BUTLER TWP — Miranda LaJevic could have found herself on the top of the podium a few weeks ago at the Butler Girls Wrestling Tournament.

It would have been one of many throughout her senior season, the culmination of years of training — first as a youth gymnast, later as a high school wrestler on the boys team and finally on Knoch’s own girls team.

Instead, one of the top high school wrestlers in the country is watching and recording. After a labrum tear ended her senior season before it could start, LaJevic now serves as the team photographer and social media manager, and an unofficial coach for younger wrestlers on the boys and girls teams as they head into the postseason.

“I know it means the world to her to be there, to feel some kind of normal even though her senior wrestling season was taken away from her,” girls coach Logan Downes said in mid-January. “There has been no Knoch (girls) wrestling without Miranda LaJevic being a part of it.”

It’s not the plan she had for herself this year, but her path to wrestling didn’t follow much of a script, either.

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LaJevic was introduced to gymnastics in mommy and me classes before she was 2 years old and competed until she was 10.

But while attempting a roundoff back handspring back full twist on the floor exercise during a practice, she landed flat on her back and immediately knew something was wrong.

She told her mother, Jamie, she thought her back was broken. But Jamie saw her daughter, who had gotten up from so many falls before, still walking around and thought it was a bad bruise that would heal.

A month passed as Miranda continued to train every week. But when she could no longer bend down to tie her shoes or pick up the family chickens, she was taken to the hospital to get X-rays. They showed her L3, L4 and L5 vertebrae were fractured, and doctors said she’d have to retire from gymnastics or she could “possibly be paralyzed in the future,” she said.

It was devastating news for the constantly busy Miranda.

“Yeah, not the words a 10-year-old wanted to hear,” she said.

Jamie noticed the loss of structure had an emotional impact on her daughter. She encouraged Miranda to try tennis, but she hated it. She was bored in soccer, even though coaches raved about her defensive toughness and she continued to play until last year, when an ankle injury forced her to quit.

Miranda’s daredevil nature almost demanded she find something more physically challenging.

“Even when I was little, I always said, ‘My middle name is Danger.’ My mom's like, ‘No, it's not. It's Lee.’ And I'm like, ‘It's Danger,’” she said.

“She always said, ‘Danger is my middle name,’” Jamie said. “Maybe (she got it) from my husband (John), it’s definitely not me.”

So Jamie found a gym that taught American Ninja Warrior competitions. Miranda, who takes pride in her upper-body strength and ability to rip off 100 pushups, fell for it quickly.

After recovering from a concussion, she competed in ninja warrior until her sophomore year. She was invited to a junior tournament but couldn’t get medical clearance because of her epilepsy — she and Jamie are both diagnosed with it and can get grand mal seizures, and Miranda gets “flutters” in her eyes when looking into flickering sunlight through trees — despite her protests.

“She’s kind of strong-willed, which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes (not),” said Jamie, who despite her daughter’s injuries or setbacks has always supported her in any sport she takes on.

Needing another physical outlet, Miranda, who is 4-foot-9, started wrestling three years ago when one of her soccer teammates, Braylee Ireland, asked her to try it out.

“I just wanted to get girls on the team,” Ireland said at the Butler tournament. “I didn’t know if she would like it or really what her thoughts would be on it.”

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Miranda lost every wresting match against boys her first season with Knoch as a sophomore.

But she went to wrestling gyms all offseason, many times with Ireland, and kept competing, kept improving. Her junior-year goal was to beat a boy, then to pin one.

She did better than that, going 18-9 while beating multiple male wrestlers before going 13-3 in the girls postseason and finishing third in the PIAA Girls Wrestling Individual Championships at 100 pounds.

“There's different things about both (gymnastics and wrestling), but you have to be very tough to do both, like, mentally and physically, and just never give up,” she said, when asked about what drew her to both sports.

“We’ve had a lot of coaches say gymnastics transfers to wrestlers very well,” Jamie said. “I think it’s the body control.”

In the past year, Miranda’s trajectory has taken off.

She competed in events around the country, including the 2024 Fargo Junior Women’s Freestyle National Championships in July, where she nearly made the podium.

She’s been ranked among the top 20 high school girls wrestlers at 95 pounds in the country and has committed to wrestle at Hastings College (Neb.), one of the top women’s wrestling programs in the nation.

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Miranda was a preseason state championship contender.

But injuries have again cost her.

She suffered a “slap tear” of her labrum at an offseason tournament just before the varsity season began. She had surgery that required four incisions shortly after and finally had her arm removed from the sling days before the Butler tournament. Recovery will take 5-6 months, she said.

Miranda puts on a brave face when discussing all her setbacks, including the recent one that cost her what would have been her only varsity season in Knoch girls wrestling’s first year as a program. But others around her said it’s been tough on her.

“You can see the unhappiness in your daughter,” Jamie said.

She’s instead put her efforts behind supporting her teammates and coaches as a part-time assistant coach, part-time social media manager.

Miranda is at every practice and every meet, offering tips to the boys and girls on Knoch’s rosters who value her feedback and respect the work she’s put in, she said. She takes photos during meets and makes graphics out of them to promote the Knights. The girls like the arm-raised celebration shots, and the boys like the big slams, she’s noticed.

“I have a lot of free time,” Miranda said. “And then I have my mom's camera. So I was like, well, I'll just take some pictures, because I know everyone likes their pictures being taken.

“I'm trying to promote the wrestling at our school, because I know our school is kind of smaller and our wrestling team is on the smaller side, especially for our girls.”

It’s kept her busy, engaged and reinforced a feeling she’s had since she was about 8 years old that she’d one day become a trainer, coach or teacher.

She coaches youth ninja warrior athletes as a part-time job while taking cyber school classes and one day hopes to run her own gym.

“I admire her strength and her willpower because she has always been like, ‘I am gonna do this,’” Jamie said.

The next thing she hopes to do is get back on the mat for another run at Fargo and then her freshman season at Hastings.

“I'm prepared to come back, and I'm really excited for it,” Miranda said. “I'm trying to take the healing process very seriously.”