Abby Tuller: The Weight of Wrestling
Abby Tuller, a sophomore at Morro Bay High, is involved in many different activities both on and off campus. She is taking on her first AP class this year, AP World History, as well as two different honors classes. The combination of the three classes is a challenging mix to do well in, and one of her three classes, Algebra 2, has been especially difficult for her. “Math can always be a little tricky to comprehend,” she says, regarding her hardest class. While many of her classes challenge her in various ways, she also takes ceramics, saying, “it’s another outlet to express my creativity in an artistic way” and that “it’s a fun new experience.”
Abby not only has a difficult schedule academically, but she is also heavily involved in the girls wrestling team. Wrestling, being one of the more rigorous sports we offer on campus, takes up a lot of her free time, as she has nightly practices for multiple hours, prepping for wrestling duals and tournaments. Her weekends also tend to be filled with various practices and competitions for the sport.
Abby’s first wrestling experience was in sixth grade, after multiple people persuaded her to try it out. “I had my friend Adelaide, who wanted me to try it with her, and then I had Haley, whose uncle was the coach. I had a lot of driving factors and I just thought it would be fun,” she comments. Abby’s sixth grade year also happened to be the year COVID hit, restricting her access to the sport she had grown to enjoy. During 7th grade, she began to stop going to practices for wrestling, explaining, “soccer was my main priority at the time.” She picked up the sport again in eighth grade, after soccer had become less enjoyable and has been heavily involved in it ever since.
“The passion comes from the respect for the people doing it, it takes a lot of mental strength, so it’s definitely a difficult sport physically and mentally,” she states. Abby has been improving and working hard since she began the sport in 6th grade, leading to multiple notable achievements. During one of her tournaments freshman year, she placed 7th at the Folk Style State Tournament in Fresno, winning one of the matches with a pin. “It’s a really good challenge in my life, and it’s satisfying when the work that you put in pays off.” Overall, Abby Tuller is an incredibly committed student athlete, taking on difficult challenges one after the other.