Heart of a Champion – Part 2

I’ve gotten quite a bit of positive feedback on the article I wrote last February about Bryson Fukushima and Arnold Toriumi. I’m glad people enjoyed reading about how they confronted their challenges with such positive attitudes and I’m glad those two young men got at least some acknowledgement of their efforts.

For those who aren’t a direct part of our program, I thought you might be interested to hear how the rest of the year went for Bryson and Arnold.

As I mentioned in the last blog entry, Bryson was not able to compete in his fourth and final state  tournament, despite being a three-time finalist and a former state champion. Last March, just after the season ended, Bryson traveled with several of his teammates to Kansas City, MO to compete in the Brute-Adidas National Championships. The Punahou contingency did extremely well, medaling seven. Bryson led the way, becoming Punahou’s first boys national champion, winning the 105 lb. weight class.

Bryson is currently attending Oregon State University, where he intends to continue his wrestling career.

Arnold made a relatively quick recovery from the fractured orbital he suffered in December and was able to compete in the second half of the high school judo season. Though his skills were a little rusty due to the four month layoff, he entered the state judo tournament in superb physical condition and won his third state judo championship. He also helped lead the Boys Judo team to it’s second State Championship in three years (we came in 2nd last year…).

In acknowledgement of his leadership skill, Arnold was voted to be one of the captains of this year’s wrestling team, despite being ineligible to wrestle.

None of this is a surprise to anyone who knows these two young men and again, I salute them for demonstrating what I hope is the true character of our wrestling program.