A volunteer. A fighter. A Helper. Aggressive. Kind hearted.

Quitter? Never.

Coppell junior wrestler Maria Husain has wrestled since freshman year, and joined the team to try something new with the provided high school opportunities.

“[When] you wrestle another person and when you beat them, you feel stronger,” Husain said. “It just makes me feel a sense of community because I have a team with me.”

Husain had to fight to win her spot on the varsity wrestling team last May with Coppell High School 2020 graduate Trinity Zapata and won her way to the team, along with being able to advance to state. According to Coppell junior wrestler Mya Keys, Husain’s dedication is prominent and inspiring. 

“I’ve been friends with her since third grade [at Austin Elementary] when I moved here, so I’ve known her for a long time, and we’ve always been in the same classes and growing up from middle school elementary – all of that,” Keys said. “She always keeps going. She never stops until her reps are done or until she completes her goal, which is really good because it shows everybody else to keep going.”

Wrestling requires strength, skill and a winning mentality. 

“As a wrestler, she’s very tactical,” Coppell senior Dorian Villalba said. “She is very strategic, and she has to be aggressive when she’s wrestling, but outside of the sport as a person she’s a really kind, really smart person.” 

Husain is also in the Coppell branch of Amnesty International, an organization advocating for various world issues around the world, including human rights and passing bills to support people in detention centers. Husain is the social outreach manager of the organization, which means she manages the organization’s social media and community involvement.

“Right now we’ve been doing more detention stuff because there are some detention centers near the border, and now we’re doing this campaign for rights where you write letters to help bring awareness to people who have been wrongfully imprisoned and attacked and help them get justice,” Husain said. 

Husain has always been involved in community service, and has grown up with constant encouragement to always do better.

“My biggest role model when it comes to helping people is my mom [Rizwana Husain] because she always got me to volunteer when she was little, and she always showed me the importance of everything about volunteering and understanding how lucky I am to be born in such a good family,” Maria said.

Maria thinks anyone can create a diverse profile for themselves if they put their mind to it. Being in both wrestling and a leader for Amnesty, Maria fills up her plate with tasks everyday. 

“It’s all doable if you manage your time properly, especially because you know when you need to get stuff done,” Maria said. “If you just plan out your day, plan things properly, it’s not as bad as it can seem.” 

Maria continues to push herself as an athlete and make a difference in her community.

“We’re going to have to inherit the world soon anyways so it’s important to get involved now rather than later to know what we have to do,” Maria said. “To be involved in these types of things is good because you get to learn, your perspective grows and you grow as a person too learning about other people’s circumstances and it really puts everything into perspective.”

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