Photo) Monica Malcomson wrestling Brian Romanelli during practice on Tuesday in Mattituck.
Suffolk Times photos by Judy Ahrens
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Wrestler wins title at women's nationals
04/18/03MOLLY BLUE
Na'Tasha Umemoto earned the outstanding wrestler award at the FILA Cadet Women's Nationals tournament last weekend in St. Joseph, Minn.
The sophomore from David Douglas High School trains six days a week at the USA/Cobra Wrestling Club in Northeast Portland, and also wrestles for the Scots.
Umemoto was sidelined at the end of the high school season after breaking her collarbone snowboarding but recovered to dominate at the national tournament, winning the 1231/4-pound weight class.
"I shouldn't have been snowboarding -- I know that now, but it was after final exams and I wanted to relax," Umemoto said. "It wasn't too fun and at first, I thought I couldn't wrestle any more."
She can. Umemoto won four matches, including a 14-1 victory against Danyelle Hedin of Hawaii for the gold medal.
Umemoto, who was the FILA Cadet national champion at 1141/2 pounds last season, will compete at the junior national tournament in Fargo, N.D., in July.
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Grappling their way in
Girls find a spot on Mattituck JHS wrestling team
By Julie Lane 3/6/03
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Photo) Monica Malcomson wrestling Brian Romanelli during practice on Tuesday in Mattituck. |
MATTITUCK--Think wrestling is still an all-male domain? Think again.
And meet Monica Malcomson and Torie Cande of Mattituck Junior High School. They're the first girls to join the team in the 30 years that coach David Darrow has been involved with the sport.
"They just signed up and showed up," said coach Darrow. There was no special campaign to attract girls to the sport. But judging by their recent match performances, he's convinced they're as good as any of their male teammates or the opponents they'll face.
Monica convincingly pinned her male opponent from Hampton Bays last week. Torie was up two-to-one over a male opponent when her match got interrupted for a fire alarm.
"Saved by the bell, that guy was," coach Darrow said.
Both girls are 13 years old and in the seventh grade. And both are honor students. Besides wrestling, Monica is a figure skater who placed fifth out of 17 young skaters in the Empire State Games in Lake Placid this year. She's been skating for four years and one of her goals is to compete in the Olympics in that sport.
As for Torie, she's into cheerleading, gymnastics and soccer. And if her name sounds familiar, you may remember reading last year's story about her brother, Tyler, organizing cadets from his Reserve Officer Training Corps to raise funds for research into Crohn's disease. Torie suffers from the gastrointestinal inflammatory disease that causes painful abdominal crams, diarrhea, joint pains, fever and general weakness.
But to watch her with drill partner Frank Fenoy, you wouldn't have any idea of the extra challenge she faces in preparing for her matches.
And coach Darrow expects the same of his female wrestlers as he does of the guys. Noting that their match opponents aren't going to go easy on them, he wants to be sure they're prepared to hold their own.
"You're not at the beach; you're not on your living room floor," coach Darrow barks at his team as they go through their drill.
"They all know I'm tough," Monica said about her classmates' reaction to her trying out for junior varsity wrestling. It was "just a motivation to try something new," she said.
"I just liked it," said Torie, admitting that her big brother wishes she wasn't wrestling. But her friends "thought it was really cool," she said.
As for the boys who serve as drill partners for these girls, "It's about the same" as wrestling with a guy, Monica's partner Tyler Lademann said.
What's ahead for these two? Varsity wrestling, perhaps. Monica is hoping for a career in psychology, but first, of course, there's that Olympic skating challenge. Torie said it's too early for her to decide what she wants to do with her life. For the moment, she's just having fun.
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By Dennis Anderson 4/15/03
Advertiser Staff Writer
Joel Kawachi, who coached two Moanalua High girls state wrestling championship teams, said yesterday that he is resigning.
Kawachi, 33, said, "It's good timing for me. I've met every goal I set except one — the OIA boys championship. We were second to McKinley by two points in 2002. I'm very happy with what we've created and the people who have come through the program."
Kawachi, who will continue as a special education teacher at Moanalua, has been head boys and girls coach for five years and in the program at Moanalua about 10 years.
Kawachi and his staff coached 10 individual state champions, three national champions, a three-time state champion (Stephany Lee) and the first girls four-time state champion (Caylene Valdez).
The 2001 Menehune team was inducted into the Moanalua High School Hall of Fame and the 2002 team was the No. 1 high school at the U.S. Girls Wrestling Association championships.
Moanalua had a dual meet record of 42-7 in boys and 45-4 in girls in Kawachi's head coaching tenure, winning or sharing 12 O'ahu Interscholastic Association or divisional championships.
He has taken pride in the non-athletic achievements of his athletes as well.
"We've had two senior prom queens, two senior prom kings, three student body presidents, four valedictorians and a National Honor Society president, among other honors," Kawachi said.
Four of his athletes have wrestled in college and "some of them had no thought of going to college until they got involved in wrestling," he said.
Kawachi said that athletic director Dana Dias would interview all of his assistants and would open the job to outside applicants, as is required by the Department of Education.
He said he would remain involved with wrestling.
"There is so much for us to do to promote the sport, I will never leave it," he said.
Kawachi formally announced his resignation at a team banquet Sunday night.
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