Judo wrestling wunderkind wins third straight world title, looks to win Port Chester's 1st ever state championship
August 21, 2024 at 11:03 p.m.
Winning a world championship doesn't happen every day, more likely once in a blue moon if dreams really come true, and rarely if ever does the same person win an international title three years in a row. But that’s what a Port Chester jiu jitsu wunderkind just did albeit this time around with blue hair.
Which is to say that rising Lady Rams freshman Laila Builes won her third consecutive IBJJF (International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation) World Championship July 26 at the Silver Springs Sporting Arena in Kissimmee, Fla., near Disney World.
What is even more impressive is that she more than lived up to her "Killa Bee" nickname.
Because she won her quarter, semi and final age and weight group matches in less than five minutes total, taking her quarterfinal match in 20 seconds, the semis in 90 seconds and the finals in 2:37.
And she did it with a new flair as she had blue braids woven into her hair for the occasion.
Titles keep coming fast
It was the latest title for the 98-pound, just out of braces, 4:11 barely out of her tweens wrestler who has already won world, Pan American, North American, Ironman, Athena, Gi and No Gi Jiu Jitsu age and weight group championships against all comers, boys as well as girls.
And she has already made the All-League Team while wrestling for the Port Chester varsity Rams last year as a Middle Schooler grappling against the varsity boys in her weight class category, finishing 7-4 on the season despite injuring her right shoulder in the Divisional Championships and nonetheless qualifying for the Sectional Championships.
As a tune-up for the recent worlds, Builes won a "War on the Shore" New Jersey Shore title for the Rams wrestling varsity in Wildwood, an off-season tournament. Port Chester head coach Joe Facciola entered his team in that Jersey tourney to get a look at the kind of talent he will have returning this year and predicts that even as a freshman, Laila will be one of his big guns.
Wants to make history
In describing her latest world championship, Builes simply and not so simply said she always started off slowly waiting until she found her rhythm as the adrenaline built and then when she felt the time was right, she went all out, letting it all hang out, trusting to her training and conditioning and determination to leave everything she had in the ring so she could win.
"It's a formula that has been working so far," she said.
And then some.
Laila Builes won her third consecutive Pan Kids IBJJF World Championship July 26 in Kissimmee, Fla.Courtesy of Dana Builes
Because she has gone 52-1 in top tier jiu jitsu competition to date. And she won't rest until she has done what no other Port Chester girl has ever done before—win an ultra-competitive Sectional wrestling championship against all comers, win the school's first ever individual state championship, help establish Port Chester's first all-girl wrestling team and become the first girl in Port Chester history to win a Division 1 collegiate wrestling championship—something virtually unheard of—when she graduates from high school.
She knows that isn't just going to happen. And she knows how hard she must work to do so.
But she knows she has the right kind of coach to make that happen in Joe Facciola, a former Ram light heavyweight champion back in the day. She knows she is wrestling in the right kind of high school program. And she knows Facciola will train her to the max so she can compete against the area's best boys as well as girls.
Willing to do what it takes
To be able to compete at that championship level, Builes is willing to work out seven days a week in season and out.
To do that, she needs lots of support from her family as well as her team and her coaches.
She certainly gets that from Facciola and the Rams. And she gets that from her mom and dad who have built a home gym so Laila can work out whenever she wants, something she has been doing all summer to get ready for the jiu jitsu world championships as well as the upcoming school year. Working hard to excel is something she has been doing for almost as long as she can remember, just as her parents have taken turns selflessly driving her to her various matches and training centers for years.
Those memories date back to when she was seven when she started wrestling locally. It was purely by chance that Laila wound up at Port Chester's Jiu Jitsu Mill, a state-of-the-art training facility where they offer coaching in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Submission Grappling (a faster paced and more aggressive form of judo), Fitness Kickboxing, Technical Muay Thai (boxing and clinching techniques) and MMA (mixed martial arts). At first Laila only went along because her brother Logan was working out at the Mill at the suggestion of her parents who thought he would profit from the discipline of the various grappling sports taught there. But Laila quickly discovered she liked working on the various disciplines and began showing real talent—so much so that her parents Erik (an electrician and a former Rams football player) and Dana (an accountant, a graduate of SUNY Oswego and a former Lady Rams softball player) began looking for more advanced training for their burgeoning wrestling prodigy.
The beat goes on
That led to their finding Essential Jiu Jitsu of White Plains (a world class training environment run by Jonathan (JT) Torres, a third degree black belt and one of America's best known JJ competitors and teachers who has medaled at the highest level as a world champion who has also won titles on the Asian, Pan Am and American level), the Cordoba Trained Wrestling Club of Fairfield, N.J., (Dave Cordoba is a former New Jersey state champion, an All-American collegiate coach, and a master teacher who has produced state and national champions) and the Zombie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Weekend Training Camp in Allentown, Pa. (where Chino Velez, a longtime world championship competitor and BJJ back belt trains and teaches regularly in a program that incorporates techniques from various combat sports from around the world).
That kind of advanced training led to Laila starting to enter and win various national and international competitions. Which made it especially disappointing when the high school medical staff turned her down as a candidate for the varsity wrestling team. Despite her record. And despite Facciola and his assistants thinking she was ready to wrestle as a Ram as a seventh-grader who had already won international competitions. It was a decision the Builes family appealed all the way up to the superintendent of schools. But the Board of Education officials decided that at 90 pounds at that time, Laila was too light to compete and could be hurt, so they turned her down for her own safety. Laila wouldn't take no for a final answer and decided to put on the weight and come back the next year. As an eighth-grader in the Middle School she was finally cleared to compete last year.
In addition to being an honors student, playing the bass clarinet in the school band and singing in the Middle School classical and pop choirs, she continued to train in the mixed martial arts in locales as far away as Allentown, Pa., and Fairlawn, N.J., and as near as White Plains and Port Chester. All this was going on while she was also practicing, competing and winning as a varsity wrestling Ram while continuing to win jiu jitsu titles in places ranging from Orlando to Las Vegas.
Cuts back on road ahead
It was hard. But somehow it all worked out. Now she has cut back her training time allotment to where she limits her jiu jitsu practices to once-a-week training sessions in Port Chester and New Jersey and practices on her own around 12 hours per week. The rest of the time she works on her wrestling. And thinks she will have to cut out band and choir this year because it will interfere with her Rams varsity wrestling schedule.
Her cutback reasoning makes sense. "I want to be a Sectional wrestling champion this year for Port Chester," she said. "I also want to win Port Chester's first ever state championship before I graduate. And I want to keep winning jiu jitsu titles. I know how hard I have worked to get here. And how much attention I have paid to the details that got me here. I know I am ready and well prepared for whatever happens. And so I just do what I do, what I have trained to do, what I know I can do. I know I have coaches in my corner who believe in me. My parents believe in me. My team and school believe in me. And I believe in me."
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