Young Wrestlers Grow Strong, Plentiful On Leilehua Mats
By Jack Danilewicz
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Del.icio.usFor longtime Wahiawa resident Troy Caminos, there’s no better way to honor his alma mater Leilehua than by giving back to the school’s athletic program.
Indeed, the Mules were much on his mind when he took steps to establish the Police Activities League-sponsored youth wrestling program in Wahiawa in 2009.
“I bleed green and gold,” said Caminos, a former wrestler at Leilehua and a 1987 grad. “My son and daughter wrestled for Leilehua, and I noticed that when ninth-graders entered high school, it was too late for them to learn how to wrestle. We’d never had a feeder program for Leilehua.
“P.A.L. offers a lot of other sports like basketball, football and volleyball, but not every kid is interested in those sports,” he added. “I wanted to give the kids (in the Wahiawa community) another sport to try out.”
Caminos, in turn, enlisted the services of head coach Keoki Wagenman. With the support of P.A.L. wrestling coordinator Steve Posialia, Wahiawa’s wrestling program is thriving after little more than a year. The evidence can be found in part by the number of participants. Last fall, the program had 13 kids and a pair of coaches. This year, the number of wrestlers has increased to 50, and the number of coaches volunteering their time has increased to nine.
“Word has gotten out about wrestling,” said Caminos. “From what I see, I think we’ll grow even more.”
Along the way, support has come from many, including Leilehua and its athletic director James Toyota. “He’s helped us a lot. He let us practice there all of last year until we could find a place of our own to practice. This year, he gave us two wrestling mats to practice on at Wahiawa District Park.”
Wahiawa’s P.A.L. wrestlers practice five days a week typically, but they take Fridays off when they have a match on Saturday. Other Oahu high schools that have stepped in to host events - thus making the way for tournaments that include several programs - and Kahuku, Nanakuli and Waianae.
The P.A.L. wrestling program is opened to boys and girls age 5 to 14, and as many as 200 are often competing in Saturday tournaments.
To hear Caminos tell it, P.A.L. wrestlers are learning more than just techniques of the sport. “My own kids learned a lot of discipline in wrestling,” said Caminos, who noted that son Bronson and daughter Brittney also are coaching wrestling with P.A.L. “Just from the start point of this season to now, we’ve seen a lot of (positive) change in the kids - just in their attitude and in the way they carry themselves. A lot of it is because of the work of the coaches. They’re very dedicated. They’re here every day, and the kids feed off of the coaches.
“I’ve had parents come up to me and tell me, ‘This is the first sport my kid has ever wanted to join, and he just loves it.’ We get a lot of positive feedback from the parents.”
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