If there’s one thing you could say about McLoud senior Launa Troutt, it’s that she doesn’t back down from a challenge.
She’s a state champion wrestler in her weight class and helped her team become the 5A state champions last season, despite being one of the smallest teams in the division.
It should come as no surprise, since it was the challenge that first attracted Troutt to the sport in junior high. She said she started as a manager for the wrestling team in seventh grade, but it was boring to sit and watch.
So, Launa began to practice in the wrestling room. And suddenly, she had purpose. Enough that she contemplated joining the wrestling team for her eighth-grade year and begged a friend to do it with her. Calling herself an introvert, she didn’t want to do it alone. However, the draw of the challenge pulled Troutt in.
“Honestly, everything else I had done was coming easy to me, and this wasn’t. This was a true challenge for me,” she said.
It’s the practices, along with maintaining a strict diet and training. Troutt said that, especially with the girls on McLoud’s team now, it’s a battle every single day. She called wrestling a lifestyle.
“Your diet has to be right. Your mindset has to be right. You physically have to be fit, and that has to be right,” she said. “And if you want to be on the top, you just have to do extra stuff.”
Whether it’s workouts before and after school or tamping down on her sweet tooth, Launa is committed. And well, overcoming health obstacles is nothing new to her. She has an autoimmune disease and a heart condition that can lead her to be lightheaded and sometimes pass out. Additionally, she has psoriatic arthritis in pretty much every joint.
“Doctors have definitely told me not to wrestle,” she said with a chuckle. “But I’m not going to quit.”
She’s learned to work with and around her health issues, even if that means taking longer to recover after a dual or practice. And to push through.
It’s this dedication to hard work that has Coach William Winters, who has coached Launa for four-going-on-five years, calling her a “dawg.”
“She’s always competing to be the hardest-working wrestler in any practice room she walks into. And she’s one of the most competitive kids I’ve ever coached,” he said. “Her hyper-competitiveness, coupled with her willingness to do whatever it takes to get better, makes her the wrestler that can beat anyone on any day.”
He said he’s most proud of the person she is and her love for Jesus, as well as the leader she has been for the last three years. While she’s not loud, Launa is constantly encouraging her teammates and pushing them to be their best, Winters said. That hard work also extends beyond the mat -- Launa is in the top 10 percent of her class with a 4.1 GPA and is set to be valedictorian.
“She has left a legacy from her work ethic and pure competitiveness that gives all our girls a standard to strive for on a daily basis. Long after Launa is gone, what she showed her younger teammates will carry on to future generations,” he said.
Launa feels the entire team is leaving a legacy.
“We’ll have all these little league kids… and they come up and hug us. Some of the junior high kids ask me questions, or I see them asking other girls questions,” she said. “I definitely know we’re leaving a legacy for them, because I see them looking up to us… I see them working so hard in practice.”
Hopefully, she’ll continue to build on that. Troutt has already signed to wrestle with Carl Albert State after she graduates. She’s been looking at the allied science program and considering becoming a physical therapy assistant. Being a wrestling coach also isn’t off the table either.
No matter what, Launa said she’s going to come back to McLoud and help the wrestling program as much as she can.
“It really is such a family here, and I want to be able to be good for them,” she said. “When I grow and become a better wrestler, I can help them become a better wrestler… I feel like that’s one of the best ways to be a leader, is being a good example, and just knowing that, that keeps me driven. This whole community.”
Editor’s Note: This is the eighth in the Senior Spotlight series that will feature graduating seniors from all of the high schools in The Lincoln County News’ coverage area.