It’s not every day that you wrestle a girl from Ukraine,” said Matt Kocher. However, that’s exactly what Isla Silva did, losing the match but earning a bronze medal. Silva, 15, a Mt. Lebanon High School sophomore, competed in the 2026 Under 17 (U17) World Wrestling Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan. Yet it’s just the latest of her many accomplishments.

Kocher has been Silva’s coach since she started wrestling at age 6 and in the past decade has seen her compete against boys, travel to and win national tournaments, and in 2024, win the Pan Am Games.

Silva’s journey to Azerbaijan began in Spokane, Washington, in April, where she was one of only four girls in the country who competed in both the U15 and U17 events in the 49kg (approximately 108 lbs.) weight class. Kocher said she won 11 matches that weekend, five in the U15 and six in the U17. U17 is the first world level competition, and that led to Azerbaijan. ”Making the team is very special, it’s the equivalent of making the Olympic team,” he said.

In going to Azerbaijan, Silva, Forest Glen Drive, commented, ”I thought it was really cool, I had never been to Asia. It was a 20-hour plane ride, from Pittsburgh to Chicago to Frankfurt to Baku.” Silva was accompanied by her parents and Kocher and a second coach. Her father, Jamie, admitted, ”We had no clue what to expect. We arrived in the middle of the night. The team had a bus that took them to athletes’ quarters. We asked the Uber driver the country’s main sport, and he said it’s wrestling.”

Of the competition, Isla said, ”I wrestled three matches. I lost to Ukraine, then wrestled against Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.” Kocher further explained that she was losing the bronze match, then pinned the girl from Kyrgyzstan with about a minute left. ”She went low and got it; it couldn’t have been much more of an exciting way to win her first bronze medal.”

Isla competed in Azerbaijan, a country she confessed she had never heard of, but now they’ve heard of her. Jamie said. ”When she won the bronze and was walking through the arena, little kids were coming up asking for pictures. It was almost like celebrity status.”

Kocher said Silva starting to wrestle at such a young age wasn’t unusual, and he could see her potential even at that time. ”We offer wrestling for 6-year-olds, and she’s always been very athletically gifted. Initially, I knew she was going to be good at something but I just didn’t know at what. She excelled at basketball, soccer, football — basically every sport. Selfishly, from my standpoint, I was hoping she would choose wrestling.”

Silva said, ”My coach has been my coach forever. He’s really nice and really knows the sport, he’s very encouraging.”

However, wrestling wasn’t Silva’s first choice. ”I wanted to play football,” she said, ”but there was a wrestling camp going on so my parents signed me up for that.”

Sports is a huge part of the Silva family’s life. Theresa, Isla’s mom, is  one  of eight siblings who grew up in Mt. Lebanon, and all played sports. Jamie played safety for the Indianapolis Colts for two seasons before an injury ended his career. He said, ”We kept driving by the football field and Isla would say, ‘I want to play.’ We thought that was fine, but then we saw a sign that said to sign up for wrestling and see if you like it.

”We got very fortunate. The guy running it was Matt Kocher. He was an All-American in college and had just left his job coaching at Pitt. So she started getting world-class-level coaching, from somebody that cares, from the start.”

Kocher reflected on that time, saying, ”To think back to that first day when it was just me helping her tie her shoes, and now she’s out carrying the American flag.”

Did her parents expect such results when she first started wrestling? ”Yeah, sure,” Jamie said. ”When she was young we saw she was driven and committed, she’s naturally very athletic and  works very hard.”

Kocher, who also owns South Hills Wrestling Academy in Bethel Park, added, ”Wrestling offered a unique outlet for her. Being a one-on-one sport, you’re not relying on a team, you’re not relying on anybody, so there are no excuses; self-accountability is the part she really thrived with.”

He said her work ethic has increased as she’s matured. ”She always wanted to be the hardest worker in the room. It comes from her family who is very supportive.” Isla, too, said that through the years, ”I’ve gained more confidence in my abilities and my work ethic.”

Kocher said Isla’s main goal is the 2032 Olympics. ”That is the path she’s on,” he said, pointing out that she is too young by one year to try out for 2028.

Can she make it? As Jamie said, ”Somebody has to have that spot on the team, why can’t it be Isla?”