2009 NWCA National Scholastic Award Recipients

Without hesitation, he says he’d give the only sign that hung in the Tampa Bay locker room when he was coach. It’s a great message for our wrestlers, well:

Expectation. Execution. No Excuses. No Explanation.

On June 2, 2009, Coach Matt Oney was inducted into his high school’s Athletic Hall of Fame. Coach Oney wasn’t able to attend in person so Jordan-Elbridge Athletic Director Brad Hamer presented the award to World Champion Gene Mills, who accepted on Oney’s behalf. Also there to honor Coach Oney were his high school lacrosse coach, his high school wrestling coach, and of course, his mother.

Congratulations Coach Oney!

(In the photo, from L to R, are lacrosse coach Rick Young, wrestling coach Mike Frood, Mrs. Oney, AD Brad Hamer, and Mean Gene Mills)

Coach Oney will be a member of the official USA delegation and will be included in all events and activities associated with the competition. Besides the opportunity to work with some of the best wrestlers in the country, Coach Oney will also be learning from some of the best coaches in the United States.

But one group was very unexpected and I wanted to acknowledge them. I don?t know the current McKinley coach but really appreciated the fact that the McKinley coaching staff, followed by the entire McKinley wrestling team, came to congratulate the Punahou coaches.

Very classy and we very much appreciate it.

We started the pre-season at the Official’s tournament, and both our boys and girls won, which was a very pleasant experience for the girls team especially, as we have a great mix of senior leadership and talented youth learning how to gel together as a team and perform well. The dominant scores of this first tournment are somewhat misleading, as in severalk weightclasses we had 2 place winners, and even finaliusts, which of course at the state toiurnament won’t happen. ?These 2nd high placewinners for us take points away from our competition, which as I said, skews the final results.

We followed that up with the Iolani Dual meet tournament, where we entered 2 boys teams since we do have a good deal of depth at several weight classes and want to get our wrestlers as many matches as we can. ?Both boys teams and the girls team advanced into the Championship pools for day 2. ?The 2nd team “upset” defending OIA Champions Kaiser, though they were without their 108 lbser Jason Spiker, who is currently undefeated and should be seded first at the state tournament, to take 2nd in their pool. ?Day 2 had some exciting matches, and we had the chance to wrestle a very tough Del Oro team from CA in the finals. ?We starrted very strong, 4 straight pins, then falterd a bit in the middle weights, but finished strong and won the dual 36-34 to win the championship. The girls team also went undefeated and won the championship, beating a tough Pearl City team in the finals. ?The 2nd boys team won one match on the 2nd day, but didn’t place.

In the ILH season, both JV and Vars have defeated Damien and St. Louis, while the girls have beaten Iolani, Pac-5 and Kamehameha thus far. ?The girls team is still looking to solidify their line-up, but most of the girls have gotten down to their final weights, so the next couple of weeks will be very important to see that they can compete at those weights and feel strong.

This coming weekend is the first ILH Dual meet rournament, where we’ll wrestle everyone in the ILH over Friday and Saturday. ?The event is at Iolani, if you are in town and can make it, we’d love to see you.

A big mahalo and aloha to the alums who made it in to practice and/or to watch us compete while they were in town. ?It is always awesome to see you all, mostly fat and happy, while you’re home for vacation.

Hope the New Year is treating you all well!

Proud of you, Sani Boy!

• It’s a shame more care wasn’t put into seeding the brackets. Setting up brackets so that the “top” wrestlers are separated is one of the more time consuming parts of a tournament and it’s usually the reason most tournaments start late. That said, the Officials’ Tournament has become one of only two tournaments (along with the Maui Invitational) where the majority of the teams from all four leagues participate and has become very important to proper seeding of the state tournament. When you have two of the top three wrestlers in the weight class matched up in the first round (as you did at 120) or two state champions in the same half bracket (as you did at 125), that diminishes the value of the tournament for year-end seeding purposes and that’s too bad.
• 125 is an insanely great weight class. If everyone stays at the weight, you’ll have three state champions at the weight class (Reid Oshiro, Pun; Bill Takeuchi, PC; and Shayden Terukina, KS), plus a couple of guys who – on any given day – are capable of knocking off one of these champs.
• Top to bottom, 114 may be the best weight class in the state. You don’t have the three state champs like you do at 125, but there are probably 5 or 6 wrestlers who can win in February.

Of course, the main reason we wrestle pre-season tournaments is to get good matches and this tournament really delivered. Here are a few that I was impressed by. Please add a comment if you saw others that I didn’t – I hope you’ll understand why there are mostly Punahou matches in my list below .

120 – First round match between Nakagawa (Kaiser) and Hirai (Pun). This was a repeat of last year’s State semi-final at 112 and was just as exciting.

114 – Quarter finals matches, the first between Ng (Pun) and Hidalgo (Lahainaluna) and the other between Vu (Iolani) and Medeiros (St. Louis). This is shaping up to be one of the toughest weight classes in the state and these two matches were probably a good indication of what we have to look forward to at the State Tournament. Hidalgo beat Ng with a reversal in the final five seconds, and Vu beat Medeiros in overtime.

125 – Oshiro (Pac-5) vs. Terukina (KS), twice! Both of these kids are instinctive wrestlers and both matches were up-tempo and non-conventional. Terukina was a state champion last year at 112 (and only the fourth freshman boys state champs in Hawaii history). Oshiro had a terrible state tournament last year. He could/should have placed high and is very much in the mix for this year’s championship at 125. Oshiro beat Terukina twice, once in the quarter finals (seeding problem…) 7-3, and again for third place, 3-1. Guys, if you read this, great wrestling!

125 – Oshiro (Pac-5) vs. Oshiro (Pun). This was one of the semi-finals matches and could well be a preview of the state championship (although — as they should — I’m sure Terukina and Takeuchi will disagree).

171 – Sheehan (Pun) vs. Hokoana (KS). I’m not sure how many times these two guys have wrestled each other (it’s a lot), but it’s always a barn burner. This one was a back-and-forth scramble for six minutes, finally decided in OT. I’m always amazed at how quickly Hokoana can explode from that ugly starting position on bottom .

275 – Fuimaono (Pun) vs. Yap (KS). For those who saw this match, can you believe you were watching heavyweights?!  Non-stop action, bodies flying around…I don’t think our 160 pounder moves as quickly as these two.

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.

But there will be two young men who will not wrestle. Lord knows, they most definitely deserve to, but they will not be suiting up and they will not be competing. Nevertheless, they are critical to all the success we’ve had this season and if we are able to win this weekend, it will be a victory we could not have achieved without their leadership.

BRYSON FUKUSHIMA is one of our team captains and a three-time state finalist, winning a state championship his sophomore year. He is also an All-American, placing 8th at the Junior Nationals in Fargo. Most importantly, Bryson is one of the emotional spark plugs of the team. Always giving his best, thriving on challenges, and just plain fun to watch.

A little over two weeks ago, Bryson lost his final wrestle-off and lost his position in our line-up. He did not compete in last week’s ILH Championship and he will not have a chance to become a four-time finalist and two-time state champion. What is remarkable is that Bryson continues his amazing leadership in the wrestling room and at competition. He’s clearly disappointed that he’s not competing, but when he’s around the team, he keeps his head up, his emotions positive, and does his best to make sure everyone’s ready to compete.

For the past four seasons, Bryson lived and breathed wrestling for 10 months a year (the other two, he’s competing in judo). No one works harder than he does and no one is more passionate about the sport than he is. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for him to be on the sidelines — it must be excruciating. But I am in total awe of his dedication to the team.

Last season, ARNOLD TORIUMI was one of the two best 125 pounders in the state. He had three out-and-out wars with Travis Okano, state champion from Lahainaluna, with Travis winning the rubber match in last year’s state finals. This year was shaping up to be just as exciting. Both wrestlers were now at 130, and it was again looking like they were going to be the two top dogs.

At the Officials’ Tournament in December, Arnold and Travis met in the finals. As expected, the action was fast and intense. Early in the second period, both wrestlers shot at the same time and their heads crashed into each other. Arnold suffered a fractured orbital and was not only unable to continue the match, he was done for the season. And although Arnold’s only a junior, because of eligibility rules related to his transfer from Kalani to Punahou, he is ineligible to wrestle next year. His high school career is done.

If there is one person in the room who may actually work harder than Bryson, it’s Arnold. His work ethic in practice and his intensity in competition are inspiring to the team and his absence from the practice mat is palpable. But instead of dwelling on his own misfortune, Arnold is at practice nearly every day (even though he still cannot work out) and is at every competition, continuing to drive his team from matside. Like Bryson, I can’t imagine the emotional pain that Arnold must feel, leading from the sideline. I know if I were in that situation, I could not do it. But Arnold amazes me with his enthusiasm, his passion, and his true commitment to the success of the team.

Wrestling is a brutal sport on so many levels. The physical intensity is what outsiders see and to be honest, that’s probably the easy part. It’s the mental and emotional part that can be especially harsh — and especially to young men and women who are still working to define themselves. How devastating it must be, to focus your hopes and dreams, to work harder than you’ve ever worked on anything else in your life, only to face the reality that you will not reach your goal.

Randy Pausch, in his now famous speech at CMU, reminds us that you cannot control the cards you’re dealt, only how you play them. For years, I’ve told the wrestlers that the heart of a champion is defined not by how they deal with success, but by how they deal with adversity. This season, no one personifies those sentiments like Bryson Fukushima and Arnold Toriumi. Great leaders and true champions, indeed.

Gentlemen, Thank you.