Newport Harbor wrestler Duda Rodrigues in Newport Beach, Calif., on Monday, January 22, 2024. Rodrigues is a nationally ranked female wrestler. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
NEWPORT BEACH – Newport Harbor senior Duda Rodrigues is a quick learner.
Three years ago she decided to try wrestling. Now she is national champion.
Rodrigues won the 152-pound weight class championship at the Junior National Championships in Fargo, North Dakota last summer after finishing third there in 2022.
She has won all of her high school matches, including comfortably winning her weight class championships at the CIF Southern Section and CIF State championships last season.
She is ranked No. 1 by CalGrappler.com in her CIF-SS 155-pound weight class and is on track to win more CIF Championships, starting with the CIF-SS Championships on February 9th and 10th. FloWrestling.com has Rodrigues ranked No. 2 in the nation at 155 pounds.
Rodrigues was born in Brazil and has lived most of his life there. Her first name is Eduarda, a common first name for girls in Brazil, and “Duda” is a common nickname, just as “Jenn” stands for “Jennifer” in the United States
Jiujitsu was her sport before she enrolled at Newport Harbor for her junior year.
“I moved here because of jiu-jitsu,” Rodrigues said in the Newport Harbor wrestling coach’s cramped office in the school’s decades-old gymnasium. “I was 100 percent focused on it.”
She started practicing jujitsu at the age of 6.
“My father (Silvio) and my two older brothers were already doing jujitsu,” Rodrigues said. “My brothers and my dad were doing it, so I thought, 'Why not?' I just did it for fun, just to play around on the mat.
“I liked it because I was always with my father. I was a daddy’s little girl and I always wanted to be with him.”
At age 9, she began competing in and winning tournaments.
Two years ago it was decided that if Rodrigues wanted to continue her development as a Jiu-Jitsu athlete, she would have to travel with her father to the United States, where one of her brothers already lived, to compete in the superior competitions there
“It’s a crazy story,” Rodrigues said. “I moved here because of jiu-jitsu. I focused 100 percent on that.
“Then I wanted to start wrestling because it would help me with my takedowns in jiu-jitsu, and I really wanted to get better at it. It wasn't about competing. Before I came here, I didn’t even know you could wrestle in high school, and I didn’t know you could go to college to wrestle.”
She said: “I fell in love with wrestling straight away,” but the relationship had a few difficult first dates.
“The first two exercises I suffered,” she said. “The physical part of wrestling is so much harder and more intense than jiu-jitsu. That really scared me.
“I tried to do a lot of jiu-jitsu stuff in my first fight. It worked, but it wasn’t ideal for doing jiu-jitsu stuff.”
The more she wrestled, the better she became. And wrestling tournaments gave her plenty of opportunities to get better.
“You can go to a tournament and play six, seven, eight games,” Rodrigues said. “I liked it because I enjoy competing, which I have been doing since I was nine years old.”
Not only is Rodrigues a quick learner at wrestling, she also picked up English quickly. She speaks English as if she has lived in the United States her whole life. An American friend helped, as did consuming English-language films and music.
Her jiu-jitsu background has helped her achieve success on the wrestling mat.
“I’ve always had good body awareness through jiu-jitsu,” she said. “So it’s a lot easier for me to do pins and control my hips and stuff like that.”
Rodrigues is working on improving her footwork and escaping when she's underneath an opponent.
“In jiujitsu, you can get comfortable being at the bottom,” she said. “But in wrestling you have to get out of there right away.”
Newport Harbor girls wrestling coach Mike Whitt was amazed at Rodrigues' rapid progress, but acknowledged Rodrigues is doing whatever it takes to make it happen.
“She’s totally committed to what she wants to do,” Whitt said. “It’s a 24/7 process for them, from their diet to their work on the mat and their work off the mat to their overall training. A lot of athletes her age think they are dedicated and talented, but they don’t follow the 24/7 process that she does.”
Rodrigues received an invitation to the prestigious national meet in Fargo in the summer of 2022. It is the nation's premier high school age wrestling tournament. Your third place would be a great success for most people.
But not for her.
“When I went to Fargo, I had no idea what it was about,” Rodrigues said. “When I had to fight for third place, I thought that it no longer matters what happened because it's not about first place. When I got third, everyone was so impressed with it and I thought to myself, “Why do people care so much about third place?”
“Then later I realized it’s such a hard sport. Anyone who understands this sport knows how much work it takes to get first, second, third or fourth place. Just placing in a tournament is a big deal.”
Rodrigues has found her place on the wrestling mat, where she continues to learn and win.
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