Miranda Stewart Hess Jr. is an enrolled tribal member of the Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley. Along with being Paiute, Miranda is also Yaqui and Apache. Miranda is the only daughter in her family; she has four older brothers and three younger brothers. Miranda feels fortunate that she is from a big family that loves sports. Her father Brandon Hess and mother Miranda Stewart Hess Sr. were athletes and became coaches to her and her siblings; all seven of her brothers are also athletes. Miranda competes in sports year round and currently participates in wrestling, Brazilian jiu jitsu, boxing, kick boxing, muay thai and MMA.

Miranda has been wrestling since age four and is a five time state wrestling champion; two time champion in South Dakota and three time champion in New Mexico. Miranda also earned the championship title in four national wrestling tournaments. Miranda received the coveted honor of New Mexico Youth Wrestler of the Year 2024 award, and finished her 2024 season undefeated. Miranda is very proud to have had articles written about her athletic accomplishments and was interviewed by the local news. During her segment Miranda was chosen to represent Women’s History Month and the fastest growing high school sport in the
country which currently is women’s wrestling. Miranda is a huge promoter of girls joining wrestling and encourages everyone she can to try wrestling out.

Miranda was a pioneer of the sport in her early career and was the only girl on her team from 2013-2017 in South Dakota. Girls wrestling was virtually unheard of when Miranda first started, so she mainly wrestled boys.

Miranda continues to wrestle at the high school level and recently earned a spot on the V. Sue Cleveland varsity team as a freshman.

Miranda’s goals are to be a four time state high school champion, wrestle for the University of Iowa, become an Olympic wrestler and join the UFC.