“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard,” – Tim Notke. This quote was engraved into wrestler Ruby Rivas’ psyche by her coach.
Meet Ruby Rivas, born and raised in Corona, California. Rivas is a 19-year-old sophomore student-athlete majoring in sociology at Mt. SAC. She is the oldest of her four siblings, Rianna, Aidan and Avery to her parents Ricardo and Arianna.
Wrestling was not Rivas’s first choice in a sport, cheerleading was. Until her dad wanted her to pursue wrestling in high school, like he did.
“The only other sport I was in was cheerleading when I was around 10,” Rivas said.
Rivas has always had a supportive family throughout her wrestling career since she started her junior year of high school.
Wrestling is in her blood. Rivas’s grandpa and dad both pursued wrestling at a young age and they both helped her get passionate for the sport.
“My grandpa did wrestling,” Rivas said. “He was the first person in our family to do wrestling. My sister and I are the first girls to do wrestling.”
Rivas went to Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Eastvale, California.
When she graduated high school, she thought her wrestling career would be over. Until her coaches told her to consider Mt. SAC.
“They knew the coaches here at Mt. SAC and they said it was a really good program and I knew three other wrestlers that came here as well, so I thought I would fit in here,” she said.
The women’s wrestling program at Mt. SAC started as a club team until the inaugural 2023 season.
“I was OK with it,” Rivas said. “I just wanted to stay in shape and still get my education.”
Adjusting to college is never easy, especially if you are an athlete at the same time. Rivas had to transition just like anyone else, except without her family around her school experience this time.
“Not having a family member not work at my school was cool, but it was also a big transition because I’ve always had someone in my family work at my school since elementary,” she said.
There was pressure coming from many angles, including adjusting to college-level competition, being with a new team and competing with the tremendous historical greatness of the Mt. SAC wrestling team.
Since the women’s wrestling team at Mt. SAC is the newest team to the athletics programs, more people would be watching their fresh faces.
“People would be telling us that we are setting the standard for teams to come and girls are going to be looking up to you,” Rivas said.
Setting the way for women’s sports at a collegiate level can be intimidating.
“Everybody came to watch us,” she said. “It was our first home dual and we didn’t wanna lose.”
Mt. SAC’s successful sports teams set a standard for everyone striving to win.
“We also had to match up with them and make history, because the guys [wrestling] team is really good too,” she said.
Rivas lives up to the Mt. SAC standard. She has only lost once during her college career – her first match.
“I lost by six points, against the same girl that I wrestled in the finals with at state,” Rivas said remembering her first college match, “That’s when I learned that I need to actually take it more seriously and it’s not just going to be easy.”
Living up to the Mt. SAC standard is more than just winning in your sport. It is also knowing that it won’t be easy to win but that only makes you want to work harder.
Winning is important to all of the sports teams at Mt. SAC, but especially for the women’s wrestling team who want to get the bitter taste of second place out of their mouths with a state championship.
