Sports

TAKING IT TO THE MAT

PERSEVERANCE PAYS OFF FOR MATER DEI’S SAMANTHA ARCE

By CAM KAUFFMAN     6/11/2024

EVERYONE HAS A hurdle in life — something so difficult it can seem impossible to overcome.

Samantha Arce, a senior at Mater Dei, had lost to another wrestler, Berlyn Davis, every time on the way to their final state tournament. Indeed, over the past two seasons, Davis had kept her out of multiple tournament championship rounds. Moreover, Samantha had never been able even to get a takedown one time.

Not once.

SAMANTHA ARCE FACES AN OPPONENT DURING A WRESTLING MATCH.

Samantha could’ve given up. Instead, she took it as the ultimate motivation – on the way to a key victory in this year’s state quarterfinals, a win that stamped her as one of the nation’s top wrestlers.

“I think that’s what kept me humble and didn’t allow me to kind of get egotistical and think I didn’t need to work as hard,” Samantha said. “I still had to fight in order to get to where I needed to be.”

To say that Samantha Arce is a good wrestler is an understatement — but she wasn’t always the best, and to understand how she managed to get there by the end of her senior year, the story starts way before then.

Samantha’s story centers on her work ethic, her mother’s sacrifices and the support of her high school.

Mater Dei is one of the best high schools in California for both academics and athletics. It’s why Samantha’s mom, Serene Guillot, always wanted to send her there.

When Samantha was a toddler, her father died in a car accident. Suddenly, Guillot had to take on the emotional, authoritative and financial aspects of being sole parent to Samantha and her three older brothers.

“It’s really hard because you have to be the disciplinary parent and you have to be the loving mom all wrapped into one,” Guillot said.

Serene, a school resource officer, frequently works long hours and often picks up overtime shifts.

“She works hard for me to go here, and that’s something that I’ll be grateful for the rest of my life,” Samantha said.

MATER DEI’S SAMANTHA ARCE IS DECLARED THE WINNER OF A WRESTLING MATCH.

Samantha, however, didn’t always grow up being as dominant and confident in her skills as she is now. In fact, she didn’t always grow up loving wrestling like she does now, either.

Each of her older brothers wrestled, so Samantha grew up watching them compete at club tournaments and at high school matches.

“This is scary, I’m never doing this,” Samantha recalled thinking at the time. Her fear of the sport, however, didn’t stop her from jokingly criticizing her older brothers if they lost a match.

“‘Well, why don’t you do it then if you think you’re so good,’” her mom recalled one of Samantha’s brothers saying to her.

SAMANTHA ARCE GRADUATED FROM MATER DEI CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL ON JUNE 1 AND WILL ATTEND MCKENDREE UNIVERSITY IN THE FALL. PHOTOS COURTESY OF MATER DEI CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL

So, in fifth grade, Samantha decided to take her brother up on his bet. She lost every single match her first year, quickly realizing wrestling was a lot harder than it looked.

“She would run off the mats crying,” Serene said, adding that her daughter had basically no confidence in herself after that year. “She did not want to do it anymore.”

But Guillot saw something in Samantha. So, mother kept taking daughter with her to the gym and bought mats for practice at home. Eventually, the 11-year-old built up the confidence to give the sport another try the next year.

This time around, she won nearly every tournament she was in.

“It was like a totally different person,” Guillot said.

Since then, Samantha hasn’t really looked back. Samantha qualified for state as a sophomore in her first chance to do so (COVID cut into her freshman year, so there was no state tournament). Although she lost in the first round, she got a taste of what it was like on the biggest stage and knew she wanted to get back there, to be better.

As a junior, Samantha made it as far as the quarterfinals, eventually taking home fourth place.

Again, she fell just short of where she wanted to be.

Going into her senior year, she knew it was her last chance to accomplish her longtime goal of becoming a state champion and putting Mater Dei girl’s wrestling on the map.

When, as a freshman, Samantha first started wrestling for Monarch head coach Luis Renteria, he said she didn’t like shooting. That’s a maneuver in which a wrestler attacks an opponent’s legs to knock them down to the mat.

The key to winning, though, would be shooting.

This was what drove Samantha – though she had been beaten every time before, she and Renteria knew, they just knew, they had identified the key to victory.

“It bothered me so much,” she said. “It gave me more motivation to work harder in practice and do whatever I needed to do outside of practice as well to keep doing better so I could beat this girl when it really mattered.”

When it mattered turned out to be in the quarterfinals at this year’s state tournament in February.

With, again, everything on the line for both girls – Samantha and her long-time rival Berlyn Davis.

“That was kind of like all or nothing for me,” Samantha said. “If I’m going to beat her, it’s going to be now.” Before the match, Renteria said he knew Samantha would win.

Let the shooting begin.

Samantha attacked her opponent’s legs, taking her down for the first time ever.

She won the match 8-0.

It wasn’t even close.

“It was kind of like slow motion for me,” Samantha said of the win.

Samantha would go on to the state finals, the first-ever Monarch to do so.

There she would come up just one win short of the CIF state title. The quarterfinal victory nonetheless had marked Samantha as one of the best wrestlers in the country. She’s now ranked No. 2 in California and No. 5 nationally after her fifth-place finish at the National High School Coaches Association national tournament, earning herself All-American status.

Samantha’s work ethic, maturity and attitude have brought her to where she is today, and Renteria said they will serve her well in her next chapter.

“She was one of the hardest workers in the room,” Renteria said. “I think she out-worked most of her boy teammates every day.”

Samantha is set to attend McKendree University in Illinois next fall on a Division I wrestling scholarship while also participating in the school’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program.

“Everything that happened throughout my four years here,” she said, “was definitely necessary in order to be a better person and wrestler.”