Zenze Stanley-Jones was just 11 years old when she decided to give wrestling a try.
The clincher for her was meeting her first-cousin, Lindsay Belisle, when the Hazleton-born national team member came to Prince George to promote the sport, having already competed in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens - the first Olympics to include women's wrestling.
Belisle set the stage for an even more famous Canadian wrestler from Hazleton, Carol Hyunh, who went on to win Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008 and a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics in London, and that convinced Stanley-Jones to sign up for her elementary school team at Hart Highlands.
At the time she met Belisle, who finished 11th at the Olympics, Stanley-Jones had grown accustomed to the fact she was bigger than her peers. Because of that she didn't like sports like basketball or soccer which stressed quickness and agility. Wrestling offered her the chance to utilize her size and strength, and having a mentor in the family who made it to the highest level made it that much more appealing.
"She was doing something cool, she wasn't wearing a tutu or something pink," said Stanley-Jones.
"There was this really cool moment of being told I'm good at it and I don't have to pretend I'm girly to do it. It was something that a big kid could do, because I was a really chubby child and there weren't many sports I could do without dying."
The learning curve was difficult for Stanley-Jones because wrestlers are grouped according to their weight. Age and experience did not factor into it for her.
"When I started out I was in Grade 6 going against Grade 8 to Grade 12 girls my size," she said. "The whistle would blow and my face would be in the mat. I got my butt whooped repeatedly for my first two years of competition."
Those early beatings were part of the learning process that helped get Stanley-Jones to where she is now near the end of her fifth season. The 15-year-old is one of four high school wrestlers from the north central zone competing this week in the national cadet/juvenile championships in Windsor, Ont., which start with weigh-ins on Friday.
Competing as a cadet, Stanley-Jones will represent Kelly Road secondary. She'll fight in the freestyle tournament on Saturday and the Greco-Roman on Sunday. Tristina Howse of Prince George secondary is entered as a juvenile and will also compete in both styles. The Grade 12 student won national silver last year in Greco-Roman and bronze in freestyle. Stanley-Jones and Howse will face each other in the 90-kilogram Greco-Roman class.
Steven Herzig of PGSS (Grade 11) will wrestle in the 48kg class, starting Friday. Herzig is entered in all three styles - freestyle, Greco-Roman and FILA cadet (which determines the national teams).
Hayley Florell of Mackenzie secondary (Grade 10), the silver medalist at the 2017 B.C. high school provincial championships and a national silver medalist last year, will compete in the 80kg class.
"I trained with (Florell and Howse) as a throw dummy last year while they were going to nationals last year but I have no idea what I've got ahead of me going into this tournament," said Stanley-Jones.
"I'm really lucky to have them here, both in my weight class to train with. I know a few guys in other weight classes and they only wrestle with good competitors in their weight class when they go on seven-hour road trips."
The thrill of competition on the mats is addictive to Stanley-Jones and winning just adds to the challenge of taking on an opponent in a match that lasts two three-minute rounds, or less.
"It's really exhilarating - I think with wrestling I've almost become an adrenaline junkie," she said. "It's really fun to get on the mat and push yourself to the limit and see how far past that you can go.
"It's tiring because you're thinking the entire time. It's like running a six-minute sprint while doing algebra. I don't remember half my matches, it's just blur of limbs flying everywhere. It's a rush."
Stanley-Jones, the 2017 age-group provincial champion, is following in the footsteps of her father Brian Stanley, who wrestled at Kelly Road in the early 1980s and qualified for nationals in 1982 and 1985. Stanley, a special-needs teacher at Duchess Park secondary, brought wrestling back to his school this season after a 25-year absence. He also coaches Team Goldrush, a club program based at D.P. Todd secondary school, where Stanley-Jones also trains.
Having a wrestling coach in-house has helped Stanley-Jones thrive on the mats and they trash-talk each other all the time. Stanley loves to point to his trophies as they walk by the showcase at Kelly Road just to assert family bragging rights. During practice, she doesn't miss an opportunity to take liberties with her dad when they lock arms in a grappling hold, like the time she apologized for stomping on his foot - a few seconds before she actually did it.
"I wept with pride when she did that," said Stanley.
