Letters for Monday, January 19, 2009

• Give wrestling a chance

• Horrors of Hanalei Bay

• Protecting our resources

Give wrestling a chance

I am writing in hopes to spark some interest in our community in a program that can help keep our kids occupied and out of trouble. I am talking about wrestling.

Coach Mac Piggot has been trying endlessly to have the KIF start a wrestling program in our schools and has been meeting resistance every step of the way. However, the KIF has recently agreed that if three certified wrestling officials reside on Kaua‘i, then the 2009-2010 school year would be a trial year for wrestling. I am one of the officials, undergoing training right on O‘ahu.

However, we are also lacking in interested kids and parents for this wrestling program.

This is not the type of wrestling you see on TV. We are talking about good old fashioned, get on the mat and wrestle to pin or outscore your opponent.

I wrestled when I was in high school, on the Mainland, and I will admit my freshman year I didn’t have any interest in this sport at all. My friends were on the team and told me to come to a meet and I did and I was hooked on wrestling, ever since.

The following year I joined the team and stayed on the team until I graduated, improving every year in my weight class. Not only was I competing for the team but I was also keeping for myself.

Wrestling is a sport designed for team and individual competition at the same time. Not only do you compete against other schools in dual meets, but you can compete in individual tournaments against many schools.

Anyone of any size can wrestle. Weight classes are available from 108 pounds up to 285 pounds for the men. And for women — yes girls can compete, too — the weight classes range from 98 pounds up to 220 pounds.

If you have never wrestled, you can learn. Basics are taught every day at practice and each time you practice and compete, the better you get.

So what we need to move forward is prospective wrestlers. We can have all the certified officials, but if we don’t have kids to wrestle than there is no program. So give it a try, I guarantee the first time you try it, you will be hooked.

For more information, check Coach Piggot’s program at www.westside-wrestling.com. Hope to see you on the mat.

• Matt Beadle, Lihu‘e

Horrors of Hanalei Bay

I have two small dogs; Emma is seven pounds and Petie is 12 pounds. We have walked Hanalei Bay every day for the last five years. Everyone, from 2 to 92, know and enjoy them — especially the keiki — and they bring joy to visitors who visit year after year.

Recently, however, a situation has turned our walks into a horror. There are many local people, including some of my own friends, who will not leash their dogs when we walk by and, indeed, prevent us from passing by on our walk without me having to pick my dogs up and hold them above harm’s way.

I’ve been bitten on three occasions, scratched badly enough that I had to have antibiotics, and have had to stitch up Petie on three occasions as well. On one of our walks, a jogger with two Australian shepherds screamed at me to pick up my dogs as hers charged us.

The next day I picked my dogs up because a friend’s Lab was approaching. She yelled at me to put them down because holding my dogs was upsetting her dog. So I put them down and her dog attacked mine. In that process, her dog ripped open two large gashes in my leg.

I’ve tried to time our walks to avoid people who jog or walk with their dogs off leash — usually in the morning — and those who take their dogs to the beach on weekends so that it will minimize contact and prevent injury or death to my dogs.

I’m not alone. People on the beach see their kids trampled into the surf by large dogs just playing. People have their beach sites run through by dogs just playing. I’ve witnessed a pit bull maim a golden retriever before the owner could pull him off. The dog died in the grief-stricken arms of his owner, while the pit bull owner skulked away.

The same people do the same things each day. They have large dogs, yet I never see them with plastic bags to pick up after their dogs and I end up picking up to five pounds of their dogs’ feces on our walks. I’ve even had to wait until these dogs have finished, while the owner watched, to pick up their dog’s poop.

They don’t even have leashes. The surfers who take their dogs to the beach, leave them on the shore while they’re in the water, thereby leaving an acre or more untenable, impassable for anyone else.

This walk is the main source of exercise for my dogs and me. It is the most beautiful, peaceful place in the world. Many of my friends say that they are so intimidated by irresponsible dog owners that they feel that they can no longer go there with their pets.

Please be responsible owners. Let’s coexist with our beloved pets so that no one gets hurt anymore.

• Dr. Skip Rush, Princeville

Protecting our resources

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Hawai‘i must be commended for their focused efforts in protecting the precious and finite water resources on the island of Maui.

This brings hope to the rest of the islands for similar decisions and actions to take place, likewise. It is time to be mindful and aware that the demands on the distribution and use of our major rivers here on the island of Kaua‘i need to be as carefully monitored.

The watershed councils have been in the forefront in keeping a watchful eye on the natural finite resources of our ‘aina. The leaders of these groups — Maka‘ala, Cheryl and Rhoda — have given of their time and insights to be involved in protecting and preserving our beloved Kaua‘i.

It is also noteworthy to see the keiki o ka ‘aina take notice of their environment, as well. An effort to involve them in a project to be “stewards of the land” up in Koke‘e is in the works.

Also, the establishment of an island-wide grassroots organization has been formed to focus on the “plight of the honeybees” which are under world-wide threat with the infestation of the varroa mite.

Knowing that steps are being taken to mitigate the problems and concerns we face here on the island of Kaua‘i is most reassuring and speaks well of the citizens of the “Garden Island.”

• Jose Bulatao, Jr., Kekaha