While the BIIF’s fall sports remain in a holding pattern until late September during the Department of Education’s vaccination-driven shutdown, at least one coach of a winter sport, wrestling, is proceeding as planned.
“As long as we’re in school, I believe we’re going to have a season,” said Rico Ventenilla, a teacher and coach at Konawaena High School.
An HHSAA champion for the Wildcats in 1994 and ‘95, Ventenilla is a member of a club that he would like to see become much less exclusive. Kamehameha’s Kamalu Anahu finally did the honors in 2020, ending the BIIF’s eight-year drought of producing a boys HHSAA individual champion, but Ventenilla wants the island to begin to emulate Maui’s schools, who annually do an admirable job of competing against the Oahu schools despite a much smaller population base.
“I used to coach at Kealakehe (from 2001-09), we took six BIIFs for the girls, four for the boys, but the goal is to compete at the state level. We can crack the top 12, but to crack the top five, we need to develop (wrestlers) at an early age.
“Maui has wrestling clubs, and they’ve been very successful at states. They only way to compete, no matter what we do, is we have to start them young.”
Enter Ventenilla’s South Kona Wrestling Club.
Practicing during a pandemic, when county and school gyms are shutdown, is a challenge.
“We were practicing in the park, but the community started helping us and giving up wrestling mats, people started giving us tarps,” Ventenilla said. “By the time we went to nationals, we were practicing four times a week at University of the Nations.”
A group of 17 wrestlers from the club, all but two from Konawaena, traveled to Las Vegas to compete in a junior national tournament along with Hilo-based Fellowship of Christian Athletes wrestling club, and the results were encouraging.
From Ventenilla’s club, seven wrestlers placed, including fourth-place finishes from Aliza Leander (girls 122 pounds, 18U), Abram Utrera, (boys 130, 15U), Reno Domingo (152, 15U) and EnHao Zheng (160 lbs, 15U). Rhonalynne Domingo was fifth in girls 160 15U, Jesse Schieber took sixth in boys 123 15U and Shey Paahana was sixth in girls 130 15U. (FCA coach Junior Tuyo-Scanlan couldn’t be reached to comment on how his wrestlers fared).
“The kids showed that Big Islanders can compete,” Ventenilla said. “It was a great exposure for them.”
“The good thing about it, my friends and my teammates from high school, they’re bringing their kids to the wrestling club.”
Ventenilla took over the Wildcats program in 2019-2020 with a roster dominated by underclassmen. After a BIIF season lost to the pandemic, Ventenilla anticipates 16 seniors, including Leander, headlining this year’s team – if there is a season.
By now, all 16 likely know one of Ventenilla’s favorite mantras: The harder I work, the luckier I get.
“Work ethic us number one,” he said. “We create our own luck, the harder we work.”