Quinn Nagatani – Freestyling in Fargo

 

Freestyling in Fargo

PBA junior Quinn Nagatani takes 2nd in national wrestling tournament

From the Pacific Buddhist Academy Newsletter

While her Pacific Buddhist Academy (PBA) classmates were beach hopping from Makapu‘u to Sandy’s or hanging out in the mall food court, PBA junior Quinn Nagatani spent her summer training on the wrestling mat.  

Between her Pac-5 training and her participation in Team Hawai’i, a team made up of both private and public high school wrestlers from across the state, this summer Quinn attended as many as three practices in a day. “My schedule was: wake up, eat, go running, and then head over to Team Hawai’i practice,” said Quinn.  “After that I would train at Grapplers HI, which is a club that focuses on wrestling, judo and weight lifting. I had practice seven days a week.”

Last year this soft spoken 102-pound sixteen year old was distinguished as a second team all-conference ILH wrestler, a league-wide recognition awarded by ILH coaches for the quality of play.  She compiled a 22-6 record and finished second in her weight class in the state wrestling tournament.  This year she will lead the Pac-5 varsity girls wrestling team as its captain. 

According to PBA humanities instructor and Pac-5 coach Flynn Corson, “Quinn is perhaps the most committed and diligent young person I have ever had the pleasure to coach, teach, or know. She throws herself whole-heartedly into every endeavor and her involvement is always reflective of her unwavering moral character and natural leadership ability.”

In July, Quinn and several other Pac-5 wrestlers were selected to as members of Team Hawai’i to represent the state in the 2010 Junior Nationals Freestyle Tournament in Fargo, North Dakota.  Freestyle wrestling is a more creative and theatrical form of wrestling than the collegiate style that is practiced at the high school level.  “You get points for how high you lift a person when you slam them,” explained Quinn.  “And how nice a throw looks.” 

Quinn said she initially was unsure whether her style and skills were up to par but once she committed to going, decided she would “train as hard as I could and just leave it on the mat.”

The week before the tournament in Fargo, Quinn and her teammates underwent a regimen of three 2-3 hour practices daily.  In the tournament, Quinn competed among twenty girls in her weight class and won all five of her matches in her  bracket the first day of the tournament.  She lost only once that weekend, in the championship match, and took a solid but disappointing second place in her weight class.

That loss was difficult for Quinn.  “When I lost, I felt crushed,” she recalled.  “I didn’t want to call my dad or Coach Flynn to tell them I’d taken second when I was so close to getting first.”  It was not, however, pride or embarrassment that momentarily weighed heavily on her, but rather, her sense of genuine gratitude and the humility that it brings.  She said she thought about her parents constantly as she trained and during the competition in Fargo.  “When I was super tired and felt like giving up, I’d tell myself, ‘Your mom and dad gave up so much just so you could get here for this tournament. Don’t let them down!’”

Quinn remains undeterred.  She says she will return to Fargo next summer and this wrestling season, will “train smarter,” working on the weakness that she’s identified.  “There is always room for improvement so I can always keep practicing and perfecting.”

(Matside Hawaii) – Quinn made many wrestling fans take notice of her and her improvement when she wrestled Macy Yonamine in the 2010 ILH Championships 103 lb. final. Quinn proved a tough draw for the defending State champion and Quinn only trailed 4-2 into the 3rd period before being caught for a pin.

 

(Matside Hawaii) – Quinn continued her momentum into the 2010 HHSAA State Championships by having a great run and upsetting 2nd seeded BIIF Champion Alexandra Aoki of Konawaena 6-4. Quinn made it all the way to the finals before falling to Macy Yonamine and taking 2nd in the state.

Interviews with Hawaii National Champs

Post-match interviews with our National Champions:

Chow Sisters Share National Title

From the Fargo-Moorhead newspaper:

Given a choice, sisters Mindy and Chrissy Chow would have stood toe-to-toe in the center of the mat and wrestled for the 124-pound title of the USA Wrestling Junior Nationals Women’s Freestyle title.

You can read the complete article here.

Fargo 2010 – Day 13

From Coach John Schmitdke:

The New Jersey state chairman walked up to Archie Randall, women’s head wrestling coach at Oklahoma City College (national power) during the introductions of the finalists for the women’s freestyle competition.  As the girls in each weight class ran up the steps to the raised mat to shake hands with their opponents, the announcer called out their names, states, and weights.

“Alena Somera from Hawai’i – finalist at 98 pounds.”

(The announcer never did seem able to say “Allene”.)

“Quinn Nagatani from Hawai’i – finalist at 102 pounds.”

“Megan Yamaguchi from Hawai’i – finalist at 109 pounds.”

“Mindy Chow from Hawai’i – finalist at 124 pounds.”

“And her younger sister, Chrissy Chow from Hawai’i – finalist at 124 pounds.”

(The announcer got the birth order wrong.)

“Archie,” the New Jersey guy said in his wise guy, East-coast accent, “You’d betta start recruitin’ in Hawai’i, Archie.”

“I know.  I know.” Coach Randall said.  “I’m there in December.  It’s the place to be.”

“You’d betta, Archie.  You’d betta.”

Here’s why: Seven out of eight All Americans.  Three National Champs – Megan, Mindy, and Chrissy.  Two Second Place finishers – Allie and Quinn.  One Bronze medalist – Nikki Taniguchi.  One Fourth Place – Bree Repoza.  And there’s more where those ladies came from.  When Hawai’i ladies compete against mainland girls, their superior athleticism, technique, and commitment are apparent.  More ladies from Hawaii need to make the trip to Fargo to prove to mainland coaches what we already know.

Mindy and Chrissy were declared co-champions without having to wrestle each other.  USAW crowns both siblings if they reach the finals rather than force a family feud.  It has happened several times on the boys’ side.  This was the first time on the girls’ side.  We think that not wrestling in the finals cost one of them the Outstanding Wrestler award; between the two of them they beat 4 Asics All Americans to reach the finals.  Beat them in a dominating fashion.  Not enough of the coaches got to see them wrestle (mostly the chow sisters pinned their opponents so the coaches would have had to be fast in any case) so not enough of the coaches voted for them to be OW.

The celebration of the girls’ successes may have started hours before the competition.  Last night, at close to midnight, the sky over Newman Outdoor Field erupted for almost 15 minutes with spectacular aerial pyrotechnics immediately following a rain-delayed RedHawks’ game (the RedHawks play baseball in the Northern League and the fireworks were courtesy of the Auto Owners).

After the morning celebration at the Fargo Dorm following the competition, we hurried back to the dorms, finished packing, cleaned the rooms and halls, loaded onto the bus, and 4 hours later piled out at the La Quinta Inn on Nicollette Avenue in Bloomington, Minnesota.  After checking in, we reboarded the bus for the short ride to Mall of America where we spent 3 hours wandering, shopping, eating, gawking, and playing followed by 90 minutes of waiting around for the hotel shuttle to get us all back to our rooms.

Tomorrow we eat here, get shuttled to the airport by noon, board Delta 2477 at 2:20 p.m., and fly to Honolulu via LAX where we change to Delta 1149, arriving home at 8:58 p.m.

We come home from the largest wrestling tournament in the world with 9 All Americans!

Fargo 2010 – Day 12

From Coach John Schmitdke:

When we came out of the Fargo Dome at the end of a long day on the mats, a perfect rainbow greeted us with an unbroken arch over the building – a bit of Hawai’i on the northern prairie.

It should look like Hawai’i in North Dakota because Hawai’i wrestlers owned the mats today.

We brought 8 ladies and 7 will take home high medals as All Americans.

That was so much fun; let me write that again.

We brought 8 ladies and 7 will take home high medals as All Americans.

Tomorrow in the medal rounds, we have 5 finalists and 2 going for third.

The stats show just how dominating our ladies performed:

USAW Womens FS Junior Nationals Results for HawaiiWomen-95 – Allene Somera is in the finals.

Match #1 Allene Somera (Hawaii) over Denisa Godfrey (Wyoming) Fall 1:48
Match #2 Allene Somera (Hawaii) over Colleen Miley (Texas) Fall 0:53
Match #3 Allene Somera (Hawaii) received a bye.
Match #4 Allene Somera (Hawaii) over Cassidy Ferrell (Pennsylvania) TF 8-0, 6-0
Match #5 Allene Somera (Hawaii) over Sabrina Handlon (Washington) Fall 0:31

Women-102 – Nicole Taniguchi wrestles for 3rd.
Match #1 Nicole Taniguchi (Hawaii) over Karolyn Sickles (Florida) Fall 0-8,1:08
Match #2 Taylor Zboray (Connecticut) over Nicole Taniguchi (Hawaii) Dec 3-0,2-0
Match #3 Nicole Taniguchi (Hawaii) over Patrica Martin (Michigan) Dec 2-0,1-0
Match #4 Nicole Taniguchi (Hawaii) over Brianna Gedeon (Ohio) Fall 2-2,0:53
Match #5 Nicole Taniguchi (Hawaii) received a bye.
Match #6 Haley Augello (Illinois) over Nicole Taniguchi (Hawaii) TF 6-0,7-0
Match #7 Nicole Taniguchi (Hawaii) over Lauren Richardson (Washington) Fall 0-7,1:44

Women-102 – Quinn Nagatani is in the finals.
Match #1 Quinn Nagatani (Hawaii) over Cierra Snay (Virginia) TF 6-0,6-0
Match #2 Quinn Nagatani (Hawaii) over Ariel Oster (North Dakota) Fall 0:49
Match #3 Quinn Nagatani (Hawaii) over Lillian Salinas (California) Fall 0:48
Match #4 Quinn Nagatani (Hawaii) received a bye.
Match #5 Quinn Nagatani (Hawaii) over Savanna Nobile (Missouri) Fall 0-2,3-4,1:16
Match #6 Quinn Nagatani (Hawaii) over Cheyenne Kemp (Texas) Fall 6-1,1:35
Match #7 Quinn Nagatani (Hawaii) received a bye.

Women-109 – Megan Yamaguchi is in the finals.
Match #1 Megan Yamaguchi (Hawaii) over Rebecca Bommarito (California) TF 6-0,7-1
Match #2 Megan Yamaguchi (Hawaii) over Alex Hollaraugh (Montana) Dec 4-0,5-0
Match #3 Megan Yamaguchi (Hawaii) over Delilah Perez (Texas) Fall 0:19
Match #4 Megan Yamaguchi (Hawaii) over Alex Gomez (California) TF 6-2,6-0
Match #5 Megan Yamaguchi (Hawaii) over Vanessa Vega (Arizona) Dec 6-1,6-0
Match #6 Megan Yamaguchi (Hawaii) received a bye.
Match #7 Megan Yamaguchi (Hawaii) over Vanessa Vega (Arizona) Dec 1-6,0-6
Match #8 Megan Yamaguchi (Hawaii) over Alex Gomez (California) TF 6-2,6-0

Women-116 – Bree Rapoza wrestles for 3rd.
Match #1 Bree Rapoza (Hawaii) received a bye.
Match #2 Kayla Brendlinger (Pennsylvania) over Bree Rapoza (Hawaii) Fall 5-1,0:50
Match #3 Bree Rapoza (Hawaii) over Felicia Cruz (Arizona) Dec 2-2,4-1,7-4
Match #4 Bree Rapoza (Hawaii) over Kalin Knight-Alvarez (California) Fall 3-10,0:43
Match #5 Bree Rapoza (Hawaii) over Tamara Tillman (California) Fall 4-5,0:48
Match #6 Bree Rapoza (Hawaii) over Rachel McFarland (Michigan) Dec 3-4,5-1,3-2
Match #7 Kayla Brendlinger (Pennsylvania) over Bree Rapoza (Hawaii) Fall 5-1,0:50

Women-124 – Mindy Chow is in the finals against her sister.
Match #1 Mindy Chow (Hawaii) over Tanya Kusse (New York) Fall 0-5,1-0,1:27
Match #2 Mindy Chow (Hawaii) over Elsinay Gallindo (Texas) Fall 6-0,0:23
Match #3 Mindy Chow (Hawaii) over Mary Smith (Michigan) Dec 2-0,9-2
Match #4 Mindy Chow (Hawaii) over Tianna Camous (California) Dec 4-0,1-0
Match #5 Mindy Chow (Hawaii) received a bye.
Match #6 Mindy Chow (Hawaii) over Roni Goodale (Iowa) Dec 2-0,3-2
Match #7 Mindy Chow (Hawaii) over Tanya Kusse (New York) Fall 0-5,1-0,1:27

Women-124 – Morgan Yamaguchi’s place is unknown.
Match #1 Alexia Moreno (California) over Morgan Yamaguchi (Hawaii) TF 6-0,6-0
Match #2 Brittney Faust (Pennsylvania) over Morgan Yamaguchi (Hawaii) Dec 4-0,6-0

Women-124 – Chrissy Chow’ is in the finals against her sister.
Match #1 Chrissy Chow (Hawaii) over Natalie Cortez (New York) Fall 0:30
Match #2 Chrissy Chow (Hawaii) over Morgan Bertzyk (Wisconsin) Fall 6-0,0:25
Match #3 Chrissy Chow (Hawaii) over Kat Perez (California) Fall 0:54
Match #4 Chrissy Chow (Hawaii) over Alexia Moreno (California) Fall 3-1,0:17
Match #5 Chrissy Chow (Hawaii) over Brittney Faust (Pennsylvania) Fall 7-0,1:50
Match #6 Chrissy Chow (Hawaii) received a bye.
Match #7 Chrissy Chow (Hawaii) over Kat Perez (California) Fall 0:54

Look at the number of pins we had against top-notch competition.  Our ladies wrestled with confidence, determination, and great skill.  Coach Ku’u and Coach Dany did a wonderful job of preparing our ladies for the nationals.

We can’t wait to go to bed because when we wake up the ladies get to wrestle again.

Fargo 2010 – Day 11

From Coach John Schmidtke:

I love coaching kids in the highest level of competition.  We all do.

The word “coach” derives from the horse drawn carriages that transported people from one place to another.  In the early 1800s it was used for an academic tutor – slang for someone who “carried” a student through an exam.  In the 1860s it started to be applied to athletics.  That makes good sense; a coach is someone who takes an athlete from where he or she is now to where he or she wants to be in the future.

Coaching involves trust on multiple levels.  Parents trust the coach to develop their child into a good wrestler and, more importantly, a good person who learns to lead a good life through the lessons taught by wrestling.  They entrust their sons and daughters to the coach in the hope that the athlete will learn the value of hard work in the pursuit of a worthy goal.  They hope the athlete will learn to win with grace and lose with dignity (most hope for more lessons in grace than in dignity).

The athlete entrusts the coach with his or her dreams of athletic success.  The athlete trusts the coach to be technically competent and tactically attuned, armed with a plan for success on the mat.

The coach trusts the athlete to take what the coach knows of the sport and to try his or her hardest to turn that knowledge into success.  Success, in the shallowest but also the most powerful sense, shows up as a place on the medal stand.   It is powerful because an athlete on the medal stand is tangible proof that the coaches’ lessons were learned.

As coaches, we invest so much time and emotion into helping our athletes achieve success that when an athlete’s run at the medal stand ends, a hollowness paradoxically fills the void where the dreams used to be.  And it is always a surprise when that happens.

So in the morning session, when Cassidy Oshiro lost to Anthony Ashnault from New Jersey to exit the tournament one match short of being a double All American, it seemed to be a mistake.  Surely his impressive run at the medal stand couldn’t be over.  But it suddenly was.

And then our Junior freestyle team went down, wrestler after wrestler – Ryan, Brady, and Todd all going 1-2; Christian, Sean, David Arcangel, Nalu, Kevin, Evan, and Marcus all going 0-2 – each coming close to advancing by another round but each falling short early in the tournament, until only David Terao remained at 119, with a bevy of under-employed coaches in his corner, but he remained only until the fifth round, when Hunter Weber of Wisconsin handed him his second loss (2-1, 1-1).  David finished 3-2.

What to do when you’re done?  The kids went to eat ice cream.  Some coaches stayed to watch the wrestling.  Some went to meetings.  Some went to take naps.  I walked to the Bison Arena to watch, just for a minute, Coach Ku’u leading a weight-making practice for the ladies (weigh in tomorrow morning) and then headed to the Dining Facility for some truly terrible taco casserole topped with runny salsa – food imitating life.  At 9:15 p.m. I joined Coach Dany and our eight ladies in the basement meeting room of their dorm for 25 minutes of relaxation, imagery, and visualization.  The ladies seem completely ready for their tournament – physically, technically, and mentally. 

I came away from the visualization session refreshed and tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. I get another chance to coach athletes who are pursuing their dreams and mine.

Fargo 2010 – Day 10

From Coach John Schmidtke:

This tournament is tough.

I have a friend whose son earned All American honors last year as a first-year Cadet.  He came to Fargo this year expecting to challenge for the Cadet title.  He went 0-2.

Around the middle of the day, I stood at the railing watching one of Chanse’s matches and overheard legendary New York coach, Joe DeMeo, talking with a group of veteran coaches.  He said, “There are so many great wrestlers who come out here and go 1-2, 3-2, and are done.  I mean GREAT wrestlers.  It’s hard for even great ones to be good here.”  The other coaches nodded.

On day one of the Cadet freestyle tournament Bryant Fukushima went 1-2.  Bobby Kim went 1-2.  Keanu Richardson went 0-2.  Bubba Grace-Reyes went 1-2.  Chanse Uyeda went 2-2.  LJ Remillard 0-2 (with a brutal draw).  They are better wrestlers because they took the challenge to compete against the nation’s best.

Small things happen to lighten up our tense days.  Bobby Kim absolutely destroyed his opponent in the first period of his last match, winning the period 9-2.  He could do no wrong and his opponent spent much of the period on his back.  In between periods Bobby stood in the corner and I toweled off his shoulders while John Robinson gave him tactical advice and encouragement.

“Keep it up!  You’re lookin’ good!”  John said.

Bobby looked at him like he was nuts, thought for a second, trying to process what John had just said, and then asked, “Did I win that period?”

“Yeah!  Keep it up!”  John said but he looked down to keep from laughing.

And then there is Cassidy Oshiro who battled through 5 straight opponents – Missouri, Utah, California, North Dakota, and Illinois – before losing to the Greco national champ from Michigan on Mat 1 (the elevated mat) in one of the last matches of the day.  Throughout the day, Cassidy found ways to win.  At critical times in different matches, needing big scores to stay alive, he hit a duck to a body lock with a 5-point suplex finish, he threw a lat-whip for 3, and he laced a surprise standing Merkle for 3.

This morning Cassidy faces the New Jersey boy he lost to in the medal match of the Greco tournament.  Cassidy has to win to reach the medal rounds in freestyle.

Imagine that.  He’s 5-1 and he still needs a win against another All American in order to medal.  His brother, Coach Brandon, woke me up last night so we could watch the video of Cassidy’s Greco medal match against New Jersey.  Cassidy’s dad had driven from his hotel to the dorms with the camera so we could have the video.  Brandon had already watched the match before he woke me up and he had already noted the New Jersey kid’s tendencies.  New Jersey is a tall, lanky kid with a left leg lead and a suffocating Russian tie on his opponent’s right arm.  His gut wrenches all go right but knowing which way they go doesn’t make them any less painful or any less hard to defend.  Cassidy threw him in the medal match (the refs said it was after the buzzer but the video seems to show otherwise) and so we know it can be done.

Cassidy and the Junior freestyle team are at the dome weighing in this morning.  Wrestling starts in a few hours.

Collateral News: 

Sitting in the Dining Hall, you can tell who has been eliminated by what they choose to load on their plate.  Out-of-control portions correlate directly with two losses.  This is especially so around the soft-serve ice cream machine.  The irresistible dessert tempts the coaches, too.  Coach Oney, the team’s diet guru and a healthy-eating fanatic, finishes every dinner with a bowl of soft-serve swirl topped with chocolate and caramel syrup and a large spoonful of peanut butter.  He says the soft-serve is low fat so it can be eaten guilt-free.  I’m a believer.

Fargo 2010 – Day 9

From Coach John Schmitdke:

Marcus Finau  All American from Hawaii at 189 pounds. 

That sounds good.  It should, Marcus battled to earn that title.  He worked hard in the practice room, taking on the adult coaches to train his body to handle the rigors of a two-day tournament filled with tough matches and little rest between each one. 

On Tuesday he continued his winning ways and advanced into pool play against wrestlers from Indiana and Illinois.  In pool play the wrestlers compete in a round robin to see who will vie for first, third, fifth, and seventh in the medal matches.  One wrestler in Marcus bracket already had too many losses to finish in the top three so the last three standing wrestled each other.  Marcus dominated Indiana but lost to a beast from Illinois.  The Indiana kid then pinned the Illinois kid leaving each man in the round robin with a 1  1 record.  When the head-to-head matches are even, they use criteria to decide the finish and Indiana, by virtue of his pin, had the most points.  He advanced to the finals while Marcus advanced to the Bronze medal match.

The Fargo Dome is really a pit, dug in the rich, black, prairie earth and capped with a rectangular arched roof.  Fargo Pit probably didn’t strike the city elders as moniker of choice; better to call it something it isn’t than to risk ridicule.  The floor of the pit is a football field  home of the North Dakota State University Bison who won many national championships when they played their games outdoors in the brutal cold and wind but now play without championship banners before warm and happy fans.

On the floor of the pit, which is the football field, are 23 mats.  Mat 1 sits on a 40′  platform on the 50-yard line, and the other 22 mats cover the rest of the field, 11 on each side.  Remember that the Hawaii State tournament only has 6 mats going.  The pit is 120 yards of wrestling mats  back of the end zone to back of the end zone.  Imagine sitting in Aloha Stadium at about the 20-yard marker on the mauka-ewa side (where the rowdy UH students get egged on by the cheer leaders).  That gives you an idea where in the pit the Bronze medal mat sits.  There, under the spotlights in the otherwise darkened arena, Marcus lost a very physical third-place match to a powerful wrestler from South Dakota.

Todd Murakawa, the only other Junior Greco Roman wrestler from Hawaii to make it to Day 2, started the morning session undefeated but lost a squeaker to an Idaho wrestler and the met a buzz saw from Florida to be eliminated with two losses, one win short of All American status.

Our other wrestlers focused on weight loss and technique during their two practices at the Bison Arena on the south side of the street, across from the Fargo Dome.

Day 10 starts the Cadet Freestyle tournament.  Coach Oney has the Cadets at the Dome for weigh ins as I write.

Finau Wrestling for 3rd at Greco Nationals

Marcus Finau (Damien ’10 & current State Champion at 215) will be wrestling for third place this evening at the 2010 USAW Junior Greco-Roman Nationals. Finishing his bracket at 7-1, he’ll be wrestling Jayd Docken of South Dakota for the bronze medal.

Fargo 2010 Day 8 (Monday)

From Coach John Schmidtke

As the oldest coach on the staff, with no personal knowledge of popular music since CDs replaced cassettes (I still play LPs on my turntable), all I could think of while watching our talented and hard working Junior Greco Roman wrestlers lose close matches and exit the tournament unexpectedly, was the 1966 song by The Mamas and The Papas:

Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day,
Monday, Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way
Oh Monday morning, you gave me no warning of what was to be 

We had high expectations but low results at the Junior Greco Roman level, with the exception of Todd Murakawa (125) and Marcus Finau (189).  Todd is 4-0 after day one.  He’s wrestling confidently and explosively.  In his last match he hit miraculous arm throws at the end of both the first and the second periods to beat a talented kid who suddenly went from winning to counting lights in an unexpected second.  Marcus is 3-1, throwing around 189-pounders with powerful reverse gut wrenches that snatch them off the mat and send them heels-over-head (does head-over-heels really make any sense?) for 3 points a toss.

The early afternoon excitement was watching Cassidy Oshiro finish 6th in the nation at 105 as a Cadet.  The only difference between Cassidy and the wrestlers above him on the podium is experience.  Opposing coaches drool over his raw talent.  He celebrated his success by going for a training run around the NDSU campus while his opponents gorged on soft-serve low-fat ice milk drenched in chocolate sauce at the Dining Facility.  We’ll see whose post-tournament choice pays off best when the freestyle competition starts the day after tomorrow.

We experienced a scare when Sean Tachibana earned some frequent flyer miles and landed awkwardly as the unwilling participant in a five point belly-to-back suplex.  Its a classic Greco Roman technique that’s scary to have done to you but even scarier to watch.  He’ll rest his sore neck between now and the freestyle weigh-in.

Tomorrow, between Greco sessions at which they will be cheering on Todd and Marcus, everyone else from our two Greco teams will become freestylers, relearning the pleasures of leg attacks.  Meanwhile, the ladies continue their 2-a-day practices with Coaches K’u and Dany smiling as the moves become more fluid and automatic.

Next Page »