Written by: Bryse Norris, Staff Writer
COMMITTED: Focus on Kris Arrey – the life of a dedicated wrestler.
Kris Arrey is a 17-year-old junior at Poly High School and started wrestling in his freshman year, but he has been training in MMA (mix of striking wrestling and jiu jitsu) for the last 13 years. His dad owns a gym which has allowed him to be around wrestling since he was born, and he has been doing MMA since he was four. Arrey mainly focuses on Muay Thai, wrestling, and Jiu-Jitsu. When asked what type of MMA he prefers he says, ¨I enjoy all of them, they’re all pretty fun.¨
Arrey impressively made the wrestling playoffs; in order to get there, he had to place in league to make it to CIF, then he had to place in CIF to make it to Masters. He then had to place at masters to make it to state, and state is the top 40 kids in California across all divisions. Even though he missed some tournaments due to injuries, he ended his season with a record of 39-9, and a team record of 20 tech falls which is when you win a match by 15 points or more, . His injuries mainly come from his knees; his left knee had a slight tear in the meniscus, and lately it has been hard to even put pressure on it. While his right knee cost him a match at state in triple overtime. That was a crucial match, because if he had won it, he would have been top 8 instead of top 16. When asked if he could do better without these injuries Arrey said ¨Yes and no. Feeling 100 percent going into matches would feel good but that will never happen, it’s normal to go into matches at 70-80 percent. If i’m going into a match 100 percent, I didn’t train hard enough.¨ In specific matches, like the one where he lost in triple overtime, it would have been helpful, but the nagging pain throughout the season had little effect on Arrey. Impressively, he ended up being 15th in state.
Being able to make it so far in the playoffs was no doubt a stressful situation. When asked about the pressure Arrey responded with, ¨I definitely feel the pressure from everyone, but with all my experience I feel I perform better under pressure. I felt an enormous amount of pressure in my match to qualify for state, but I ended up winning the match anyway¨. Arrey says that he would definitely like to wrestle at the collegiate level via a scholarship, and after college go into fighting full time, eventually getting into the UFC. Arrey says that this has been his dream since he was little. Compared to his freshman year Arrey is proud with his improvement. However, he feels like he didn’t do as well as he could have, and believes there are more things he needs to work on to get better. Arrey is looking forward to a huge jump in his senior year, and to prepare he will be doing many non-school affiliated tournaments, some even in different states, to keep developing his skills. Stay focused on Kris Arrey and his promising future. He is ramping up for an incredible senior season.