2021-2022 Wrestling Season

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808WrestlingFan
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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by 808WrestlingFan »

FlyingSquirrel808 wrote: Mon Mar 07, 2022 12:36 pm
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.
Well said. Exactly my point. If you have the continuity that a middle school program brings and you still aren’t in the top 5 at the state tournament then you need some serious reevaluation. Hats off to the OIA schools. They can’t really “recruit” because they have nothing really to offer other than good coaching and practice partners. They cant offer “scholarships”. I don’t really consider what Moanalua does as recruiting. If a public school kid wants to wrestle for their club or middle school coaches when they get to HS then to me that is fair game. Public school wrestling coaches have no say in who attends their school lol. Im very excited for next season. Hopefully there will be MIT and Officials tournaments. We need to get a wrestling specific blog or podcast or something going before next season. So many underclassmen and women studs returning its going to be an exciting season next year.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by justafan »

Don’t want to be that guy but Saint Louis is going to have the biggest what ifs. They were primed as f u c k

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by HS Football Fanatic »

@justafan:

Really? St Louis was supposed to take ILH this year? Well, I'm glad they didn't; I'd much rather have Kamehameha than them. Seems like St Louis is having a banner year: They took Open ILH football and D1 State basketball. And, I'm picking them to take D1 State baseball.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by HS Football Fanatic »

@FlyingSquirrel808:

Well, if you say Moanalua had the best teams top-to-bottom in for both boys and girls, then, I guess the best school won. Kamehameha was runner-up in both; I'd have preferred to see them sweep, as I like that school. But, it was what it was. I'd imagine Kamehameha painted big bull's-eyes on the backs of both of Moanalua's teams; like, "OK, we'll get you next year".

Yeah, I've noticed that most high school gyms have that upstairs room, where the wrestling team practices. When I was in high school in the mid-'70s, I visited Kamehameha Schools, and their gym didn't have an upstairs room; at that time, their gym was a huge quonset hut, so there was no upper room. Instead, the wrestling team had a separate portable, and I visited that portable. You say that at some schools the cheerleaders sometimes practice in the wrestling room, which reduces the time available for the wrestling team to practice. Why can't the cheerleaders just lay mats on the main gym floor, and practice there? Are there not enough mats? The ILH cheerleading championships were held at Kamehameha Schools' gym last year, and they laid-out a wrestling mat on the main floor of the gym, and that's where all the girls from the different schools competed. (This is the "new" Kamehameha gym that replaced the old quonset hut gym; it was built sometime in the late-'70s, I think, so it's not that new.) I guess those mats are pretty expensive; they're really thick and really big. For some reason, they were using Iolani School's wrestling mat. I don't know how it got there. I mean, wrestling mats are huge, thick, and wide.

You mentioned that you don't know why Punahou and Iolani aren't kicking everyones' butts in wrestling, given their ability to recruit, and their facilities. I'm glad they aren't kicking butt; I don't care for those two schools. As it was, I remember Iolani kicked butt in the late-'70s, but that was before they had girls. So, all they had was a boys' team, but they kicked butt throughout that period of the late-'70s.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by HS Football Fanatic »

808WrestlingFan:

You posted that there should be a wrestling-specific blog before next season. What's wrong with just creating a new thread right here on SportsHawaii? There've been such interesting discussions here; I'm kind of sad the season's over.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by justafan »

We’ll see what happens when things get back to normal. This year was strange. Congrats to moanalua boys and girls. The OIA did impress me with some of their guys and girls.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by talloola25 »

Which teams/wrestlers surprised you the most this season/state tournament? Who are you looking forward to next year? Are there any untouchable wrestlers next year?

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by FlyingSquirrel808 »

talloola25 wrote: Tue Mar 08, 2022 10:21 am Which teams/wrestlers surprised you the most this season/state tournament? Who are you looking forward to next year? Are there any untouchable wrestlers next year?
There were quite a few freshmen/sophomores that were state champ or highly placed this year:
Boys: Kusumoto, Lathwood, Labuanan, Taam, Logan Lau, Mercado, Erolin
Girls: Realin, Miguel, Molina, Nishida, Suzuki

Probably a few others I missed too. I don't know which of those will be untouchable, but many of them will be tough to beat for sure.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by talloola25 »

FlyingSquirrel808 wrote: Tue Mar 08, 2022 11:50 am
talloola25 wrote: Tue Mar 08, 2022 10:21 am Which teams/wrestlers surprised you the most this season/state tournament? Who are you looking forward to next year? Are there any untouchable wrestlers next year?
There were quite a few freshmen/sophomores that were state champ or highly placed this year:
Boys: Kusumoto, Lathwood, Labuanan, Taam, Logan Lau, Mercado, Erolin
Girls: Realin, Miguel, Molina, Nishida, Suzuki

Probably a few others I missed too. I don't know which of those will be untouchable, but many of them will be tough to beat for sure.
It's going to be interesting to see which ones land in the same weight class in the upcoming years. I can easily see Taam and Labuanan in the same weight class or Lathwood growing into it as well.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by 808WrestlingFan »

A lot of returning state champs next season. Nobody is untouchable. Assuming they dont all run from eachother.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by talloola25 »

808WrestlingFan wrote: Tue Mar 08, 2022 12:53 pm A lot of returning state champs next season. Nobody is untouchable. Assuming they dont all run from eachother.
I mean obviously mountain is unclimbable, but there are some pretty steep cliffs to climb. Coming into this year I felt Hikiji was untouchable. After watching Nitahara wrestle I felt no one was touching him. That being said, anything can happen to anyone. Who would you rate the least beatable for next year, knowing what we know.

Pagurayan only had battles with Sumiye and Desantos. Everything else was him teching/majoring/pinning. Those 2 graduate... who is challenging him?

Most of the others will see similar people that challenged them this year if they don't run into other state champs. Next years 126/132/138 should be interesting to see who ends up where.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by HS Football Fanatic »

808WrestlingFan wrote: Tue Mar 08, 2022 12:53 pm A lot of returning state champs next season. Nobody is untouchable. Assuming they dont all run from eachother.
@808WrestlingFan:

That's the thing. One of you wrestling guys posted that wrestlers run to challengers. I would have thought that wrestlers would try to avoid weight-classes that have dominant, buttkicking wrestlers.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by 808WrestlingFan »

HS Football Fanatic wrote: Tue Mar 08, 2022 5:29 pm
808WrestlingFan wrote: Tue Mar 08, 2022 12:53 pm A lot of returning state champs next season. Nobody is untouchable. Assuming they dont all run from eachother.
@808WrestlingFan:

That's the thing. One of you wrestling guys posted that wrestlers run to challengers. I would have thought that wrestlers would try to avoid weight-classes that have dominant, buttkicking wrestlers.
Every situation is different. Some kids are just built different and chase the competition. Some kids just go where they feel comfortable and are not concerned with who else is in the weight. Some kids run to the path of least resistance. Sometimes its for personal reasons and some times its for the needs of the team. I believe Moanalua made a bunch of weight changes going into the OIA tournament and it really paid off. I was really hoping to see Asuncion v Moniz v Daoang and Sumiye V Desantos V Pagarayan but I think they made the right decision in changing weight classes.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by HS Football Fanatic »

@808WrestlingFan:

One thing about wrestling: You have to worry about weight-classes. That surely complicates the sport. Contrast that to a sport that had just opened its season last week: Baseball. No weight-classes there; if you produce at your position, the coach will start you. Doesn't matter what your weight is. Another neat thing that baseball gives us is, baseball caps. You can wear the baseball cap of your alma mater, anywhere. Of course, the hard part is, actually getting your hands on one, especially one that's current. Schools get new caps every so many years.

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Re: 2021-2022 Wrestling Season

Post by GentlemanOfTheLou »

Overall summary of this year's season:

> Moanalua was obviously the most well-coordinated, talented, and skilled wrestling team on those mats and they showed that when they won both boys and girls' team state championships. Sumiye and Nitahara truly lead their team to that victory and paved the way for new up-and-comers and Lathwood and Taam sure gained my respect from wrestling on such an elite level as Freshmen.
> Kamehameha's team is very young and shows a hell of a lot of promise and they showed that on the mat when they secured a lot of second placers and two boys state champs with Kusumoto at the lightest weight and Dikilato at the heaviest weight and three girl state champs who won somewhat effortlessly.(I was really looking forward to that Lafaele and Dikilato rematch after Scotty pinned him in the ILH finals but then Lafaele lost to Kolinaise in the quarters.)
> Saint Louis had a very rough year but what surprised me was their ability to persevere through it and place third as a team in the state championship. After 2020, STL lost their Freshman 2020 runner-up Viliami Tongotoa who was going to have a very crucial part in Saint Louis' upcoming years. They were also a very injured team with both Bucsit and DV having ankle injuries early on in the season, and the 2020 185 runner-up Boston Opetaia having a very crucial knee injury from his football season. It is a very young team too, Balisican 126 4th place Sophomore, Cobb-Adams 138 Elim. Quarters Sophomore, Amerson 145 5th place Junior, Creech 160 Elim. Quarters Sophomore, McCreadie 170 4th place Freshman, and 285 Lafaele Elim. Quarters Sophomore. It was a very dark time for Saint Louis as they lost one of their fellow teammates Dreddin Villalpando, a highly respected wrestler and projected state champion of the 132 weight class and captain of the team, passing away the morning of the first day of the State Championships. However, they never let this faze them and ended the night with third place as a team and two state champs. I will truly be rooting for this team this upcoming season. #LLDV
> Waianae had a lot of promising wrestlers this year, with one fifth place wrestler in the girls 184 weight class, two runner-ups in the 195 and 132 weight classes and Yanderlei Wong winning the 220 weight class.
> Kapolei's Brycen Pagurayan and Kinau McBrayer blew their competition away with both winning state champ in the 170 and 138 and Kahele-Akeo and Joseph Keo placing third in their weight classes.

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