My headline for a story should have been “Mats return inside JDHS gymnasium for wrestling tournament.”
That would have been great.
I could have included some history on the tournament…a few wrestlers to watch…maybe if fry bread was going to be served in the school commons.
Now I just hope adults show up to supervise the surrounding school buildings or at least supervise their kids.
I get it, being a parent is hard and being a teacher is hard and being a coach and administrator is hard.
But you know what is hard?
Freaking wrestling is hard!
I only wrestled once as a sport. Middle school P.E..
Some Norwegian lad that baked lefse as a side gig basically tied me up in a fisherman’s knot that rearranged my gym gear. So I moved down a weight class and some Norwegian lass who put horseshoes on garbage bears as a summer money-maker basically further rearranged my gym gear into a dress, which I reluctantly had to wear the rest of the school year.
Some of my classmates made a career of wrestling. They won matches, titles and championships. The community did not see the work leading up to that, though: the early morning sprints, the lunch weight sessions, the practices at the end of school day, the sweat and torture endured as their bodies learned to move with speed, grace and strength in a calculated plan to defeat an opponent without harming him.
Try that in the schoolyard.
You can’t bully if you take up the sport of wrestling.
You learn about respect, honor, family, sportsmanship…all things that thugs with cell phones recording YouTube videos and craving attention will wish for when they pick the wrong fight somewhere down the road.
It will happen. Maybe not today. Karma is a, well, it’s a wrestler!
If you watch MMA…pick the grappler.
Don’t irritate the rogue driver on the freeway…he could be a grappler.
Don’t pick on schoolmates…friends may be grapplers.
So did you know that the crimes of assault, assault and battery, and aggravated assault all involve intentional harm inflicted on a person or persons by another person or persons?
OK. Did you also know that even if it is a mutually agreed upon matching of fisticuffs, and if harm occurs, the harmer can be charged with a crime.
Did you also know if a person places another person in fear of bodily harm or in fear of an attack or imminent physical harm, even if harm is not inflicted, the assaulter can be arrested even if not striking the victim?
Did you know not helping or rendering aid during an assault is also a crime?
Sigh…I wish I had the space to tell you about this weekend’s wrestling tournament.
Let me finish watching the 1985 classic “Vision Quest” and I will.
(Roughly one hour and 47 minutes later)
So this weekend’s tournament was formerly known as the Brandon Pilot Wrestling Invitational, now it is the Southeast Showdown. It brings the same skill and athleticism as in the past.
The twists and turns, takedowns and reversals if you will, of the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé wrestling program have come full circle this weekend when teams from around Southeast Alaska enter the George Houston Gymnasium on Friday and Saturday.
“There will be some long days and high-caliber wrestling,” JDHS head coach Adam Messmer said.
That, sir, is an understatement.
Long days AND nights.
Action begins at 5 p.m. Friday with multiple weight bracket round-robin matches and is expected to go late into the night.
Saturday action starts at 9:30 a.m. with wrestlers seeded in their various weight brackets per their records from the previous night.
The championship finals and senior night starts at 6 p.m. Saturday.
This is traditionally the season’s only home tournament.
The tournament was first named in honor of Brandon Pilot, a promising Crimson Bears freshman wrestler who died in a car accident on Fish Creek Road on Nov. 18, 2000. That accident involved drinking and fast driving.
A week later, the wrestling team went on with the scheduled Thanksgiving Classic Wrestling Meet, dedicating it to Pilot’s memory and won the team title.
The following year (2001) the tournament was renamed in his honor, and each year since it has showcased wrestling talent from across Southeast.
When Thunder Mountain High School founded their wrestling program in 2009 the school began hosting the tournament as they had more space. When the wrestling programs combined in 2016 under TMHS the tournament continued there under the same name until last season when it was renamed the Southeast Showdown.
Now the tournament is back inside the JDHS gym and over 200 grapplers are expected to be showcasing their and their school’s wrestling talents. The tournament’s outstanding wrestler is given the Brandon Pilot trophy.
Awards are given for weight classes and the team title.
High school wrestlers from Craig, Haines, Hoonah, JDHS, Kake, Ketchikan, Metlakatla, Mt. Edgecumbe, Petersburg, Sitka, Skagway and Wrangell are expected.
Some of last season’s state tournament and showdown grapplers return.
JDHS sophomores Camden Messmer and Landyn Dunn, and senior Colton Cummins. KTN senior Gage Massin at 140 and classmate Hunter Cowan at 152. WRG junior Ben Houser at 130.
JDHS senior Hayden Aube is defending his 145-pound title. Classmates Sage Shultz at 145, Justus Darbonne at 152 and Carvin Hass and Hayden Aube at 160 are state contenders. Hass is defending his SS title win over now-junior teammate Alex Marx-Beierly.
MEHS senior Richard Didrickson is bringing his 171-pound state tournament championship talent to the 189-pounders where JDHS senior Merrick Hartman resides. MEHS sophomore Kaden Herrmann is at 171 along with JDHS sophomores Tyler Oudekerk, William Dapcevich and Jaxin Jim, junior Jaycen White and senior Johnathyn Kestel.
KTN senior Paul Thompson brings his fifth-place state tournament placing at 215 back. SIT senior Silas Ferguson has moved from his fourth-place state tourney weight of 215 up to 285. MEHS junior Donovan Standifer placed third at state at 285 and is expected on the mat along with JDHS junior Kyle Carter.
JDHS freshmen girls Nixie Schooler, Toriana Johnson, Sunny Dutton and Lacy Whitehead get to show off their mat skills. Schooler and Kake sophomore Eden Hallingstad will be tested by MEHS seniors Hayden Naneng and Dorothea Okitkun at 107.
The Hoonah girls feature 114-pound sophomore Jora Savland, 126-pound senior Krista Howland and 145-pound freshman Harlee Brown.
KTN junior Summer Boiling is ranked in the top three of the state girls at 126 pounds. Wrangell’s Della Churchill at 120.
There are too many to list in this space…JDHS alone will bring 44 grapplers to weight brackets.
Of course, all this depends on weigh-ins Friday. If they are selling fry bread most grapplers will still clear until they get seeded.
Ketchikan won the Showdown last year by a narrow margin and that translated into more inspiration for the Juneau grapplers formally known as TMHS who would take the Region V team championship away from the Kings for the first time in 15 years.
Some key wrestling terms:
pin (p.) — When a wrestler holds his or her opponent’s shoulders on the wrestling mat for a set amount of time.
Technical fall (t.f.) — Getting ahead of one’s opponent by 15 points or more to win the match.
Major decision (m.d.) — Getting ahead of one’s opponent by 8-14 points to win the match.
Decision (d.) — Winning the match by fewer than 8 points.
Tiebreaker (t.b.) — A match that is tied after three rounds and a sudden victory period. The wrestler who scores the most points in this period wins that match.
Klas down (k.d.) — A match where wrestlers tumble out of bounds and accidentally knock me over because I am not quick enough to move away with camera and notepad intact.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stople@juneauempire.com.
