What do you get when you cross a beauty queen, a model, a cheerleader, and a wrestler?
That's not a joke, either.
Vallejo High freshman Breanne Boggs isn't kidding when she talks about breaking old fashioned perceptions.
"I just want to prove a point to everybody that girls can do boys stuff," Boggs said.
With wrestling's popularity among high school females having grown in recent years, there's already plenty of girls who prove that point, especially at Vallejo, the defending unofficial girls State champion.
What makes Boggs different from other girls, though, is that she's a beauty queen (the reigning Miss Teen Vaca Valley) and a model (she signed last year with the Marla Dell Talent Agency in San Francisco), whose passion is cheerleading (which she's been doing since she was 8-years old).
A beauty queen/model/cheerleader who wrestles? Yeah, it sounds like an odd combination of extra curricular activities. And Boggs is well aware of what the popular opinion might be.
"People will think that it's weird because a girlie-girl wants to do a boy's sport," Boggs said, "like a tomboy, but I'm not a tomboy."
Far from it, actually.
Boggs' mom, Tina Boggs, explained how wrestling
"It makes her unique," Tina Boggs said. "And one of the things about being in the industry is having unique talents and not being just a pretty face, but having something that makes you different from everybody else."
Boggs' brother, Brandon Boggs, a senior wrestler for the Apaches, admits that he never imagined his little sister getting down and dirty on the mat.
"I never thought she would be physical, because she's always been a girlie-girl afraid to get dirty and sweaty," Brandon Boggs said. "Seeing her out here is kind of weird."
So just how did it come to be that a beauty queen/model/cheerleader would wrestle? It was an accident.
Boggs was at a cheerleading competition in March of 2006 when a talent scout noticed the then 12-year-old who was already 5-foot-8.
"Something about the long legs," Tina Boggs said. "They notice those first."
Eight months later, Boggs and her family found themselves in Hollywood at the International Performing Arts Conference, where Boggs would become immersed in the modeling culture. She was skeptical at first about getting into modeling, but the conference convinced her that she wanted to give it a serious try.
"It just opened me up," Boggs said.
Five months later, in April, Boggs signed with Marla Dell. The next month, in May, she entered the Miss Teen Vaca Valley pageant and, to her surprise, won. The reason for competing in the pageant wasn't to win. It was just to get more comfortable with public speaking and build her confidence for modeling. She just happened to win.
"I was in shock, and I was crying," said Boggs, who attends Star Producers modeling and acting school in Fairfield every Wednesday after wrestling practice.
Wrestling entered the equation because, well, now that Boggs is deep into modeling - she's done a national advertisement for a medical company and some runway fashion shows - she's looking to stay physically fit.
"Wrestling is like the hardest sport ever," Boggs said.
Being around the sport through her brother for the last four years only pushed her to give it a shot.
"My brother had a six pack," Boggs said, "and I wanted a six pack."
So far, so good, except for her current 3-5 record. She did win her first novice tournament, though, and coach Carl Lastrella is impressed with her focus and determination.
"She tries hard, and she's looking to improve all the time," Lastrella said. "She's physical. She needs to get back to being more physical. In the beginning she was really, really physical. Now she needs to start getting back to being more physical so she can get some more wins."
Wins do matter. But to Boggs, she's already accomplished so much - just being out on the mat, being rough and tough, and proving that she's more than just a pretty face.
"I didn't think I could do wrestling, and I proved myself wrong," Boggs said. "And I've proved my whole family wrong, and now they're all proud of me.
"I'm a tough girl. And I can be a pretty girl on occasion."
