2021-2022 Wrestling Season

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ChadFukuoka
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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by ChadFukuoka »

HS Football Fanatic wrote: Sun Mar 06, 2022 4:25 pm @ChadFukuoka:

Yes, that's true: The nickname of both schools is, "Na Alii". You're a generous spirit, to congratulate schools none of which are your alma mater. Since this is a wrestling thread, I thought I'd mention that I'm a little annoyed and resentful that Moanalua swept the boys' and girls' State wrestling titles. While I'm at it, I guess I should mention that I'm equally annoyed and resentful that Punahou swept the boys', girls', and mixed State paddling titles. I'm wondering if anyone else (besides alumni of those two schools, of course) is feeling the same way right now. It's been sticking in my craw ever since I read about it in the paper this morning. I'm glad that Scoringlive had nothing about those two titles; I would have hated to have to read about it there, too. Wrestling guys: It's not that I don't want to read about wrestling on Scoringlive; it's that I don't want to read about how the same school swept both titles.
Since you mentioned these other sports, do you know who won the team titles in swimming, and diving?

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by HS Football Fanatic »

@ChadFukuoka:

Yes, I do (unfortunately). They were won by two schools I dislike: Punahou won the girls' title, and Iolani won the boys' title. I think I would have preferred not knowing. I'm glad Punahou didn't sweep both titles; that certainly would have been worse. (Sorry about my last two posts, gopunahou.)

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by talloola25 »

Some thoughts from the finals and P4P list:
Dominant victories with an obvious mismatch - 106 Evan Kusumoto, 113 Cyrus Bucsit, 120 Joseph Lathwood, 132 Tyger Taam, 160 Blaze Sumiye, 182 Karter Nitahara
Dominant victories by evenly matched opponents - 145 Justyce Mercado, 170 Brycen Pagurayan
Best Matches of the night: 126 Labuanan over Ravida, 138 McBrayer over Okura, 152 Erolin over Soares
P4P list: This is based on opinion 100%. I am basing it off past accomplishments, current state finish, and victories over quality opponents
1. Karter Nitahara - No one looked more dominant to me the entire season. All wins by pin this season. I don't believe he ever got out of the 1st period
2. Dreddin Villalpando - Undefeated placer, might be the best wrestler on the list technically speaking .... would have won in my opinion, but still belongs regardless of what happened
3. Blaze Sumiye - 2x State champ one loss to Pagurayan, significant win over Pagurayan
4. Brycen Pagurayan - 2x Placer and State champ. Significant wins over previous unbeaten Desantos and Sumiye
5. Cyrus Bucsit - Undefeated Champ and utterly dominant this season, significant wins over Landford, Frias, Kusumoto(State Champ), Chanthasouabith, Kamimura
6. Taam - Undefeated and dominant, significant win over Porter and McBrayer
7. Joseph Lathwood - Undefeated and dominant. Only close match was over Nationally ranked Logan Lau
8. Kina'u McBrayer - State champ with losses, but has beaten Ravida this year(convincingly), Borce, Lum(convincingly), Goeas(convincingly), Grilho, Rapoza(convincingly) and Okura
9. Kade Okura - 1 loss in ultimate tie breaker. Dominant in all but 2 matches(against McBrayer)
10. Logan Lau - Undefeated and utterly dominant this season, significant wins over Landford, Frias, Kusumoto(state champ). Only loss is in overtime
HM: Yong - Undefeated and utterly dominant this season, significant wins over Kahele-Akeo and Aiwohi(I think)

Most of the finals matches went as I thought. The exceptions were at 126(honestly just didn't know enough about Labuanan, but thought he might be favored after watching him dismantle Carson Kim), 152(but in my defense, Soares would have won if he just let him escape in the final 7 seconds), and 195(I still think Kahele-Akeo was the better wrestler and didn't receive his nearfall in their semifinal bout but Holani proved to be the better man at the end). A lot of awesome matches and I hope they get posted somewhere for posterity purposes and for the up and comers to learn from.

I also thought Kamehameha Boys overperformed and their girls underperformed while Moanalua wrestled out of their minds for the most part.
Any other take aways ...... from wrestling lol?

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by 808WrestlingFan »

I was really impressed with the OIA teams this year. Specifically Moanalua, Mililani, and Kapolei. They don't have the same resources, facilities, or middle school programs as the private schools and some outer island teams but still managed to perform better imo. To be honest, I don’t even know how these private school teams with their scholarships and recruiting the top wrestlers when they are young are even losing to public school kids. Aside from Kamehameha and St. Louis the rest of the ILH should be ashamed.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by HS Football Fanatic »

talloola25 wrote: Sun Mar 06, 2022 8:51 pm Some thoughts from the finals and P4P list:
Dominant victories with an obvious mismatch - 106 Evan Kusumoto, 113 Cyrus Bucsit, 120 Joseph Lathwood, 132 Tyger Taam, 160 Blaze Sumiye, 182 Karter Nitahara
Dominant victories by evenly matched opponents - 145 Justyce Mercado, 170 Brycen Pagurayan
Best Matches of the night: 126 Labuanan over Ravida, 138 McBrayer over Okura, 152 Erolin over Soares
P4P list: This is based on opinion 100%. I am basing it off past accomplishments, current state finish, and victories over quality opponents
1. Karter Nitahara - No one looked more dominant to me the entire season. All wins by pin this season. I don't believe he ever got out of the 1st period
2. Dreddin Villalpando - Undefeated placer, might be the best wrestler on the list technically speaking .... would have won in my opinion, but still belongs regardless of what happened
3. Blaze Sumiye - 2x State champ one loss to Pagurayan, significant win over Pagurayan
4. Brycen Pagurayan - 2x Placer and State champ. Significant wins over previous unbeaten Desantos and Sumiye
5. Cyrus Bucsit - Undefeated Champ and utterly dominant this season, significant wins over Landford, Frias, Kusumoto(State Champ), Chanthasouabith, Kamimura
6. Taam - Undefeated and dominant, significant win over Porter and McBrayer
7. Joseph Lathwood - Undefeated and dominant. Only close match was over Nationally ranked Logan Lau
8. Kina'u McBrayer - State champ with losses, but has beaten Ravida this year(convincingly), Borce, Lum(convincingly), Goeas(convincingly), Grilho, Rapoza(convincingly) and Okura
9. Kade Okura - 1 loss in ultimate tie breaker. Dominant in all but 2 matches(against McBrayer)
10. Logan Lau - Undefeated and utterly dominant this season, significant wins over Landford, Frias, Kusumoto(state champ). Only loss is in overtime
HM: Yong - Undefeated and utterly dominant this season, significant wins over Kahele-Akeo and Aiwohi(I think)

Most of the finals matches went as I thought. The exceptions were at 126(honestly just didn't know enough about Labuanan, but thought he might be favored after watching him dismantle Carson Kim), 152(but in my defense, Soares would have won if he just let him escape in the final 7 seconds), and 195(I still think Kahele-Akeo was the better wrestler and didn't receive his nearfall in their semifinal bout but Holani proved to be the better man at the end). A lot of awesome matches and I hope they get posted somewhere for posterity purposes and for the up and comers to learn from.

I also thought Kamehameha Boys overperformed and their girls underperformed while Moanalua wrestled out of their minds for the most part.
Any other take aways ...... from wrestling lol?
@talloola25:

I think the tourney sucked for Kamehameha. As you said, the boys overperformed, yet couldn't beat Moanalua to the team title. The girls underperformed, so they lost their title to Moanalua, when perhaps they might have won it otherwise? Net result of those two sucky developments: They end-up runners-up in both boys and girls.
Last edited by HS Football Fanatic on Mon Mar 07, 2022 7:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by HS Football Fanatic »

808WrestlingFan wrote: Sun Mar 06, 2022 10:44 pm I was really impressed with the OIA teams this year. Specifically Moanalua, Mililani, and Kapolei. They don't have the same resources, facilities, or middle school programs as the private schools and some outer island teams but still managed to perform better imo. To be honest, I don’t even know how these private school teams with their scholarships and recruiting the top wrestlers when they are young are even losing to public school kids. Aside from Kamehameha and St. Louis the rest of the ILH should be ashamed.
@808WrestlingFan:

I'm not a wrestling expert, but, how many resources and how good must the facilities be, to have a good team? This might sound naive, but if a school has talent in enough weight-classes, how much more do they need than a wrestling mat? I suspect that Moanalua, specifically, had better talent, though apparently Kamehameha's girls screwed-up, which allowed Moanalua's girls to take the title? Of course, coaching is important, too. But, don't some of the OIA schools have good coaches? Also, is recruiting as big in wrestling as it is in football at some schools? Didn't know that. Don't mind me; I'm just thinking out loud in response to your post.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by talloola25 »

There is serious recruiting done in wrestling just like in football. In fact you might call Moanalua the "private school" of the public schools. It has a lot of advantages that aren't afforded to the other schools. I don't think talent was the issue with Moanalua. The wrestlers performed really well, but they have some great coaches there. I think the biggest thing they had was time. Most of those wrestlers were on the team 2 years ago and were able to develop with their coaches. Most of the other schools didn't have the ability to develop their wrestlers in the same way due to restrictions their school had that Moanalua did not and the amount of underclassmen they had in the pre-covid year.

I think Kamehameha will probably be the team to beat next year on the Boys side because of the youth on their team this year(whether starting or hiding in the wings).

What were the biggest surprises or best accomplishments you guys saw this season(either in the state tournament or just total body of work)?

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by justafan »

HS Football Fanatic wrote: Mon Mar 07, 2022 7:20 am
talloola25 wrote: Sun Mar 06, 2022 8:51 pm Some thoughts from the finals and P4P list:
Dominant victories with an obvious mismatch - 106 Evan Kusumoto, 113 Cyrus Bucsit, 120 Joseph Lathwood, 132 Tyger Taam, 160 Blaze Sumiye, 182 Karter Nitahara
Dominant victories by evenly matched opponents - 145 Justyce Mercado, 170 Brycen Pagurayan
Best Matches of the night: 126 Labuanan over Ravida, 138 McBrayer over Okura, 152 Erolin over Soares
P4P list: This is based on opinion 100%. I am basing it off past accomplishments, current state finish, and victories over quality opponents
1. Karter Nitahara - No one looked more dominant to me the entire season. All wins by pin this season. I don't believe he ever got out of the 1st period
2. Dreddin Villalpando - Undefeated placer, might be the best wrestler on the list technically speaking .... would have won in my opinion, but still belongs regardless of what happened
3. Blaze Sumiye - 2x State champ one loss to Pagurayan, significant win over Pagurayan
4. Brycen Pagurayan - 2x Placer and State champ. Significant wins over previous unbeaten Desantos and Sumiye
5. Cyrus Bucsit - Undefeated Champ and utterly dominant this season, significant wins over Landford, Frias, Kusumoto(State Champ), Chanthasouabith, Kamimura
6. Taam - Undefeated and dominant, significant win over Porter and McBrayer
7. Joseph Lathwood - Undefeated and dominant. Only close match was over Nationally ranked Logan Lau
8. Kina'u McBrayer - State champ with losses, but has beaten Ravida this year(convincingly), Borce, Lum(convincingly), Goeas(convincingly), Grilho, Rapoza(convincingly) and Okura
9. Kade Okura - 1 loss in ultimate tie breaker. Dominant in all but 2 matches(against McBrayer)
10. Logan Lau - Undefeated and utterly dominant this season, significant wins over Landford, Frias, Kusumoto(state champ). Only loss is in overtime
HM: Yong - Undefeated and utterly dominant this season, significant wins over Kahele-Akeo and Aiwohi(I think)

Most of the finals matches went as I thought. The exceptions were at 126(honestly just didn't know enough about Labuanan, but thought he might be favored after watching him dismantle Carson Kim), 152(but in my defense, Soares would have won if he just let him escape in the final 7 seconds), and 195(I still think Kahele-Akeo was the better wrestler and didn't receive his nearfall in their semifinal bout but Holani proved to be the better man at the end). A lot of awesome matches and I hope they get posted somewhere for posterity purposes and for the up and comers to learn from.

I also thought Kamehameha Boys overperformed and their girls underperformed while Moanalua wrestled out of their minds for the most part.
Any other take aways ...... from wrestling lol?
@talloola25:

I think the tourney sucked for Kamehameha. As you said, the boys overperformed, yet couldn't beat Moanalua to the team title. The girls underperformed, so they lost their title to Moanalua, when perhaps they might have won it otherwise? Net result of those two sucky developments: They end-up runners-up in both boys and girls.
Which Kamehameha girls underperformed? They had 2 surprise finalist in Realin and Kapoi. Nishida took 3rd as freshman. What more could you ask for?

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by talloola25 »

@justafan - I think it was more comparatively than anything else. Just looking back over it, I think you're right. They performed well overall, but Moanlua reached farther than expected and had some amazing breaks in some spots.
Kamehameha's results definitely back up your statement:
-102, 112, 117, 122, 127, 132, 155(not sure she was a surprise finalist, I thought she was going to get there), 225 all performed approximately how they should have as top seeded wrestlers(along with a huge upset at 127 by Realin).
-102 and 138 weren't top seeded wrestlers and performed about how expected.
-145, 168, and 184 all DNP after being a top seeded wrestler at each of their respective weight classes going 3-6 as a group.

As a team they outplaced their seeds by a total of +1, where a team like Moanalua outplaced their seeds by +39. So, it probably has more to do with Moanalua wrestling out of their minds than Kamehameha underperforming relatively speaking.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by HS Football Fanatic »

talloola25 wrote: Mon Mar 07, 2022 8:07 am There is serious recruiting done in wrestling just like in football. In fact you might call Moanalua the "private school" of the public schools. It has a lot of advantages that aren't afforded to the other schools. I don't think talent was the issue with Moanalua. The wrestlers performed really well, but they have some great coaches there. I think the biggest thing they had was time. Most of those wrestlers were on the team 2 years ago and were able to develop with their coaches. Most of the other schools didn't have the ability to develop their wrestlers in the same way due to restrictions their school had that Moanalua did not and the amount of underclassmen they had in the pre-covid year.

I think Kamehameha will probably be the team to beat next year on the Boys side because of the youth on their team this year(whether starting or hiding in the wings).

What were the biggest surprises or best accomplishments you guys saw this season(either in the state tournament or just total body of work)?
@talloola25:

Thanks for your post. I had no idea that there's big-time recruiting for wrestling, as there is for football. So, I take it that Moanalua is the goliath of OIA wrestling. Not only do they have strong coaching, but it just so happens that they're rich in upperclassmen on the teams, so they have experience. But, weren't all OIA schools supposed to obey the same COVID guidelines from the Hawaii DOE? Someone earlier posted that Kamehameha's boys wrestled over their heads in States this year. And, you say they're relatively young, and still took second. So, they should be rewarded next year with what should be a banner year. We'll see. Thanks again for your post.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by HS Football Fanatic »

justafan wrote: Mon Mar 07, 2022 8:16 am
HS Football Fanatic wrote: Mon Mar 07, 2022 7:20 am
talloola25 wrote: Sun Mar 06, 2022 8:51 pm Some thoughts from the finals and P4P list:
Dominant victories with an obvious mismatch - 106 Evan Kusumoto, 113 Cyrus Bucsit, 120 Joseph Lathwood, 132 Tyger Taam, 160 Blaze Sumiye, 182 Karter Nitahara
Dominant victories by evenly matched opponents - 145 Justyce Mercado, 170 Brycen Pagurayan
Best Matches of the night: 126 Labuanan over Ravida, 138 McBrayer over Okura, 152 Erolin over Soares
P4P list: This is based on opinion 100%. I am basing it off past accomplishments, current state finish, and victories over quality opponents
1. Karter Nitahara - No one looked more dominant to me the entire season. All wins by pin this season. I don't believe he ever got out of the 1st period
2. Dreddin Villalpando - Undefeated placer, might be the best wrestler on the list technically speaking .... would have won in my opinion, but still belongs regardless of what happened
3. Blaze Sumiye - 2x State champ one loss to Pagurayan, significant win over Pagurayan
4. Brycen Pagurayan - 2x Placer and State champ. Significant wins over previous unbeaten Desantos and Sumiye
5. Cyrus Bucsit - Undefeated Champ and utterly dominant this season, significant wins over Landford, Frias, Kusumoto(State Champ), Chanthasouabith, Kamimura
6. Taam - Undefeated and dominant, significant win over Porter and McBrayer
7. Joseph Lathwood - Undefeated and dominant. Only close match was over Nationally ranked Logan Lau
8. Kina'u McBrayer - State champ with losses, but has beaten Ravida this year(convincingly), Borce, Lum(convincingly), Goeas(convincingly), Grilho, Rapoza(convincingly) and Okura
9. Kade Okura - 1 loss in ultimate tie breaker. Dominant in all but 2 matches(against McBrayer)
10. Logan Lau - Undefeated and utterly dominant this season, significant wins over Landford, Frias, Kusumoto(state champ). Only loss is in overtime
HM: Yong - Undefeated and utterly dominant this season, significant wins over Kahele-Akeo and Aiwohi(I think)

Most of the finals matches went as I thought. The exceptions were at 126(honestly just didn't know enough about Labuanan, but thought he might be favored after watching him dismantle Carson Kim), 152(but in my defense, Soares would have won if he just let him escape in the final 7 seconds), and 195(I still think Kahele-Akeo was the better wrestler and didn't receive his nearfall in their semifinal bout but Holani proved to be the better man at the end). A lot of awesome matches and I hope they get posted somewhere for posterity purposes and for the up and comers to learn from.

I also thought Kamehameha Boys overperformed and their girls underperformed while Moanalua wrestled out of their minds for the most part.
Any other take aways ...... from wrestling lol?
@talloola25:

I think the tourney sucked for Kamehameha. As you said, the boys overperformed, yet couldn't beat Moanalua to the team title. The girls underperformed, so they lost their title to Moanalua, when perhaps they might have won it otherwise? Net result of those two sucky developments: They end-up runners-up in both boys and girls.
Which Kamehameha girls underperformed? They had 2 surprise finalist in Realin and Kapoi. Nishida took 3rd as freshman. What more could you ask for?
@justafan:

Hmmm; interesting. Well, maybe Kamehameha's girls didn't screw-up after all, but were simply outclassed by Moanalua's girls. If that Nishida girl is just a freshman, yet took third, sounds like her future is bright for the next three years.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

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talloola25 wrote: Mon Mar 07, 2022 8:43 am @justafan - I think it was more comparatively than anything else. Just looking back over it, I think you're right. They performed well overall, but Moanlua reached farther than expected and had some amazing breaks in some spots.
Kamehameha's results definitely back up your statement:
-102, 112, 117, 122, 127, 132, 155(not sure she was a surprise finalist, I thought she was going to get there), 225 all performed approximately how they should have as top seeded wrestlers(along with a huge upset at 127 by Realin).
-102 and 138 weren't top seeded wrestlers and performed about how expected.
-145, 168, and 184 all DNP after being a top seeded wrestler at each of their respective weight classes going 3-6 as a group.

As a team they outplaced their seeds by a total of +1, where a team like Moanalua outplaced their seeds by +39. So, it probably has more to do with Moanalua wrestling out of their minds than Kamehameha underperforming relatively speaking.
@talloola25:

Well, looks like Kamehameha's girls will have some unfinished business to attend to, against Moanalua's girls next year. Reminds me of the movie, "Kill Bill", that came-out in '04 or thereabouts. Towards the end of the movie, Uma Thurman and David Carradine go at it. They're sitting at a table, and Thurman tells Carradine softly but menacingly: "You and I have unfinished business", and then they start to go at it with a kick-butt sword fight. In the end, Thurman kicks Carradine's butt with the five-point palm exploding-heart technique. Think of Kamehameha's girls as Thurman, and Moanalua's girls as Carradine. Except, of course, there's no guarantee that Kamehameha's girls will kick Moanalua's girls' butts. But, if they do manage to beat them, that should be enough, right?

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by FlyingSquirrel808 »

talloola25 wrote: Sun Mar 06, 2022 8:51 pm Some thoughts from the finals and P4P list:
Dominant victories with an obvious mismatch - 106 Evan Kusumoto, 113 Cyrus Bucsit, 120 Joseph Lathwood, 132 Tyger Taam, 160 Blaze Sumiye, 182 Karter Nitahara
Dominant victories by evenly matched opponents - 145 Justyce Mercado, 170 Brycen Pagurayan
Best Matches of the night: 126 Labuanan over Ravida, 138 McBrayer over Okura, 152 Erolin over Soares
P4P list: This is based on opinion 100%. I am basing it off past accomplishments, current state finish, and victories over quality opponents
1. Karter Nitahara - No one looked more dominant to me the entire season. All wins by pin this season. I don't believe he ever got out of the 1st period
2. Dreddin Villalpando - Undefeated placer, might be the best wrestler on the list technically speaking .... would have won in my opinion, but still belongs regardless of what happened
3. Blaze Sumiye - 2x State champ one loss to Pagurayan, significant win over Pagurayan
4. Brycen Pagurayan - 2x Placer and State champ. Significant wins over previous unbeaten Desantos and Sumiye
5. Cyrus Bucsit - Undefeated Champ and utterly dominant this season, significant wins over Landford, Frias, Kusumoto(State Champ), Chanthasouabith, Kamimura
6. Taam - Undefeated and dominant, significant win over Porter and McBrayer
7. Joseph Lathwood - Undefeated and dominant. Only close match was over Nationally ranked Logan Lau
8. Kina'u McBrayer - State champ with losses, but has beaten Ravida this year(convincingly), Borce, Lum(convincingly), Goeas(convincingly), Grilho, Rapoza(convincingly) and Okura
9. Kade Okura - 1 loss in ultimate tie breaker. Dominant in all but 2 matches(against McBrayer)
10. Logan Lau - Undefeated and utterly dominant this season, significant wins over Landford, Frias, Kusumoto(state champ). Only loss is in overtime
HM: Yong - Undefeated and utterly dominant this season, significant wins over Kahele-Akeo and Aiwohi(I think)

Most of the finals matches went as I thought. The exceptions were at 126(honestly just didn't know enough about Labuanan, but thought he might be favored after watching him dismantle Carson Kim), 152(but in my defense, Soares would have won if he just let him escape in the final 7 seconds), and 195(I still think Kahele-Akeo was the better wrestler and didn't receive his nearfall in their semifinal bout but Holani proved to be the better man at the end). A lot of awesome matches and I hope they get posted somewhere for posterity purposes and for the up and comers to learn from.

I also thought Kamehameha Boys overperformed and their girls underperformed while Moanalua wrestled out of their minds for the most part.
Any other take aways ...... from wrestling lol?
I think your final P4P top ten list is pretty spot on. Nitahara looked like a man amongst boys all season. If I had to make one change (and I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion because of what happened), but it would be hard to keep DV in there. And please, before everyone jumps on me about this, I mean absolutely no disrespect at all. He was a great kid, an outstanding wrestler, and I have nothing negative to say about him. For this list's sake though, I would argue that Desantos would have to fit on there somewhere, and that might be the only person that you could take off this list. 120, 138, and 170 deserve to have two guys on their each. When you think P4P, I could see Lathwood and Lau doing quite well at 126 if either of them wanted to. Okura and McBrayer could have easily ran through 145 but chose to take on the deepest weight class to challenge themselves. Overall as a team though, Moanalua proved to have the strongest team from top to bottom in both men and women. Hats off to them.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by FlyingSquirrel808 »

HS Football Fanatic wrote: Mon Mar 07, 2022 7:26 am
808WrestlingFan wrote: Sun Mar 06, 2022 10:44 pm I was really impressed with the OIA teams this year. Specifically Moanalua, Mililani, and Kapolei. They don't have the same resources, facilities, or middle school programs as the private schools and some outer island teams but still managed to perform better imo. To be honest, I don’t even know how these private school teams with their scholarships and recruiting the top wrestlers when they are young are even losing to public school kids. Aside from Kamehameha and St. Louis the rest of the ILH should be ashamed.
@808WrestlingFan:

I'm not a wrestling expert, but, how many resources and how good must the facilities be, to have a good team? This might sound naive, but if a school has talent in enough weight-classes, how much more do they need than a wrestling mat? I suspect that Moanalua, specifically, had better talent, though apparently Kamehameha's girls screwed-up, which allowed Moanalua's girls to take the title? Of course, coaching is important, too. But, don't some of the OIA schools have good coaches? Also, is recruiting as big in wrestling as it is in football at some schools? Didn't know that. Don't mind me; I'm just thinking out loud in response to your post.
Facilities and resources go a long way (especially when you really think about what "resources" could mean). Having a dedicated wrestling room that is bigger than one mat size is a big bonus. Some teams cant even fit a full 42 x 42 mat in their room, which means less wrestling time for each kid throughout each practice (i.e., half the team can go live at one time instead of the full team). Moanalua's room is about a mat and a half. On top of that, I believe they got to practice 5 days a week from October, whereas many other teams share their room with cheerleading in the fall so they weren't able to get in their room full time (if at all) until mid December. Another advantage that private schools have over public schools is that they actually have middle school wrestling as part of the school. Public schools mostly get first year wrestlers as freshmen (unless they get the sporadic club kid that doesn't end up at a private school). As somebody mentioned, Moanalua is like the private school of public schools; they also have a middle school program (don't think it was running this year, but many of the current high school kids came from that middle school program a few years ago). You might be asking well then why don't other high schools start a middle school program at their feeder school? If only it were so easy. Many middle schools won't allow outside people to come start a team there. If they do, they run into facility use issues or even simply mat availability there. Imagine having all of your wrestlers coming into high school with 2+ years of experience already! Let's also not forget the fact that Moanalua's AD is the former wrestling coach years ago, so naturally he gives the coaches all the necessary supports there to be successful. I really don't understand how teams like Punahou and Iolani aren't kicking everyone's butt right now either. There's no reason for their teams to not be successful right now.

talloola25
First guy off the bench
First guy off the bench
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Joined: Sun Dec 01, 2013 8:35 pm

Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by talloola25 »

@FlyingSquirrel808 - completely agree on your take about Villalpando and Desantos. I didn't have him in originally, but then put him in where I felt he would have been if he had beaten all comers at 132 like I believed he would.

If I were to take him out, I'm not sure I wouldn't put Yong(Waianae) over Desantos though. His skillset was far more diverse than I originally thought. While Desantos was VERY dominant, I kind of felt his skillset was more limited than Yong's who had multiple takedowns and turns he used, while also exploiting the deficiencies of top wrestling by his ooponents throughout the year. That being said, we didn't get to see Desantos wrestle much longer than a period but 2x during the season so he didn't really need to display much more than he did.

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