Former Wilson wrestling star now at Lakes with her ‘judo family’

For three years, Jasmine Parker-Borrero proudly represented Wilson High School’s wrestling room, collecting three Class 3A titles at the Mat Classic.

But to go further, Parker-Borrero felt she needed to start again with a different support group.

She needed her judo family.

So, for her senior season, Parker-Borrero transferred to Lakes High School to compete for the father-daughter coaching tandem of Pancho Shrader (boys coach) and Trish Pak (girls coach).

“I feel like with Trish, I can understand her better,” Parker-Borrero said right before capturing the Region II girls 145-pound title Saturday at Decatur High School. “She has a judo background, and I am not always good at understanding wrestling terms. She is good at translating it for me.”

Parker-Borrero was a star with the Rams. She won her third Mat Classic title last year by pinning Yelm’s Ariana Zemke in 1 minute, 65 seconds in the 145 finals.

But even then, she said she knew a change was in store.

Issues had been brewing inside the Wilson wrestling room, she said, refusing to elaborate on specifics.

“I just kind of needed to get out of that environment,” Parker-Borrero said.

Her start at Lakes ran into speed bumps.

She began missing school for personal reasons. And her grades slipped badly.

“I had five Fs” Parker-Borrero said.

She was academically ineligible at the start of wrestling season in November. Instead, she spent much of her time after school getting caught up on course work.

“She is looking really good right now — a 3.0 cumulative (grade point average),” Pak said. “She only has two classes left. She is doing really, really well.”

After she returned to the mat in January, though, Parker-Borrero said she still felt out of sorts.

“It was just all mental,” she said. “I have always been an in-shape person. It’s been just recently that I started feeling good about myself again.”

It has certainly helped having Pak in her corner.

Pak and Parker-Borrero have trained in the same judo dojo since the teenager was young.

“Since we are also black belts in judo, and have wrestled forever, my dad and I understand how (the two disciplines) go together,” Pak said. “When she is out there wrestling, you might think she is tying up an opponent. But I can see she is setting up a throw, and I will just let her do that.”

But Pak has been stern in her expectations of Parker-Borrero, on and off the mat.

“She is a great kid. She’s been in some bad situations,” Pak said. “She needed her judo family.

“Being able to come together, I’ve been able to talk to her and say, ‘I know you are better than this.’ And because we have that care and that love for her, we can set boundaries,” Pak said. “Out of respect, she respects those boundaries. She understands that she needs that.”

Now, Parker-Borrero is set up to join that elite four-peat company at Mat Classic next weekend in the Tacoma Dome.

“I am excited, but at the same time, I am nervous, because there is so much pressure,” Parker-Borrero said. “I’ll do what I’ve done every year.”

This story was originally published February 10, 2018 at 7:24 PM with the headline "Former Wilson wrestling star now at Lakes with her ‘judo family’."