McClatchy’s State Champ: Tavi Heidelberg

McClatchy is home to the heavyweight champion of California and you probably didn’t even know it. Tavia “Tavi” Heidelberg-Tillotson, a junior, became the first athlete in McClatchy history to win a state championship in an individual sport when she won the California girls’ heavyweight wrestling championship in Visalia on February 24th.

According to McClatchy athletic director Mr. Feickert, she is also the first female athlete from the Metro League to win a state championship in an individual sport.

The title completed an impressive comeback campaign by Heidelberg-Tillotson, who missed her sophomore season due to injury. She qualified for State by winning tournaments for the Metro League and Sac-Joaquin Section titles, then won five consecutive matches at the state tournament to finish on top.

“It was just an incredible experience,” she said.

Heidelberg-Tillotson first stepped onto a mat as an eighth grader at Toby Johnson Middle School in Elk Grove. She was tagging along with her brother, who was a wrestler. “If he can do it, I can do it too,” Heidelberg-Tillotson recalls telling herself.

As a girl wrestling against boys, she was frequently harassed by spectators and coaches. “‘Don’t lose to that girl, why is she even out here,’” she said she would hear during matches. But she persevered and beat most of the boys she faced. “[My brother] actually dropped out … I finished the season.”

She’s been a wrestler ever since. Mental and physical toughness is everything in her sport, and Heidelberg-Tillotson loves it. Her favorite thing about wrestling is “being able to push yourself, finding out how much you can do that you previously thought, ‘I’m not strong enough, fast enough, smart enough to do that,’” she said.

Wrestlers push themselves especially hard when “cutting weight” — shedding pounds right before a weigh-in through methods like sweating, fasting, and going without water. Though overcoming challenges is what Heidelberg-Tillotson likes about wrestling, cutting weight is where she draws the line. “It’s not safe,” she said. Still, she concedes that “it separates the weaklings from the best.”

Heidelberg-Tillotson hopes to wrestle in college after graduating next year, and after that has her sights set on the 2024 Olympics. “That’s the level of wrestling I aspire to be at,” she said.

Outside of wrestling, she is a 4.0 student and loves rock ‘n’ roll.