Defending state champion Cali Dupree’s pre-dual antics include:
“I listen to music and I pace and I like to [pat] myself and I just have one song on repeat,” Cali said.
Her song of choice: “Headstrong” by Trapt.
It makes sense, because the Nixa senior can take on anyone, just like the song says. She is undefeated this season and most recently won her 150 match.
“Cali is never relaxed,” said Nixa Head Wrestling Coach Dustin Martin. “She’s always she’s always in, like attack mode kind. That’s what makes her special.”
But before she could get to 20-0 on the season, she had to take some time and relax.
“I dislocated my shoulder and blew out my labrum and so it’s just been hanging on,” Cali said.
She sat out the beginning of the season after undergoing surgery on her labrum.
“It was hard at the beginning to like, go from being out for so long to like going back into it,” Martin said. “There’s a natural nervousness when kids come back from from injuries…From a functionality standpoint, she’s 100 percent back. She’s ready, but there’s still that, that mental side of it, where she just went through six months of rehab. It’s been kind of a race these last couple weeks to try to get her back to, you know, state championship level wrestling.”
And that state championship feeling is what Cali loves most.
“The whole arena and like the lights and like the music and like everyone is hyped,” Cali said.
She wants another title, but this year she’s doing it in a new weight class, 170 pounds.
“I think I perform better like under pressure and like whenever I know there’s a lot of people in like a spotlight,” Cali said.
In her mind, the top of the podium is where she belongs, again.
