HURST, Texas _ One year later, 5-foot-1 Mack Beggs wrestles at roughly the same weight, fluctuating between 112 and 117 pounds. His voice is slightly deeper. His wispy mustache is somewhat more pronounced.
His most distinct physical changes, which have nothing to do with the less than 1 milliliter of testosterone he injects each month, are two tattoos on his right arm and one on his left calf.
Entering the last two weeks of his high school career, Euless Trinity transgender senior Beggs knows his priority is defending his state 110-pound girls title. Meanwhile, though, he's weighing a college men's wrestling scholarship offer and awaiting a date for his "top surgery" by a Plano, Texas doctor.
"I know it's going to happen," Beggs, 18, said of the surgery. "But if I stress about it too much, then I'm going to stress about it, so I'm just going with the flow."
Like last year, Beggs is undefeated on the mat (29-0), if not in the arena of public opinion, entering next weekend's Class 6A Region II tournament and, if he advances, the Feb. 23-24 state tournament.
Whatever hurdles await likely won't be more daunting than last February's ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit filed by a wrestling parent and the spectacle of two forfeitures by regional tournament opponents, which ignited national debate about competitive fairness and transgender rights.
This time, as of yet, there are no legal challenges. And win or lose these next two weeks, Beggs will eagerly move forward with life-altering steps in his at-times confusing and painful journey, from Mackenzie to Mack.
He'll leave behind his former haven, Texas high school wrestling, a culture that his mother, Angela McNew, credits for helping rescue him from suicidal thoughts by providing regimented structure and sense of belonging.
"Wrestling," she said, "is the sport where all the kids that don't fit into other sports come to."
Beggs and his family say most of the friendships have endured or strengthened. But when it became public knowledge last February that Mack was taking testosterone as part of his transition, a sizable portion of the wrestling community, mostly strangers, turned on him.
Those conflicting emotions spilled forth the moment Beggs' right hand was raised in victory following last year's title match in Cypress' Berry Center, enveloping him in a mixture of raucous cheers and boos and cold silence.
Nearly a year later, a naturally competitive teenager who says he has on occasion been taunted with homophobic slurs is, not surprisingly, defiant.
"People don't realize that what happened during state, that was really, honestly, nothing," Beggs said. "That didn't stop me from competing. That didn't stop me from being who I was.
"It sure as hell didn't stop me from doing what I wanted to do in the past, and it won't stop me from what I want to do in the future."
