.” Millaras worked hard to prove to people that she could be just as good as the boys or even better.
In fifth grade, Millaras joined one of the only female wrestling teams in Connecticut. She participated on the team until she was in eighth grade; traveling all over the New England area, but the girls were not tough enough for her. She liked being with the boys better because they gave her more of a challenge. She also liked the boys team better because they were family to her. She had grown up and wrestled with the same boys for years. “These boys are all my brothers” Millaras went on to win States and placed 12th and 7th in the New York States competition. That same year she won New England States and went onto nationals in Michigan, where she placed 6th. After dominating the girls team as well as the boys team she went onto train for the 2012 Olympics.
Millaras dedicated so much time and energy into the sport that she loved that it got hard to have a normal teenage girl life. “My whole life was wrestling.” She had lost many of her girl friends and became “one of the boys.” She found wrestling harder and more time consuming especially when she started training for the Olympics. “I never had any time for my self.” Millaras spent time at school and time on the road going from on wrestling tournament to the next.
After six intense years of wrestling, Millaras decided to give it all up for a normal teenage life. She still participates with wrestling events and cheering on her brothers. She also is the manager of her high school team and helps her bothers out whenever they need advice on what wrestling move to make next. “I don’t regret anything that I did or the decision to stop wrestling. I would be in a totally different place in life if I continued wrestling. I’m so happy with my decision now and the life that I have chosen.”
