CHICO — Chico High girls wrestler Taghreed Iftikhar came to the United States as a foreign-exchange student from Pakistan. Ever since arriving with he
CHICO — Chico High girls wrestler Taghreed Iftikhar came to the United States as a foreign-exchange student from Pakistan. Ever since arriving with her host family in October 2021, she has done her best to take advantage of the opportunities presented to her.
Iftikhar is attending Chico High during the 2021-22 school year thanks to the YES Abroad and American Cultural Exchange Services Program.
When Iftikhar first attended Chico High she aspired to join the softball team, despite never playing any sports in Pakistan. However, when she learned girls had been honing their skills since as early as 8 years old, she decided against the idea.
After focusing her efforts on her studies, Iftikhar said she felt lazy and saw that many of her peers in America were playing sports, so she decided to step into the Chico High athletics office and ask what sports were available.
The athletics office informed Iftikhar that wrestling did not require a tryout, and Iftikhar, who had never done any sports in Pakistan, emphatically said “OK I’ll do it!”
Iftikhar wrestled her first match at the Panthers’ first tournament of the season, the Doc Peterson Classic at the Glenn County Fairgrounds in Orland. On Saturday, Iftikhar is wrestling in her final tournament where she will return to the Glenn County Fairgrounds to compete in the Northern Section Girls Invitational at the Glenn County Fairgrounds in Orland. Iftikhar’s courage to try new sports and her unique story are reasons she is this week’s Chico Enterprise-Record Prep Athlete of the Week.
“I joined wrestling mainly to put out myself for something new and adventurous,” Iftikhar said. “I just wanted to put myself out there and test my potential, and the best part is that the coaches are really nice, especially considering I’m a Muslim and I have certain things like I can’t wear anything sleeveless, so they are very respectful of that. The team’s very encouraging and supportive and I’ve really enjoyed my time over here.”
Chico High coach Keith Rollins said at the start of the season he reached out to wrestling officials to get permission to modify the uniform requirement and officials have been very supportive of the modification from the start.
Despite Iftikhar’s belief in herself and competitiveness thinking she would win her first tournament, she lost her first four matches at the Doc Peterson Classic, but proudly held a medal for participating. Her family and friends tried to tell her it was OK that it was her first time ever in a sport, but the losses taught her to never give up and gave her even more motivation at practice.
Iftikhar then won her next two matches and couldn’t believe it. She watched the videos of her match repeatedly and thought to herself, “It’s me Taghreed, you’ve done it!”
“It was great. I was so confident after winning the match,” Iftikhar said. “Also I think it made me realize that I can do it, that it’s not something I cannot do.”
Iftikhar has big dreams and hopes to return to the United States after high school and become an ambassador for Pakistan. With her studies high in her list of priorities, she hopes to attend Oxford, Harvard or Yale. She understands the difficulties and expenses, but says she will do her absolute best to receive a scholarship to return to the United States.
Iftikhar gave some words reflecting on her time with the wrestling team to encourage others. She wants to thank her host family Kimberly and Aaron Wun for opening their hearts and their homes and treating her like family. Iftikhar referenced a recent birthday party she had, where she and the Wun family visited San Francisco and also took a trip to Southern California, where she got to go to Disneyland.
“I never thought I’d find a family away from home and they love me like their own child,” Iftikhar said.
Iftikhar also thanked her parents in Pakistan, Javaria Iftikhar and Iftikhar Ahmed, for giving her the opportunity to come to the United States and supporting her afar.
“(My parents in Pakistan) still don’t believe that I do wrestling over here and I’ve sent them videos, but it’s so surreal. They don’t believe I’m doing this sport because it’s very challenging being a girl and a Muslim girl,” Taghreed Iftikhar said.
Iftikhar described all the differences she has seen in the United States, and loves how she sees Americans enjoying every moment of their lives. She hopes she is able to bring this mentality back with her to Pakistan.
“I think if you think about anything too much you tend not to go for it, so I would just say go out for new things and you’ll end up doing it.” Iftikhar said. “Over there I used to just study and do nothing, like no extracurricular activities or hanging out with friends, but now when I’m going to go back I’m just going to enjoy because you only live once.”
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