Amanda Silveri has been here before. But as much as it is about being No. 1, the glow of confidence that has become a larger part of her game is making this whole provincial champion thing all new again.
The 17-year-old St. Thomas More wrestler has tasted success before – at four previous B.C. high school wrestling championships, she has emerged the victor twice. The other two times, Silveri returned home with silver.
Every year she’s grappled, the Burnaby teen has taken it to the B.C. final and emerged with a medal.
That’s a pretty rare achievement, having started the sport in Grade 8 as well as her current medal streak.
What makes this one – as a graduating student – so different is how quickly it came, and how she has translated the support and help of others into a stronger belief in herself.
“I started smiling. It all just hit me – I was so proud of myself and how far I’ve come because five years ago if you’d have asked me, I’d never have seen myself where I was the other day,” she said of last week’s win over Emily Reid of Chemainus in the 110-kilogram final in Langley.
It was her third straight provincial gold – but winning never gets old. Not when you dedicate so much time, and feel the encouragement of others as you work towards a goal.
As a five-time finalist, the opportunity to compete one last time for her school and with a team that has backed her through various battles, was one she embraced to its fullest.
“I felt like I was really prepared because I had such amazing training partners, and my coaches really pushed me because they knew what I was capable of achieving,” she said.
Teammates Sam Steele and Gabriella Bellini also returned home with medals – Steele won the boys 110kg final, while Bellini finished third in the girls 64kg division.
Silveri credits her Knights coaches, led by Max Arcand, for keeping her focused, as well as past Knights coach Doug Corbett, who is also a coach at her Pacific Rim club, for having faith in her abilities.
That faith is something she knew had to also come from within. But, like a lot of teenagers, hearing it from others was just part of the picture for Silveri. She had to believe, too.
“Coach Corbett was such a good mentor, and he saw a lot of potential in me for those (first) three years. The new coach (since 2017), Max Arcand, really stepped up and continued to push me as he saw a lot of potential in me. He worked really well and tried especially hard to keep the team going and as successful as it had been.”
Her final was judiciously swift, where Silveri countered her opponent’s technical moves with decisive counter attacks. The clock didn’t reach half a minute before the referee raised her hand.
“After they blew the whistle, the first thing I thought of was ‘underhooks, underhooks. Keep reaching in (and) grab tight,’” she recalled. “We were moving around quite a bit, (Reid) went for the throw, which I saw coming, so I stepped in front of her and used my strength to catch her off guard. All of a sudden we were on the ground and I could hear my coaches yelling from the corner.”
She put her opponent in a quick pin, then heard the referee’s whistle.
“I was like, ‘Oh wow, I just won.’ It was all a blur after that. It was a great feeling.”
Just as awesome was the tremendous outpouring of cheers and embraces from her teammates and coaches, who helped buoy her through some tough training days.
In wrestling, the fierce few minutes on the mat are outnumbered exponentially by the hours in training. Techniques and strategies, followed by fitness. It’s the mental approach, often steeled through a course of tough wins and hard-to-swallow defeats, that create a winning balance.
Silveri is feeling more and more comfortable in her abilities, and it couldn’t come at a better time.
At last year’s nationals, the STM athlete worked herself down a few pounds to fit in a lower weight class and ran a gauntlet of opponents before getting knocked out just before the medal round.
“It was a bit hard at first, but looking back I’m glad things turned out the way they did because this year I had to train and prepare that much more and it motivated me to do so. … Every tournament, every match I have I can always take something from it, win or lose.”
She also credits her parents, who didn’t flinch when she came home one day as a Grade 8 asking if she could give wrestling a try, and a younger brother who has followed her onto the mats, for providing incredible support.
With a national gold medal in 2017 and three provincial golds to her record, Silveri is now looking towards the future, possibly continuing her studies and wrestling on Burnaby Mountain. Although still in the recruitment process, she likes the atmosphere there, which has trained multiple national champions and Olympians.
“Wrestling is probably one of my biggest passions in life. My coaches always told me that once you wrestled, everything else in life is easy. Honestly it’s so true. It’s developed me so much as a person, because I use to be really shy but now I feel more confident. I love the adrenalin and the thrill of the sport as well,” she added.
