Wrestling prepared Ohio teen to battle diabetes diagnosis

Photo: Giulia Zayas of Aurora, Ohio, recently competed in Fargo as a member of Ohio’s national team.

Editor’s Note: This story appeared in WIN’s Volume 31 Issue 10, the Fargo/Final X Commemorative Edition. Click here or call 641-792-4436 to subscribe to WIN Magazine. Buy a Digital or Combo Subscription to get immediate digital access to the Fargo/Final X Commemorative Issue, or a Print Subscription to get WIN mailed to you (using Discount Code “Fargo”).

By Sandy Stevens 

“Wrestling,” said Tony Zayas of his daughter, Giulia, “is her passion and love. She’s always liked to challenge herself. Wrestling is a sport where you can do that, where you can grow.”

But neither Tony nor his wife Monica nor their daughter had any idea what challenges the 15-year-old Aurora, Ohio wrestler would face this year.

Weighing just 100 pounds, Giulia said she always kept a healthy lifestyle and diet. In retrospect, however, she now recognizes that some negative signs popped up over the past few years while she was wrestling, such as trouble breathing and low energy.

“Toward the end of the past season, I’d go to classes so tired,” she recalled. “I was drinking 13 bottles of water a day but couldn’t quench my thirst. I lost 10 pounds in two weeks and even got down in the 80s.”

At a checkup in April, her doctor discovered a life-threatening level of glucose (sugar) in her blood. She was admitted to the Cleveland Clinic as a Type I diabetic. (Diabetes is a lifelong autoimmune disease that prevents the pancreas from making insulin, a hormone that regulates the amount of glucose in the blood).

Giulia spent three nights in the hospital. As the family faced the shock of the lifestyle changes required, the doctor asked, “Any questions?”

Giulia’s sole response: “Can I wrestle this weekend?”

And she certainly did, topping the state qualifier, the first of two tournaments she would win at 105 pounds following the diagnosis. In the process, she earned a spot on Ohio’s national team.

In her first ever outing at Fargo, Giulia went 2-2, including a bye. She was the victim of two tech falls but also scored a fall in 1:08 in the wrestle-backs.   

This rising sophomore comes from a family of wrestlers. Her grandfather wrestled in high school in Illinois. Her dad played high school football before breaking his arm; however, just before graduating from the University of Iowa, he joined Windy City Pro Wrestling, competing for three years.

Giulia started wrestling at age 12 in sixth grade with the Junior Aurora youth program, but she stresses it wasn’t her relatives’ experiences that drew her to the sport.

“It was more about me going to my dad about wrestling,” she said. “I liked contact sports; I played football starting in fifth grade and was the only girl on my high school football team, as wide receiver and safety — but my freshman year was my last go.”

Wrestling’s attraction, she said, is “mainly because it’s year-round. I like the discipline in the sport, and it teaches you lessons: how to prioritize, time management, a healthy lifestyle, gaining confidence, setting new goals and surrounding myself with the right people.”

Currently Giula is the only female on her team at Aurora High School, but the school has added a female coach for a girls’ wrestling club. “All of my coaches and teammates have been great,” she said.

The past year was the first Giulia focused on wrestling solely other females, competing at 100 pounds in both freestyle and folkstyle. “So, the past season was basically a season of tournaments,” she pointed out.

She also attended a Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) Camp in Ohio, a Walsh Jesuit Camp and the University of Iowa Women’s Camp.

This fall will see Giulia taking such classes as cybersecurity, American Sign Language and Honors English, and she’ll continue her involvement with FCA. She’s also been invited to compete in the Ironman Tournament in December.

She’ll continue adjusting to diabetes, but knows she’ll also continue to focus on the lessons wrestling teaches her.

“Keep going,” she stressed. “Even though it can get hard and you get frustrated, it’s not going to stop you from achieving any of your goals. It’s changed my perspective on a lot, on ‘staying strong.’”

(Sandy Stevens, a long-time public address announcer, was named to the National Hall of Fame in 1998.)