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Before finding fame in the squared circle, many WWE superstars tried their luck playing other sports.
Football was a popular sport among male superstars back in their high school and college days. John Cena, Brock Lesnar, The Usos, Big E, and many others were football players before becoming pro wrestlers.
Several female superstars have also played different sports during high school. A few of them joined their high schools' basketball teams, while others preferred to practice soccer, volleyball, and even lacrosse and diving.
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Some of these female superstars have proven themselves to be high-level athletes even before their WWE success. One even captained her volleyball team and led them to two championships.
On this list, Sportskeeda Wrestling sheds light on 10 female superstars who played high school sports.
#10. WWE Superstar Alexa Bliss - Track, kickboxing, softball, and gymnastics
Alexa Bliss is one of the most successful female superstars in the Women's Revolution era. The Goddess is the second-ever Women's Triple Crown champion, having won the Raw and Smackdown Women's titles, in addition to the Women's tag team championship.
Bliss's athleticism has captured the eyes of the WWE universe since her debut on NXT. The Five Feet of Fury can perform top-rope moves, sunset flips, and somersaults.
Her athleticism goes back to her athletic background since her childhood and teenage days.
According to The Spun, a young Bliss played four different sports at Hilliard Davidson High School. She played track, kickboxing, softball, and gymnastics.
#9. WWE Superstar Charlotte Flair - Volleyball, gymnastics, and basketball
Can you imagine Charlotte Flair not fighting for a championship? The daughter of the legendary Ric Flair has taken WWE by storm since her debut. She has become the face of the women's division over the past several years.
The Queen is a 12-time Women's Champion, a former Women's Tag Team Champion, and a Royal Rumble winner. She is also a grand slam and a triple crown champion.
Before Flair's enormous success in WWE, she played other sports in high school. According to USA Today, Flair competed as a gymnast, basketball, and volleyball player at Providence High in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Queen was the captain and the star of her school's volleyball team. She led her team to win the North Carolina 4A state championship for two consecutive years in 2004 and 2005.
According to FloVolleyball, Flair won the 4A Conference Tournament MVP and the Southwestern Conference 4A Player of the Year awards in 2003.
#8. WWE Superstar Bayley - Basketball
Although still an active WWE superstar, Bayley has written her name in the history books of WWE. She is the first-ever Women's Triple Crown and Grand Slam Champion in WWE history. The Huggable One now competes on SmackDown as a top superstar, not just in the women's division but in WWE altogether.
In high school, Bayley joined the 76ers’ girls’ basketball team in her sophomore year. By senior year, she was already the team captain.
Bayley spoke about her basketball days on the SwerveCity Podcast:
"Basketball was my main sport. Sophomore year, yeah sophomore year I made it to varsity, senior year I was freaking team captain. We weren’t a good team, but I was very proud."
One of the reasons Bayley played basketball was because she loved seeing her name in the newspaper:
"In the newspaper, if you get the local news, they have high school games in there where it says your last name and your points or whatever, that’s all I wanted. I’ve saved all the newspapers, I would highlight it, I’m like that’s me, Martinez."
#7. WWE Superstar Mandy Rose - Lacrosse, basketball, and softball
Although Mandy Rose is yet to win a championship, she has already made a name for herself in WWE. Rose worked her way from finishing second on Tough Enough to becoming a regular competitor on the main roster. She is now in a tag team with Dana Brooke on Monday Night Raw.
Rose's strength and athleticism are no secret. She even has a mobile fitness application. The Golden Goddess has been an athlete almost her entire life, as she explained to Lohud:
"Growing up, I played basketball, lacrosse, softball, and I also danced my whole life."
According to The Miami Herald, Rose was a three-sport athlete (basketball, lacrosse, softball) at high school. However, God's Greatest Creation later quit most sports to focus on dancing.
Regardless, she still managed to stay connected to the varsity lacrosse team. She took on the role of student manager for the Yorktown High School lacrosse team from her sophomore to senior years.
#6. WWE Superstar Dana Brooke - Diving
Mandy Rose's partner has yet to win any gold in WWE as well. However, Dana Brooke has been a regular competitor on the WWE main roster for several years now on Monday Night Raw.
Brooke's story with high school sports is a little sad. She told The Miami Herald in 2016:
"Ever since I was a little girl, I was always flipping all over my house. [Gymnastics] started when I was 2-years-old. My mother [Robin] took me to the Mom & Tot classes at the Johnson’s Gymnastics Center in Valley View, Ohio. I was bouncing around there, at home, in my backyard, and I became a gymnast for 18 years."
Brooke was a very promising young gymnast. She competed in the Junior Olympics in 2001 and made the United States national team. She was preparing herself for a path that should have led her to become an Olympian, but it was not to be:
"Then a career-ending injury happened, where I had reconstructive surgery on my right ankle (...) It was devastating to me. I didn’t know what I was going to do (...) If the ankle injury did not occur, the Olympics was it. That was my initial goal."
Although Brooke tried to come back from her injury, her doctor advised her not to. He told her that she would not be able to compete on the level that she desires.
The current WWE Superstar decided to practice diving in High School. Brooke stated that diving was "boring" for her. Despite this, she won a district title for Holy Name High School.
Brooke would later quit diving in search of a more challenging sport. She opted for bodybuilding and fitness, which led her to the WWE ring a few years later.
#5. WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Nia Jax - Basketball
Nia Jax is one of the most dominant superstars in the WWE women's division. Jax is one half of the women's tag team champions and has proven herself to be a top superstar in the squared circle. However, before her pro wrestling triumphs, she was a top player in another sport.
Jax was a promising basketball player at Carlsbad High School. As one of the Lancer's stars, she was granted a sports scholarship at Palomar College in California. With her college team, she won the Pacific Coast Conference Championship in 2002.
The Irresistible Force had to quit basketball due to injury, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. She underwent two ACL surgeries on her left knee while in high school.
In college, she underwent another ACL surgery on her right knee. Jax retired from basketball to pursue a career in modeling before finding her way to WWE.
#4. WWE Superstar Billie Kay - Basketball
Billie Kay is one of the most entertaining female WWE Superstars on the main roster today. The former Women's Tag Team Champion currently competes on SmackDown.
Kay joined WWE alongside her best friend Peyton Royce. Their relationship goes way back to high school where they both attended Westfield Sports High in Fairfield, Australia. Back then, they did not like each other.
"We didn’t get along at first," Kay said to 9News.
"There was a big rivalry, but it was never spoken," she added.
Kay and Royce bonded after they graduated from high school over their love for pro wrestling. However, before graduation, they were on different paths. While Royce focused on dancing, Kay played basketball.
#3. WWE Superstar Reckoning (Mia Yim) - Volleyball
Mia Yim, now known on the WWE main roster as Reckoning, found her love for pro wrestling at the age of 18. It was a turning point in her life as she ditched the sport she had played for years to get inside the squared circle.
Yim was a good volleyball player at James Madison High School in Vienna, Virginia. Interestingly, she only played the sport because they would not allow girls to play football at her high school. She spoke about playing volleyball in an interview with WWE.com:
"I grew up playing sports. I did taekwondo and loved to play football for fun. They wouldn’t allow girls to play football in high school, but I knew I needed to play a sport in school, so I gave volleyball a try. I always liked volleyball from playing a bit during PE classes. I was able to make the freshman team my freshman year, junior varsity during my sophomore year, and varsity in my last two years of high school. During the offseason, I would play club volleyball, so I could continue to learn and perfect my skills. I wanted to earn a college volleyball scholarship because my academics wouldn’t be enough to qualify entry to the colleges I wanted. My dad sent tapes to Virginia Union University, and they gave me a full scholarship for two years."
Despite this, Yim suddenly decided to quit volleyball in her senior year:
"I’d dedicate all my time playing volleyball during the season and keep my grades above average all year. During the offseason, I’d drive two hours each way to go to wrestling training in Northern Virginia two to three times a week. I transferred to Marymount University and continued to play volleyball for another two years. In my final year, I decided to fully pursue wrestling and drop volleyball."
The WWE Superstar stated to The Baltimore Sun that volleyball helped her learn how to wrestle:
"When I was learning how to take bumps, I felt like I was at a volleyball conditioning session (...) It was a lot of running, jumping drills, all that stuff."
#2. WWE Superstar Bianca Belair - Track and Field
Bianca Belair is one of the most athletic superstars on the WWE roster today. The EST of WWE has established herself as a top superstar on the main roster in less than a year. She won the Women's Royal Rumble and is now the number one contender for the SmackDown Women's title.
Belair will face Sasha Banks at WrestleMania in the hope of winning the first title of her WWE career. If she succeeds, it will not be the first time she has become a champion in her life. Before her WWE days, Belair was a member of the track team at Austin-East Magnet High School.
Along with her team, the current WWE Superstar won multiple state titles in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles. She carried on her track and field triumphs to college, earning All-SEC and All-American championships with the University of Tennessee team.
Despite her success, Belair decided not to pursue a track and field further after college.
#1. WWE Superstar Sonya Deville - Basketball, Lacrosse, and Soccer
Sonya Deville is an upcoming talent in WWE. Although she is yet to win her first title, she has all the potential to reach the top one day. She is currently Adam Pearce's assistant on SmackDown.
Deville is known for her MMA background. Before learning to fight, she practiced three different sports at Seneca High School in New Jersey. The Jersey Devil played basketball, lacrosse and soccer in her high school days.
In an interview with the New York Post, Deville opened up about playing high school sports:
"I played soccer and basketball the longest. I was just fast as hell, aggressive as hell, similar to my style in the ring. I was always getting fouls and I was always getting yellow cards in soccer. So, I loved playing sports, though, it kind of shaped my childhood."
Deville decided to quit all high school sports in her sophomore year:
"I had always played sports since I was 7, 8 years old I think. I had always been apart of a team sport or a school sport and I kind of just wanted to feel free, to do my own things and branch out. Loved acting at that point, I wanted to get into acting classes and I kind of had to figure to delegate my time so that I could do everything that I wanted to do.
"I wanted to act. So I started getting into acting and I started watching women’s MMA. I would watch Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg back when Elite FC was around. I just fell in love with MMA. So my junior year, I started training mixed martial arts. I just absolutely fell in love with it."
