CRANBERRY TWP — Her brothers originally passed on football.

Mimi Skowronski, at age 7, was all in.

Five years later, the Cranberry Township youth is part of a national championship wrestling team.

“One thing led to another. She loves wrestling,” her step-father, Chris Deaton, said.

Mimi wrestled at 101 pounds for Pennsylvania’s Under-14 girls team, which recently went 8-0 in the Freestyle Girls National Tournament in Tulsa, Okla. She had 12 matches in the tourney, winning eight of them.

Pennsylvania defeated Florida, 44-19, in the final match to secure its third consecutive national championship. There were 22 states represented in the tournament.

“It was a great experience, meeting other girls from all over the country and wrestling against them,” Mimi said. “I enjoyed the whole thing.”

Mimi has four siblings, including two older brothers, and their family moved from San Francisco to Cranberry Township five years ago. Deaton was looking for some activities the kids could join and saw an advertisement for youth football.

“Her older brothers weren’t interested at first, but Mimi wanted to try it,” Deaton said. “She was always a bit of a tomboy, but I didn’t know if she’d like the physical play of football.

“She played the offensive line and wound up loving it.”

Mimi was the only girl on her Cranberry youth football team. She’s still the only girl playing and plans to play for the junior high team this fall.

When her first football season ended, she asked her coach what she could do to get better for the following season.

“He told her to try wrestling,” Deaton said.

She did — and loved that more.

“Yeah, I like wrestling more,” Mimi said. “The tournaments are more fun. I like learning different moves and making them work.”

She’s been putting those moves to good use — even though she was the only girl competing in youth wrestling in Cranberry until recently.

Mimi placed second in her weight class at the girls state tournament in 2022. She was off to an undefeated start this year before suffering an elbow injury in practice.

“Another wrestler rolled over her elbow and dislocated it,” Deaton said. “She missed three months and couldn’t compete in the state tournament this year.

“She was able to come back for the Pennsylvania freestyle tournament and wound up winning that.”

The Pennsylvania U-14 team had weight classes ranging from 72 pounds to 185. More than 70 girls tried out for the team and Mimi landed the starting spot at 101 pounds.

The state’s U-14 team won the Greco-Roman national championship as well.

“Greco-Roman is pretty new to me,” Mimi admitted. “I have to get better at that style. It’s something else to learn.

“My biggest strength is that I’m coachable. I learn from my mistakes.”

Now a wide receiver-cornerback in football, Mimi said she “caught a few passes”for her team last fall. She plans to continue doing both sports.

“The boys are getting bigger now,” her step-father said. “Mimi’s used to being the only girl out there. It doesn’t bother her. As long as she can stand up to it (physically), I’m sure she’ll keep going.”

Her older brothers eventually began playing football. A younger brother shares her passion for wrestling.

Mimi has won a lot more wrestling matches than she’s lost. Seneca Valley will have a girls wrestling team and a boys wrestling team at the junior high level. Mimi will have to choose one team or the other.

“I haven’t decided yet,” she said. “It wouldn’t bother me wrestling against the boys. Some of them look at me differently, but to most of them, I’m just another wrestler. That’s the way I want it.”