CLEARWATER, Fla. — Stepping onto the wrestling mat, Cerenity Whiting is a trailblazer who’s rewriting the rules.
In a sport where muscle meets grit, the Countryside High School student-athlete has shattered expectations.
She’s just a junior in high school and has only been wrestling for a couple of years, but she’s already a state champion and she got her eyes set on even bigger goals.
As we celebrate Women’s History Month – it’s important to remember history isn’t just in the past, but it’s being written right now on the wrestling mat.
Cerenity Whiting is not just a wrestler, she’s a trailblazer, as both an honors student and state champion.
“I just needed to stay humble, try my best and I knew I would win,” she said.
When she stepped onto the mat three years ago, Whiting said she didn’t even know how to execute a headlock.
“I used to watch a lot off WWE when I was younger and when I got to high school, I saw they had a wrestling program and thought it be fun,” she said.
But in that short span of time her coach, Joe Logano, said he watched her transform her skills and take the sport by storm.
“She kept grinding and kept grinding and stuck to the process, listened to her coaches, followed the plan and it all worked out” Logano said.
Whiting said wrestling became her sanctuary, a place where she could grapple with life’s challenges both on and off the mat.
“It teaches you how to be committed to something because if you don’t make weight, you can’t wrestle," she said. "So it teaches you to be disciplined in life.”
Watching Whiting practice, you can notice more than sheer physical strength, but a young woman who’s rewriting the narrative.
Her mother said she’s proud and humbled watching her daughter handle the success.
“For her to be a trendsetter, to also recruit others and keep this going and now being the team captain is just amazing,” she said.
Cerenity Whiting said she is not only wrestling for herself but for every girl who’s been told they couldn't.
“I would say keeping working hard, keep trying hard because it will pay off in the long run,” she said.
She said when she's on the mat, she not just pinning opponents, but wrestling stereotypes and she's winning. Whiting will now be preparing to step onto the national stage vying for a national title in Virginia.
Her family started a GoFundMe to raise money for her travel and hotel accommodations, which you can find by clicking here.