KEAAU — The chalk is set heading into Saturday’s BIIF wrestling championships.
An unofficial tally among league coaches revealed the usual suspects as favorites. Kamehameha and Kealakehe on the boys side, with some support for Waiakea. For the girls, it’s Kealakehe and Kamehameha.
That makes sense — there have been a lot of people wearing blue, either the lighter kind favored by the Waveriders or the darker shade of the Warriors — running around at meets this season.
“They have the numbers,” Pahoa coach Elvin Lum said Jan. 26 at a meet at Keaau High. “If you have the numbers you can fill the weights. That’s all it takes.”
And then there are smaller squads, such as Lum’s Daggers, Konawaena and Hawaii Prep who are going through developmental stages.
The threat of a lava flow decimated Pahoa’s promising roster two seasons ago, sending some wrestlers to schools as far away as Kealakehe.
The Daggers’ program is still trying to recover.
“After the lava flow, some just gave up,” Lum said. “We’re talking about three-year wrestlers who could have gone to states.
“Hopefully, we can build it up again. With us, it’s finding the right group of kids in our community.”
He sees at least three of his wrestlers as title contenders, but, “They’ve been up and down,” he said.
And since they haven’t gone undefeated this season, Lum wasn’t going to name names.
“That’s the way I like it,” he said with a laugh.
When Walter Watson wrestled at Konawaena in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Wildcats had West Hawaii all to themselves. Now, in stark contrast, they have neighbor in Kealakehe, which is thriving under Ivan Louis.
But there is plenty of talent to go around, Watson said, a first-year coach. This season, he said he had 20 or 21 wrestlers, with only one senior.
“You just have to go and get them,” Watson said. “Some kids come to practice, but they just watch.
“The sport, they see all the conditioning and then some of them back off.”
While some watch, a pair of doers for Konawaena are Hailie Paahana (160 pounds) and Kapoina Bailey (168).
Bailey’s road to the title includes a big road block in Keaau’s Ivory Ayers, who already owns multiple BIIF titles.
“She runs through her competition, but when she comes up against Ivory, she has to get over that hump mentally,” Watson said.
In a matter of minutes at Keaau, Kamehameha’s Kayla Araki (155), Ayers and Kealakehe’s Roxie Umu (225) each rattled off pins.
They are among the biggest favorites Saturday along with Kealakehe’s Charlotte Taylor (112), a two-time champion, while Kamehameha’s Ka’ua Estrella is one of five returning champions for the Warriors boys.
“I feel in general, there are lot of good matchups,” HPA coach Hamilton Ford said. “The BIIF tournament will have a lot of battlegrounds, and it will be interesting to see.”
Two years removed from Ka Makani girls winning the title with eight wrestlers, they’re down to six and don’t feature nearly as much experience. Ford also said it was a rebuilding year for his eight-member boys squad.
“We’re measuring success by individual growth,” he said. “It’s the nature of a small school. With 10 varsity sports this winter, we’re all vying for a small pool of kids.
“It comes and it goes.”
