Junior Hezekiah Negrete-Lopez enters his third year of wrestling for Dougherty Valley, competing on the varsity team as a legally blind wrestler.
Negrete-Lopez was born without vision due to symptoms of albinism. Even with the aid of highly powered glasses, his ability to see remains a challenge. His glasses do little to help with his vision; they simply help with fatigue.
“My blindness does put me at a slight disadvantage because it impacts my hand-eye coordination, which causes me to react slower if I can see something rather than if I could feel it,” Negrete-Lopez said.
A huge part of Negrete-Lopez’s success in his chosen sport are his coaches, who motivate him every day to improve his skills. They believe him to be perfectly capable even with his condition.
“Just the fact that he’s visually impaired hasn’t stopped him from wrestling and he’s very good at it,” Coach Carlos Jimenez said.
Originally, Negrete-Lopez started wrestling during the summer of eighth grade because of his older brother, Ismael. His brother was on Dougherty’s wrestling team, Negrete-Lopez decided to join as well, discovering that he was actually quite good at it.
“A huge part of why I started wrestling is because I looked up to my older brother and seeing him, I really wanted to try out wrestling as well,” Negrete-Lopez said.
Negrete-Lopez attends nearly every single practice and trains, motivating not only himself but his teammates as well. He sets an example to his teammates such as junior Shikhar Sisodia.
“It’s honestly great to be around him because his dedication towards the sport kind of rubs off on you, so naturally you start to put in more work as well,” Sisodia said.
Negrete-Lopez’s rules during matches are slightly different than the usual. Due to his visual impairment, he is allowed to touch-contact with the opponent before the start of a match. This aids him as he uses his sense of touch to wrestle more than any other sense. Other than this, he has no restrictions. Negrete-Lopez can wrestle anyone in his weight category. Despite his disadvantages, he has won many matches. His training routine is completely the same as any other wrestler as he is held to the same standards.
“He was here when he didn’t have to be, practicing before anyone else even shows up,” Jimenez said.
In the future, Negrete-Lopez hopes to place at NCS in 2024 and wrestle at the collegiate level.
