Ellisa Jimenez is a senior at Xavier College Prep and she is a talented wrestler already setting records at just 18 years old. She is the only two-time all American here in the desert, a DEL champion, a CIF regionals champion, the first girl wrestler to place at a world team trails ever in the Coachella Valley, and she is a Mexican Jr. Olympic Bronze medalist. Jimenez’s determination is not only amazing, but it is also inspiring.
This is what her typical “Day in the Life” looks like:
- – 5:00 AM – 30 minute running, at home on the treadmill.
- – 6:15 AM – Weight training at the One Eleven Conditioning Club
- – 8:00 AM – 2:30 PM – School (After school, she is on the road to practice traveling as far as Anaheim, Menifee, San Diego, or L.A. On her way to and from those practices, she is doing her homework.)
- – 12:00 AM/1:00 AM – Ellisa gets home and then she goes to sleep.
She wakes up the next day to do it all over again.
Jimenez has an incredible support system at home. Mom and Dad not only drive her to these practices, they are with her every step of the way, cheering her on. Ellisa’s father, Ricardo Jimenez has also grown to fall in love with wrestling and is now the wrestling coach at Xavier College Prep.
“From day one, when she first started wrestling, I just instantly knew I was like, this is for her. It’s a really crazy lifestyle but the smile on her face and knowing that she has a sense of direction and saying ‘Hey, this is where I want to go.’ She’s the driving force, we just support her. You (Ellisa) have to put the time in when you’re there there’s no screwing around you gotta make sure you’re focused. Just fully immerse yourself in your sport.”
Her trainer at the One Eleven Conditioning Club, J.R. Corrales has 11 years of experience, and he can tell that Jimenez has the right mentality and work ethic, to be as successful as she wants.
“To survive in a sport like wrestling, you have to be tenacious, and there is no sugar coating around it. It’s a very individual sport. You just see a switch in her, and that’s what you see in a lot of pro athletes see at a very young age. That kind of distinguishes them between, someone who’s doing it just for fun and someone who takes it very seriously. There’s a switch with Ellisa that turns on once she starts to get to work and it’s a phenomenal thing to experience. ”
Jimenez has not only shattered records here in the Coachella Valley as a wrestler, but she also inspires others to be the best they can be. She is the oldest of five girls and knows that she is the number one example in her household.
“I do feel like I am an example because I am in a house with five girls. I’m just doing it so that my sisters can see, us women can do anything a man can do. ”
Her father, Ricardo Jimenez knows that Ellisa is a role model not only for her sisters but for her peers as well.
“For her, it’s just ‘I want to be,’ but to us, we see it like, she’s leading that encouragement to everybody. We know, even her peers are looking up to her saying, ‘You know, we want to be in the same route that you’re going.’ How can she be (so) committed and she shows that through her process and her journey.”
Ellisa has big dreams and goals for her future, and she is confident that they are attainable.
“I want to hopefully, not hopefully, I want to go to the Olympics. I want to be the first Mexican–American woman to actually win gold. After that, I want to keep wrestling until my body says ‘maybe we should stop, maybe we should work on a career, maybe a family in there.’ My main career goal is actually to be a plastic surgeon.”
Ellisa Jimenez is well on her way to becoming all of that, and I am sure, much more.
“Winning wasn’t the main goal of the sport. The main goal of the sport is to always constantly grow, because if you do not grow, how are you supposed to change in this sport?”
