2010 Excel Wrestling Summer Camp – Matside Coverage

The 2010 Excel Wrestling Summer Training Camp was held on July 1 (Thursday) through July 3 (Saturday) at Punahou School in the Intermediate wrestling room (Forrest Hall).

The camp was run by Excel Wrestling’s Executive Director and Head Coach, Steve Knight. Coach Knight was an NCAA All American and Big 12 Champion for Iowa State before becoming an assistant coach at ISU and training for the 1992 Olympics. He won the Pan American Championships in 1992 defeating the Cuban Olympic Bronze medallist and travelled as an alternate/training partner to the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. He has been a member of 2 US Olympic Freestyle Wrestling Coaching Staffs and has worked with USA Wrestling on the Senior Olympic Level for many years.

Accompanying Coach Knight were his sons, Evan, a two-time Iowa Class 3A state champion who will be attending Cornell on a wrestling scholarship, as well as Colby, who just finished his Freshman year at Urbandale High School by taking the runner-up spot at 103 lbs. in the 2010 Iowa Class 3A State Championships.

There were many notable wrestlers there as most of the Team Hawaii contingent attended. However, all of the wrestlers who attended took away from the camp excellent tutelage and coaching by Coach Knight, additional guidance from the local coaches who attended, drilling & live work with other wrestlers, comraderie, and just an overall great wrestling experience.

Sister act brings home national titles

Sisters Teshya and Teniya Alo, of Honolulu, each won titles in the Girls Folkstyle National Wrestling Championships in Oklahoma City in late March.

The event also featured Kalani High’s Yamaguchi sisters, Megan and Morgan, who competed in the high school division. Megan is the state wrestling champion in the 114-pound division, and Morgan was state runner-up at 130 pounds.

Teshya, 12, won all her matches in the 89-pound division by pins, including the championship in which she beat Katie Agey at 2:04.

Teniya, 11, won the 61-64-pound division, beating Gianna Maraccini of Team Nevada.

Megan, 17, took fourth in the 116-pound division, falling to Stacy Martin of Frisco, Texas (Frisco Bombers) by decision in the third-place match.

Morgan, 15, lost by fall to Kayla Bartosch, of Triangle, Va. for sixth place in the 123-pound division.

Source: The Honolulu Advertiser

The Alo sisters, Teniya, left front, and Teshya, right, won titles at a folkstyle national wrestling tournament. Another sister act, Morgan Yamaguchi, left, and Megan, also placed. The coach is John Robinson.

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2010 Brute Adidas Nationals – Results

The 2010 Brute Adidas Nationals were held on April 2-4 at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The annual event drew nearly 1,500 wrestlers in grades 1 through 12.  Punahou School sent a team of wrestlers to compete.  Wrestlers who placed 8th or higher won an award and a Brute All-American certificate.  The wrestlers compete in the folkstyle format and by grade level.

The following results are the Punahou wrestlers who placed.  Todd Murakawa (133 lbs/10th Grade) and Christian Agmata (125 lbs/8th Grade) competed but did not place.

98 Lbs (7th Grade):

1st: JUSTIN ACUFF Sheridan

2nd: DEREK DENGERUD NLS

3rd: WILLY DIECKMANN East Kansas Wrestlin

4th: LUCAS LOVVORN JCWC

5th: LUKE KLINGENSMITH Woodbury Central

6th: SKYLER HASTINGS West Central

7th: JOSH CRIMMINS Punahou

8th: JOSH METTLER West Central

133 Lbs (8th Grade):

1st: TYLER MCNUTT St. Joe. Metro

2nd: DUSTIN PINDEL Orland Park Pioneers

3rd: CHRISTIAN FRAME Goddard Wrestling Cl

4th: DAKOTA ROTHELL calvary

5th: TYLER NORDLUND Lincoln Patriots

6th: COLTON CLAYBORN Augusta Wrestling Cl

7th: WILLIAM “MAKANA” VALDEZ Punahou School

8th: ADDIE LANNING Mac Wrestling Club

192 Lbs (9th Grade):

1st: NICK COBB Best Trained

2nd: NATHAN BUTLER Leavenworth County S

3rd: JUSTIN HICKS POLO

4th: NATHAN STANLEY Jr Vikings – Seaman

5th: SHANNON MECK Thunderbird Wrestlin

6th: AUSTIN HUBBLE RACWC

7th: TY LAFRAMBOISE Norwood

8th: KORY JOHNSON Punahou School

122 Lbs (10th Grade):

1st: TIMOTHY PRESCOTT Mcpherson high

2nd: DMITRY LOFTIS Ozark Tigers

3rd: BRYANT FUKUSHIMA Punahou School

4th: GIDEON VAN HOOK Reitz High School

5th: CODY WHITNEY Mille Lacs

6th: JUAN ARROYAVE Florida Jets

7th: KENNY GULLEY atchison

8th: JARED KINLEY Worthington

174 Lbs (11th Grade):

1st: BLAKE STAUFFER Neosho

2nd: EVAN JOHNSON Punahou School

3rd: BROCK ST. LOUIS Victory

4th: PATRICK SHEEHAN Punahou School

5th: MICHAEL GARCIA Florida Jets

6th: LEE WILDES Florida Jets

7th: LUKE MYRABO Canton High School

8th: ALEX MCLEAN Hillsboro HS

Source: Intermatwrestle.com

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The Greatest Sport of All

One of the greatest stories I have ever read about wrestling.

The Greatest Sport of All

Author Unknown

“Mom, can I go out for wrestling?”

Myles had just started his freshman year of high school.  It was a time that should be spent making adjustments to a new school, new friends, and new academic challenges, not diving headfirst into a sport that he had never tried before in his life.  We had already discussed him trying out for the baseball team, a sport that he avidly played since he was 6-years-old.  But wrestling?  I didn’t even know they had such a thing in high school.  I mean, was that even a sport?  I had seen Hulk Hogan on TV a couple of times wrestling and it looked more like entertainment than a sport.  Not wanting to be the source of encouragement for what I felt was a waste of time, I told Myles to ask his dad.  Little did I know that many of my husband’s high school friends wrestled and he quickly gave Myles his approval.  I demanded that my husband explain in detail what Myles was getting himself into.  After a half-hour of enlightenment from his mouth, I took a deep breath and came to the realization that I had no clue what he was talking about.

Soon after, the season started.  Since I was the one that would be picking him up daily from practice, I took it upon myself to witness firsthand what this was all about and attend the practices.  There were aspects of the sport that grabbed my attention immediately.  First and foremost, there were no tryouts.  The head coach said that anyone who was willing to put in the work and attend the practices was considered a part of the team.  This “everyone is welcome” mantra was a welcome reprieve for me or any parent who has been absolutely heartbroken witnessing their child give their all but end up being not quite good enough to be accepted.

The first two weeks of practice was all about conditioning and it was something that I had never seen before.  The conditioning that Myles did for baseball?  Times that by one hundred and you’ll begin to understand.  I saw many wrestlers throw up, barely able to stand, and near passing out.  During those two weeks, once Myles hit the car seat, he was passed out from sheer exhaustion.  But as the conditioning continued, I could see the improvement in the wrestlers and it made me wonder if there was any other sport in the school that was as demanding from a conditioning standpoint.  The team did most of their conditioning on or near the track, within earshot of the cross country team, and it sure seemed to me that the wrestlers did more of the running.  But what was all the conditioning for?

Next came the weight monitoring… an aspect of the sport that took me a while to comprehend.  I understood about wrestling in specific weight classes to make it fairer for everyone, but low weight?  Hydration?  Body fat calipers?  Was this a sport or a science class?  And then came the repeated lectures from the coaches about nutrition and proper eating to help the wrestlers attain and maintain their weight goals.  Having someone else get after Myles about eating healthier besides hearing it constantly from his mom?  This was turning out to be the greatest sport in the world!  At the same time, it made me wish that there was a wrestling club for 40-year-old and over women.  Lord knows many of us have weight goals that never see the light of day.

Once the practices moved to the wrestling room on the mats, I began to truly see and understand the sport in all its raw glory.  It shocked me what a physical sport it actually was.  All you needed was to add in punches and it would have been a full-on brawl.  All you needed was a helmet and sword, and it could have been likened to Roman gladiators fighting to the death in the Coliseum.  I cringed when I saw Myles get picked up and slammed to the mat.  I worried that he would get his knee blown out when he got taken down.  My motherly instincts made me want to grab him off the mat, leave, and never come back.  But after the first week of practices, I began to realize that it was not all about physicality and brawn, but rather there was a technical aspect that made the wrestlers tap into their intellect.  I actually began to understand what a mills, wizard, and high crotch was.  And I also began to understand what the conditioning was for.  It is a very physically demanding sport and many wrestlers gassed out after a couple of minutes during that first week on the mats.

I met Jessie by chance during conditioning as she saw me standing on the side and introduced herself to me.  I thought she was such a sweet girl.  I wished Myles would meet someone like her and form a relationship, but I wondered what she was doing in wrestling.  Jessie said she had been competing in wrestling since the 7th grade and that she loved it.  I thought that was so sweet and that the girls must practice on their own and have a fun time doing girly type wrestling.  Therefore, I almost fainted when I saw Jessie on the mat pairing up with a boy and showing a physicality and intensity that I could not believe.  And the same went for the other twelve girls on the team.  Sure, they competed against other girls in actual competition, but in practice, they were as much a part of the team as any boy out there.  New wrestlers, like Myles, had to learn real fast to get over any shyness or apprehension with girls or else they would be on their back in a second!  But this integration of boys and girls truly made the team… a team.  As much as there was an individual aspect in wrestling, there was also the team aspect.  Each wrestler’s individual goals ultimately ended up contributing to the team goals.  They were all brothers and sisters going to battle and to support each other.  For all the teams Myles has been on before, this was the closest thing to a family that he had ever experienced.

I had begun to become very comfortable and understanding of wrestling as a sport, and I was happy to see that my son felt acceptance in a new endeavor.  There were some kids who dropped out during the conditioning phase, but Myles stuck it out and he loved the sport now.  The one thing that worried me was how this would affect Myles’ studies.  After all, doing well in school was really all that mattered to my husband and I, and Myles had a rough period in 8th grade where his grades slipped.  With wrestling being so early in the school year and not getting home until 7:30 at night on a daily basis, it made me think that maybe wrestling would have to go if he was unable to keep up and do well in his studies.  But to my surprise, Myles not only kept up, he began to do exceptionally well, even getting written praise from a couple of teachers.  It turns out that no matter how exhausted Myles was every night, wrestling began to teach him about focus… being able to focus on a goal and reach it, no matter what it took or how hard it was.  This had become ingrained in his mindset since it took a tremendous amount of focus just to get through wrestling practice every day.

Soon, the meets and tournaments started.  It was hard for me as a mom to watch my son being overpowered at times.  That first year was tough for Myles as he lost more matches than he won, but he never stopped loving the sport.  Despite this, there were non-competitive aspects of the meets and tournaments that I had grown to love and admire.  The tournaments often lasted the entire day and while this may seem tiring, it was a great excuse for us to be together as a family and spend time together, and that included Myles’ older sister.  As the kids got older, it became harder for us to spend time together with everyone often doing their own thing or going their own way, busy in the game of life.  The tournaments allowed us to talk to one another and even with Myles, in between his matches.  It also allowed us to become great friends with other parents on the team and even parents from competing teams.  And I could not believe the outstanding support that the wrestlers got from the local wrestling community… a very close knit group that often feels that their sport does not get the recognition that it deserves.  And one ritual that touched me the first time I saw it, occurred after the matches were completed.  Everyone is expected to help out with the putting away of the mats and cleaning the facility, and it is quite a sight to see stars, starters, non-starters, coaches, and parents from all the teams coming together to accomplish a goal.  It teaches the wrestlers about humility, teamwork, and camaraderie.

As the season went on, I myself had begun to understand my son’s love for the sport, and I loved it as well.  And I began to realize that wrestling possibly unknowingly teaches the wrestlers about life lessons that they can take with them for the rest of their lives.  It teaches them about sacrifice when it comes to their nutrition and eating habits during the season and in the off-season.  It teaches them about sportsmanship and respect in regards to the sport, and the competitors and coaches.  It teaches them about humility, as it is a very rare occurrence that a wrestler goes through their entire high school career undefeated; therefore, they will experience defeat and must learn how to overcome it.  It teaches them about being mentally strong as conditioning and technique can only take you so far.  It teaches them about continually striving to better yourself despite your successes.  It teaches them about overcoming obstacles as they have to overcome pain, exhaustion, mental blocks, defeat, and a myriad of other obstacles.  It teaches them about teamwork and how their individual results affect the team.  It teaches them about emotions, learning to control it on the mat and express it in a positive manner off the mat.  It teaches them to learn how to deal with the highs and lows in life, from the sheer joy of victory to the heartbreak of defeat.  It teaches them about focus, the focus in preparation for a match and during it.  It teaches them about intensity, hard work, and responsibility, not only in their wrestling but in their studies as well.  And it teaches them about unconditional support, tough love, and caring for others as they experience it on a daily basis from their coaches.

That first year of wrestling for Myles was over fifteen years ago.  During his high school years, he loved wrestling so much that he did not even try out for baseball.  By the time his senior year concluded, he ended up placing third in the state at 140 pounds and the boys team took home the state championship.  It was quite an accomplishment for everyone involved with their wrestling program and we were so proud of Myles, as we were for all the wrestlers and coaches on the team that we had come to know and love.  But it was difficult and sad for Myles to let go of a sport and a team that had become so close to his heart and a big part of who he was.  Myles never wrestled competitively again, but instead went to Johns Hopkins where he graduated with honors from medical school.  He is currently a cardiac surgeon in Seattle, Washington.  In his spare time, he is helping out as an assistant wrestling coach at a local high school, giving back what he was given by the sport that he loved.  About a year ago, Myles called me to talk and he said that he didn’t realize it then, but everything that he went through when he was wrestling helped to set him up for the rest of his life.  He felt that he owed his success in life to the sport that I thought he was going to waste his time on.  As I told him good-bye and hung up the phone, a tear rolled down my cheek.

Thank you, wrestling.  Thank you for accepting and taking my son into, what is in my heart, the greatest sport of all.

P.S. – Whatever happened to Jessie?  Well, she finished her wrestling career as a 2-time state champion at 120 pounds.  She also went to Johns Hopkins and graduated from medical school.  She is currently a pediatrician practicing in Seattle, Washington.  And she is also my daughter-in-law.

BIIF Wrestling Championships – Photos

Wrestlers hit the mat Feb. 13 at Keaau High School to decide the Big Island Interscholastic Federation championships in 14 weight classes for boys and 11 division for girls. Read more

Hawaii Wrestling Individual State Champions Listing

The first Hawaii State Championships in wrestling was recognized in 1966.  Since then, over 700 wrestlers have been awarded individual state championships in their respective weight classes. Read more

2010 HHSAA State Championships – Advertiser Videos

Video of selected matches from the Honolulu Advertiser with commentary from Yoshi Honda. Read more

2010 HHSAA State Championships – Day 2 News Coverage

News coverage from the 2nd day of the 2010 HHSAA State Wrestling Championships. Read more

2010 HHSAA State Championships – Boys Finals Coverage

Attended the 2nd day of the 2010 HHSAA State Wrestling Championships at the Blaisdell on February 28, 2010.  Coverage includes pics of Boys championship matches. Read more

2010 HHSAA State Championships – Girls Finals Coverage

Attended the 2nd day of the 2010 HHSAA State Wrestling Championships at the Blaisdell on February 28, 2010.  Coverage includes pics of Girls championship matches. Read more

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