KAPA‘A — Wrestling is alive on Kaua‘i. That is one of the messages that Scott Kaui, one of the Kaua‘i Police Activities League coordinators, wants people to know. On Thursday night, the KPAL wrestlers from the Eastside club and the
KAPA‘A — Wrestling is alive on Kaua‘i.
That is one of the messages that Scott Kaui, one of the Kaua‘i Police Activities League coordinators, wants people to know.
On Thursday night, the KPAL wrestlers from the Eastside club and the Westside Wrestling Club hosted a scrimmage tournament at the Kapa‘a Armory.
“We don’t have uniforms, and we didn’t keep team points,” Kaui said. “It was kind of a scrimmage so the students would have some competition.”
According to results received from Coach Mac Pigott of the Westside Wrestling Club, nine wrestlers from the Westside program took seven of the 11 matches held.
Kymani Counts, 7, wrestling in the 53-pound class finished by winning the two matches he competed in, overcoming a near fall by Braeden Yokoyama in the first match in the third round.
Counts came back for a first round pin over Kevin Peterson.
Jhensen White, 6, 75 pounds, dominated the first two rounds over Westside’s Jackson Peterson, 7, 81 pounds.
But Peterson ignited the crowd in the third round when he came back to tie the score to force a sudden death overtime where White won on a takedown.
Michael Gabriel and Daniel Quinlan both wrestled two matches and accounted for the Westside’s only wins in the night.
Kaui said they will host another similar tournament next Thursday at the Kato Gym in Kalaheo starting at 6 p.m.
There is no admission and the coaches invite people to come and see the students in action.
Last year, the KPAL wrestling program had three teams on the island with tournaments held weekly at the Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School’s open gym which attracted a large following.
“One of our goals is to get scholarships for the students,” said Kaui, who has a background in wrestling.
“There’s a lot of talent out there, and students and parents need to realize that these kids can go to college on wrestling scholarships.”
Pigott agreed, noting that Kaua‘i has a lot of wrestling talent, and some of the students are capable of winning “D” division scholarships.
Kaui pointed to Quinlan who finished the 2007 season as the No. 2 wrestler in the Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association’s state championships with a 21-2 record.
“He was a Kaua‘i wrestler,” Kaui said. “His dad is a captain at the Waimea fire station. But there is no wrestling at the high school level so he moved to Maui.”
Pigott said Quinlan moved when he was a sophomore, and now, as a junior, is already No. 2 in the state.
Gabriel won his division last year at the AAU State Championships on Maui, Pigott said.
The Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation does not have a wrestling program on its sports calendar, and although there was talk of trying to get a program started, none exists today.
Pigott said they have started a petition drive to get the KIF to initiate wrestling as a high school sport.
“We don’t want to send kids away because they cannot wrestle,” Kaui said. “We’re trying to keep the families together here.”
Pigott, a National Federation of High Schools Certified Coach, said he is willing to work with individuals who want to become certified as coaches.
He is also a USAW Bronze Certified Coach.
But for Thursday night, Quinlan, currently home for spring break, took to the mat, not only to wrestle, but to work with the younger students in improving their techniques on the mat.
Currently, coach Larry Richardson coaches the Eastside program which meets at the Kapa‘a Armory.
“Our season is supposed to last until May,” Kaui said. “But we started out with about 30 kids. With football running 10 months out of the year, a lot of kids who want to play football dropped out.”
He added that there were about 50 to 60 people expressing interest before the season started, but the logistics of driving all the way to Kapa‘a kept other wrestlers away.
Lihu‘e, which had a program last year, no longer has a program so people wanting to wrestle need to get to either the Kapa‘a or Westside programs, he said.
Pigott said there were two programs on the Westside previously, but they moved into the KPAL family so now, there is one program which has a roster of about 30 students ranging in age from 3 to 16 years old.
“But don’t underestimate the 3-year-old,” Pigott said. “He’s really strong, and he’s enthusiastic.”
Kaui said one of his goals this year is to try and get students over to O‘ahu to wrestle.
“This is not WWF or ju-jitsu,” Kaui said. “A lot of people get wrestling confused. It’s a sport, and in order for it to succeed, we need to have competition.”
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com
