All 3 teams (JV/Vars/Girls) won their respective league championships this past Saturday…though only our JV team performed to the best of their abilities.

Our JV team put together an outstanding tournament, and truly set the bar for the Vars and Girls to step up to moving forward to this weekend’s state tournament.  We had several weight classes where 2 of our wrestlers placed, and 2 weight classes where it was Punahou vs Punahou in the finals…something we emphasize is possible all week long.  The entire JV team can be very proud of their efforts all season, they truly paid off with a peaked perfomance at ILH Championships.

Our Girls team wrestled well, but certainly not their best.  We left a few matches out there without a 100% focused effort, and it cost us individually.  We have qualified 7 girls out of 11 weight classes for the state tournament, so we definitaly have our work cut out for us heading into the Blaisdell this weekend.

The Boys Varsity had a lackluster first round, which found several of us on the back side earlier than we should have been, missing the opportunity to be in the finals.  The good news is we finished with more effort and energy than we started, and we now have an opportunity to truly take a look at the importance of the first round both days of states…and trust me, we will discuss this as a team.  We qualified all 14 weight classes, which is always one of our goals.

We will work hard at continuing to sharpen both our minds and our bodies as we press toward this Friday and Saturday at the Blaisdell Arena for the state championship tournament.  We’d love to see as many of you as can make it there supporting our efforts as we represent your team moving forward.

The JV team had an even more frustrating performance, wrestling below their abilities on too many occasions.  They finished in 2nd, behind a very tough and loaded Kamehameha JV team.  We have a good  group of wrestlers who are willing to do the work, so we’re gonna have to continue pushing forward and hopefully get many of them to attend the off season training and continue to improve on their abilities.  We know we can be better in the future.

The boys and girls varsity continued to strive for their ultimate goals, and put themselves in position to finish strong.  Both qualified all possible weight classes (14 for the boys, and 10 for girls (we don’t have a 220 girl wrestler)) for the states this weekend.  Both teams were able to pull away from the rest of the teams over the course of the tournament and win the ILH Team Championships.  Though we know we still didn’t wrestle our best, which frankly excites us as we don’t need to truly peak until this weekend at states, we did have several key wrestlers work through their injuries and survive the weekend qualifying for states and with the potential to improve their health even slightly more through the week.  We expect to continue working hard this week and polishing up and improving our technique in certain positions, and know that there will be several teams pushing hard to finish on top this weekend, including us.

If at all possible, we’d love to see you either Friday and/or Saturday at the Blaisdell for the excitement of this tournament.
Thank you for all the continued support.

Saturday once again found us hosting the Intermediate and JV round robin tournament, the last of the season.  Our boys and girls varsity teams did an excellent job of setting up the brackets and running the tables, and our younger wrestlers continued to show their development.  We can definitely see the progress of the 7th and 8th graders, and also of several of the JV’s as well.

This week Friday and Saturday the JV, Vars, and Girls will be competing in the ILH Dual Meet Tournament at Maryknoll.  Next weekend, yes Distraction Weekend, will be the ILH Championships (for all levels) at Kamehameha.  As always, we’d love to see you at any/all of these if you can make it.

Friday night the boys team started slowly against Kamehameha, the weight class draw took us right to the heart of their lineup, but we were able to rebound well and string together 5 consecutive pins, from 152-215, which swung the momentum right back in our favor. We finsihed the meet pretty strong, and won decisively against them, knowing they are still missing a few key weight classes due to injury. We expect to see their lineup complete by the end of the season, so we know it’s gonna be a dogfight til the end. Kamehameha is a very tough team again this year.

On Saturday the varsity boys battled St. Louis, and were able to handle them as well, getting a few of our non-starting seniors some very well deserved matches. It was fun to see them battle at that level. On Saturday we also had the inter/jv round robin tournament at St. Louis, and our younger wrestlers showed improvements of their own, and are seemingly getting more comfortable with the battle.

With only a few weeks left of the season, it is definitely time for everyone to step up and prepare their best to finish the season strong. This weekend we’ll have boys and girls varsity dual meets at Punahou Friday night, and Saturday we’ll be hosting another inter/jv round robin tournament. We’d love to see anyone on the island there to cheer us on.

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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.

When:  May 14 – May 16. 
 Tournament:  May 15, 8:00a.m.-X:XXp.m.  The tournament will end when all participants have concluded wrestling.

Where:  The tournament will be at the Lahaina Civic Center in Lahaina, Maui.  We will be staying at an alumni’s house in up country Makawao area. 

Why:  To continue learning and growing together through competition and life

How: Parents are responsible for booking the following flights with Go Airlines:  
 Flight # YV1039 Departs: Honolulu, 5:35pm  Arrives: Kahului, 6:10pm
 Flight # YV1006 Departs: Kahului, 4:45pm  Arrives: Honolulu, 5:17pm

Cost:   $125= Vans and Gas, AAU Membership, Tournament Entry Fee, and Food (2B, 2L, 2D)

Maui Checklist:
Sleeping Bag or Warm Blanket
Pillow
Toiletries (Toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo)
Underwear/Shirts/Shorts 2-3
Swimwear (Jacuzzi on site, and possible beach trip)
Footwear (Shoes or slippers will suffice for non-wrestling days)
Wrestling Shoes
Socks
Optional:
Extra Spending Cash (For possible mall outings, movies, extra snacks etc.)
Homework/A deck of cards/Video Game Stuff (Remember that you are responsible for your personal belongings)
PUMA INN
 

Schedule of Events
Friday 5/14
5:30pm-6:30pm Leave Oahu and arrive on Maui
7:00pm-8:00pm Pickup vans and drive to Puma Inn
9:30pm-10:00pm Lights out

Saturday 5/15
6:00am-6:30am Wake up and drive to Lahaina
7:30am-8:00am Arrive at Lahaina Civic Center
8:00am   Weigh-ins
9:30am-10:00am  Wrestling Begins
7:30pm-9:30pm  Wrestling concludes followed by award ceremonies
xx:xxpm  Dinner at the Puma Inn

Sunday 5/16
6:00am-8:00am Wake up
10:00am-12:00pm Pack up and clean house
12:00pm-4:00pm Leave house, Breakfast, Mall/Movies/Beach/Etc.
4:00pm-6:30pm Return vans and return to Oahu

Chaperones: Michael Lee  cell:(503) 809-6761
  Nelson Nomura cell:(808) 782-9186
  Todd Fujie  cell:(808) 258-1522

Puma Inn Address:
1950 Olinda Road, Makawao, 96768

As the 2010 school year begins winding down, we wanted to update you of all wrestling related activities occurring through the end of the school year and throughout the summer.  Below is a brief synopsis of each activity.   A detailed itinerary and/or information regarding each specific activity will be sent out accordingly. 

April:
-USAW Season and Tournaments (Puma/Inter/JV/Vars)
USAW tournaments have already begun and will run until May 29th.  During this season your wrestler will have opportunities to wrestle both freestyle (One of two Olympic styles of wrestling), and folk-style.   USAW tournaments require the purchase of an annual USAW card.  The cost of a USAW card is $35 and can only be purchased online at the following website: http://www.usawmembership.com/

May:
-AAU Maui Invitational Wrestling Tournament May, 15th Lahaina, Maui (Puma/Inter/JV/Vars)
In May Punahou will be competing in the annual AAU Maui Invitational Wrestling Tournament.  The tournament is open to all grade levels K-12, with K-8 wrestling folk-style and 9-12 wrestling freestyle.  This is a great opportunity for our youth programs to wrestle different teams with different styles, and to develop positive relationships with our neighbor island teams.  This tournament is also a great chance for high school wrestlers to wrestle a different style of wrestling that will help prepare them for next season, especially those who plan on going to Fargo with Team Hawaii later this summer.  We plan on leaving Friday, May, 14th in the early evening and returning Sunday, May 16th about the same time.  A Maui itinerary will be posted to the website shortly as well as handouts to be passed out at our Tuesday/Thursday practices.

-Punahou Puma Judo Program
Beginning in May, Puma and Intermediate Coach Nelson Nomura will be starting a youth Judo club that will meet on Monday’s and Wednesday’s from 3:00pm-4:00pm in the wrestling room.  Judo is a great sport that helps athletes with their balance, body awareness and mental focus.  Judo will help your children learn to take a fall safely, increase their flexibility and provide them with a healthy perspective on life.  We look forward to the growth and success of this program and wish Coach Nelson the best.  More details to follow. 

-Washington Intermediate Eagle Wrestling Club Scrimmage (Inter)
Washington Intermediate 6th grade teacher and Coach Brett Kumabe (c/o ‘95) recently restarted the Washington Intermediate Eagle Wrestling Club.  Per our preexisting relationship, we would like to continue working together as neighboring schools in the wrestling community.  During the month of May we will have two joint practices with the Eagle wrestling club and an intermediate dual meet, games, award and potluck day to celebrate our friendship, and the ending  to our school years.  More details to follow.
 
-Spring Meat Club Beach Cleanup (Puma/Inter/JV/Vars)
The Punahou Meat Club will conclude their service projects with their Spring BBQ Makapu’u beach cleanup.  For those of you who didn’t make it out last time, you missed an awesome event and a fabulous meal.  While this event is optional, we are encouraging as many wrestlers to make it out as possible.  More details to follow.

Summer/June-July:

-Summer Wrestling (Puma/Inter/JV/Vars)
Summer wrestling practice will be on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s from 3:15-4:15 in Forrest Hall and will run concurrently with Punahou Summer School.  During this time period we will be focusing solely on folk-style.  To participate in summer wrestling your child must sign up through the Punahou summer school catalog. 

-Aloha State Games (Puma/Inter/JV/Vars)
The Aloha State Games is not a USAW event, and will be held in June.  This event is open to all levels and will be wrestled in Freestyle and Greco Roman.  More details to follow.  

-Steve Knight TEAM EXCEL Wrestling Camp Wednesday, June 30th – Saturday, July 3rd
Steve Knight is a former NCAA All American, Big Twelve Champion, freestyle world medalist and longtime coach with USAW.  He most recently coached the US national team in France at the Henri Deglane Invitational, and is director and head coach of Team Excel.  Steve has a great relationship with Hawaii and has been doing this camp for many years.  He is a great motivator and understands wrestlers of all levels.  His camp staff always includes some of the best wrestlers in the country and we highly recommend this camp for Punahou wrestlers of all ages.  

-Punahou Wrestling Summer Service Project
We are planning on having a program wide service event at some point during the summer.  More details to follow.

Thank you for your time.  All of these opportunities are available to your children, none of them are required.  Thank you for a great season from top to bottom, we look forward to seeing you all soon.

Ciao,

Coach Mike

In a performance that truly defines the concept of “team”, our wrestlers pulled together and delivered a series of incredible matches to repeat as both Boys & Girls State Champions.

All season long, the coaches emphasized the wisdom of Joe Paterno, when he said “Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves.” In the state tournament, the wrestlers took this to heart, scoring pins when needed and grinding out tough wins when it counted, and securing the team title in spite of serious challenges.

The Boys were impressive in both the first round of the tournament and the semi-final round, racking up enough pins to pull away from second place Kamehameha in spite of a few big losses.

Several wrestlers favored to win/repeat as state champions were upset in what the Star Bulletin called “stunning losses”. But true to their character, they put their personal disappointment aside and finished the tournament with pins. The rest of the team also rallied, earning pins and crucial placement points. So solid was their wrestling that the Boys finished the tournament within striking distance of last year’s scoring record.

Whereas everyone on the Boys team stepped up their performance to counter the upsets against them, the Girls pulled together to overcome the superior numbers of OIA champions Kahuku and repeated as State Champions by an incredibly thin margin of just 2.5 points. With just 8 girls entered in the tournament (vs. Kahuku’s 10), the Girls put five into the finals and scored key pin points to earn the team victory. In spite of the numbers being stacked against them, the Girls were undaunted, believing until the very end that they had what it took to win.

Congratulations to State Champions Jordan Ng (114), Todd Murakawa (125), Galen McCleary (140), Chrissy Chow (125), Mindy Chow (130), and Kaimana Lundquist (155).

Full results can be found at the links below.

Boys Final Standings
Boys Final Results
Boys Final Brackets

Girls Final Standings
Girls Final Results
Girls Final Brackets

Bouncing back from a lackluster performance last week, our wrestlers stepped up when it counted and had an outstanding ILH Tournament. Boys Varsity and Boys JV both recaptured ILH Championships and the Girls were runners-up, in spite of forfeiting three out of eleven weight classes.

Varsity put their only loss of the season behind them and rolled to a 32 point victory over Kamehameha. They won six individual championships and set themselves up very well for this weekend’s state championship.

JV also captured six individual titles on their way to 42 point victory, wrapping their season up with a strong finish. The JV started their season wrestling a bit sloppy, but honed their technique and focus as the season wore on and capped it off with a sharp and spirited championship tournament.

Although the Girls missed repeating as ILH champions by just 3.5 points, they wrestled incredibly well, winning championships in six out of eleven weight classes. The Girls team has fought hard all season long, in spite of forfeiting three weight classes, and though they face an uphill battle against Kahuku & Kamehameha, cannot be counted out to repeat as state champions this coming weekend.

We’re very proud of how our wrestlers stepped up to the challenges of the season, especially as the competition increased in the last week. They bent, but did not break and showed their strong will and discipline in the championship tournament. Congratulations to the JV on a fantastic season! To our Varsity Boys & Girls – the biggest and best week is yet to come!

Varsity Boys Team Results

Individual Champions

Varsity Girls Team Results

Individual Champions

Junior Varsity Boys Team Results

Individual Champions