Like the vast majority of girl wrestlers, Brooklyn Hays didn’t get to high school with a lot of experience — even growing up in Pleasant Grove where the sport is king and the Viking boys programs have made several dynastic runs including this last one where they have won 10 out of the last 11 state championships.

Hays’ intentions were to play basketball, but she got cut from the team her sophomore year and decided to try wrestling.

When the sport got sanctioned by the Utah High School Activities Association for the 2020-21 season Hays had immediate success and won her first of two state titles as a junior. She backed that up with a dominating senior season winning a second state title and placing second in the nation to earn the distinction of being the Utah Valley Girls Wrestler Year for the 2021-22 season.

“I had no experience with wrestling at all,” said Hays. “No one in my family ever had wrestled, none of my friends. I didn’t make the basketball team my sophomore year.”

But Pleasant Grove head coach Brock Moore recognized her potential as an athlete and she accepted the challenge to become a member of the girls wrestling team.

The Viking girls head coach, Cali Moore, who is Brock Moore’s daughter and knows plenty about a winning wrestling culture, says it Hays’ work ethic and mentality that set her apart from most wrestlers.

“She’s got the best mentality,” said Cali Moore. “She’s mentally disciplined and mentally tough. She put in the work. She doesn’t just set goals, she immediately takes action to achieve them. She talks to different people and does what it takes to get her goals accomplished.”

Beyond that Moore says Hays has other attributes that make her a successful wrestler.

“She just shows the ability to adapt to any situation,” Cali Moore said. “She just really wants to learn and she’ll wrestle with newer wrestlers and experienced wrestlers just to learn new situations. She just adapts and gets stuff done. She’s awesome!”

As for her work ethic it was noticed by a lot of people involved in the Viking wrestling program including longtime assistant boys coach Jared Llewellyn.

“She’s the hardest working wrestler, boy or girl, that I’ve ever seen in my years of coaching.” Llewellyn said.

Hays definitely put in the work, often practicing twice a day with both the boys and the girls teams and spent a lot of hours in the weight room becoming very involved in powerlifting. Hays said that being a part of the power lifting team and the influence of Peter Borgedor contributed mightily to her wrestling success.

“It’s (powerlifting) been huge,” Hays said. “It really changed me as an athlete and made me really strong and powerful.”

Hays was extremely dominant and won all her matches at the state tournament by pin, including three in the first period. Her opponent in the 155-pound 6A championship finals, Brooklyn Nelson of Cyprus, carried in a glossy 36-3 record but presented no problems for Hays, who won by pin in 1:38 to run her record to 34-1.

While Westlake won the team title, Hays definitely has helped elevate the Viking girls program as Pleasant Grove finished a strong third at the 6A tournament.

Hays’s only loss in the Utah season came when she was defeated in the finals at the Reno Tournament of Champions. She then decided to take the ultimate challenge and battle in the USA Wrestling High School Folkstyle Nationals in Colorado. There she came up one match short of winning a national title.

While Hays has not committed to any college program, she is looking strongly at Augsburg in Minnesota, which has one of the top female college programs in the country.

Though Hays won two state titles, she did lose six matches her junior year. In going undefeated against Utah competition this season, Hays showed steady improvement that came with her strong commitment to get better.

One of her biggest wins came at the 2022 Ross Brunson All-Star dual where she pinned Springville two-time state champion Hotai Valeti, another one of the great female wrestlers in Utah County.

One thing Hays thought was a fun way to end her high school competing career was taking part in the USA Wrestling Utah All-Star Hammer Dual where she served as one of the team captains, the other being All-Valley wrestler Esther Han of Mountain View. Her team, deemed the “Justice League”, won 59-22 in this inaugural post-season event that pitted the best girls in the state against each other.

“I know how to pick a team,” Hays joked. “It was so fun to see all the girls again.”

Hays went up from her normal weight class to battle at 170 pounds, but no problem for the Viking grappler as she won her match by technical fall.

Hays has a lot of diverse interests outside of wrestling and powerlifting.

“I like to bike, I like roller skating, listening to audio books, cooking, playing basketball, doing hair and nails, and I love art.”

As a successful athlete, Hays does have an important message for others.

“Follow your strengths and believe in yourself,” she said.