Junior Ulrich Yanga '15 Recruiting Profile

My name is Junior Ulrich Yanga and I am from Douala, Cameroon. I came to the U.S. on December 16, 2010. I was in 8th grade when I came here. When I got to Montgomery Blair High School, I was introduced to wrestling by one of my teachers, who was also the school wrestling head coach. I then joined the team my sophomore year. In order for me to know a little bit about wrestling before season started, I went to pre-season. When I first walked in the wrestling room, I had the feeling that this is something I would want to do for long time. That year, I wrestled JV and at the end of the season, I was the JV county runner up. The 2013-2014 school year was my first year varsity. Before the season started, I set a goal. My goal was to be a state qualifier. I knew it wasn't going to be easy. When I told some of my friends that I want to go to State, just a few of them believed that it would be possible especially because I just started. So I made up my mind to prove them wrong. I worked hard inside and outside the wrestling room. I had a decent record of 27-11, I placed 6th at the county tournament (Montgomery County), and upset the #2 seed in the qualification round at the 3A/4A West Region tournament to go to State. The fact that I worked hard through out the year lead me on becoming a leader. I wanted to improve and get better and I also wanted my teammates to do the same. That's why I had to lead and support the team. Because of my leadership, the coach chose me as the team captain. As the 2014-2015 school year comes, I have two main goals. I have an academic goal and athletic goal. My academic goals are to boost my GPA back up to where it belongs and retake the SAT in order to get a better score. My athletic goal is to be the 3A/4A Maryland State Champion and I will give everything I have to get what I want.

As a team, our record was 11-3. We had a good team not because we were winning meets but because we came together as brothers and we loved each other. We were top 10 at almost every tournaments we went to and we had 4 state qualifiers.

I love the sport, I like the fact that it's fun, I like the difficulty, I like going to war with my brothers, and most importantly I like the feeling of getting my hand raised. I know I'm a little behind with experience; but I believe through hard work and dedication I will be able to make it. This is why as I study Chemical Engineering in college, I'm also excited to be part of the wrestling program. I know that the college level is much tougher than the high school level and I also know for sure I can compete at any collegiate level. I just have to take my game to the next level, work hard, be a leader, be dedicated, and listen to my coaches.