Monday Morning MIL: Family feeling as coaches, athletes with Maui ties return for wrestling meet

KĪHEI — For nearly three decades, Oregon has been home for former Baldwin High wrestler Guy Takahashi and former Baldwin coach Frank Johnson.

But in their return to the 55th annual Garner Ivey Maui Invitational Wrestling Tournament Friday and Saturday in Kīhei, the Maui County family they left about three decades ago embraced them in familiar fashion.

Takahashi, a 1990 Baldwin High School graduate, brought 27 wrestlers from the Forest Grove High School teams he coaches in Oregon. His teams won both the boys and girls titles over the weekend and his daughter earned the tournament’s namesake award.

“This is the first time Forest Grove High School has ever came, any team, to Hawai’i,” said Takahashi, who previously coached fro 27 years at Century Hills High School in Hillsboro, Ore. “So it’s very special for this group of kids.”

Johnson, Baldwin’s wrestling coach for four years in the mid-1990s, was at the meet in large part to recruit wrestlers to the program he coaches at Linfield University in McMinnville, Ore.

“This is my first time coming back to this meet as a coach,” Johnson said, adding that while at Baldwin, “I remember hosting this meet.”

Both also came with their immediate families to Maui.

Johnson’s son Josh coaches on Takahashi’s staff and Tammy Johnson, Josh’s mom and Frank’s wife, is the statistician for the Forest Grove High School teams and teaches at the school.

Guy Takahashi was a three-time NAIA all-American at Pacific University in Forest Grove from 1992-96 and Frank Johnson was head coach at Pacific later from 1997 to 2002. Johnson has coached high school teams in Kennewick, Wash.; Forest Grove; and Valor Christian in Highlands Ranch, Colo. He then coached at Warner Pacific University from 2014 to 2021, and is now in his second season at Linfield.

Johnson loved what he saw as he watched from just behind the perimeter of the mats as the championship session ran Saturday afternoon at the South Maui Community Gymnasium. Johnson hopes to build his team with some of the talent he watched Friday and Saturday in South Maui.

“I mean, we want good kids,” he said. “And I, in particular, I want kids from Hawai’i on my team.”

The family feeling was everywhere in the packed gym on Saturday. Takahashi said the trip that began Wednesday and ends today was the first time on an airplane for several of his wrestlers. They did hard workouts on Wednesday and Thursday, running with teammates on their backs up and down ‘Īao Valley State Park on Wednesday and on the beach from Mā‘alaea to Kīhei on Friday.

“For me, it’s just coming home and having them experience the culture,” Guy Takahashi said. “To me, it’s nothing about the wrestling and I tell them that the whole time. That’s why most of my kids are up in weight classes because I just want them to enjoy, learn on the mats. Off the mats, let these kids learn the culture, about people, the love, the aloha, and all that. Wrestling is secondary on this trip.”

Kailea Takahashi, a Forest Grove senior, won the girls 130-pound title Saturday with her dad in her corner and mom Vallie and older sister Makaila, a wrestler and soccer player at Pacific, rooting from the stands. The Takahashi family visits Maui every summer to see relatives, but this was Kailea Takahashi’s first trip here for wrestling. Her father brought his Century High School team five times.

“He said they have good girls, they’re all tough, it’s a totally different style than Oregon,” Kailea said of what her dad told her to expect on the mat. “I totally agree with that, these girls here are tough and it’s not what I’m used to.”

Kailea Takahashi won the Garner Ivey Award for girls in the event — the plaque is presented to a senior wrestler who has the characteristics of Garner Ivey, the deceased legendary Baldwin coach who espoused commitment, integrity, passion, character, respect and excellence.

“I love being back home, it’s very comforting,” Kailea Takahashi said. “I feel just way more relaxed and it’s a good place to be when you can go to the beach whenever you want and it’s always sunny.” 

Mikah Labuanan, a Kamehameha Maui senior who is a three-time state champion, won the Ivey Award and most outstanding wrestler at 150 pounds and above for boys.

Labuanan pinned Anakin Hayes of Lahainaluna 3:37 into the boys 150-pound final. Labuanan has won 126-, 132- and 144-pound state titles in his first three seasons and can become the first Maui Interscholastic League boy wrestler to win four state crowns this year.

“I just remember to love the process, come into the (wrestling) room grateful every day because this is my senior year and although there will be more wrestling in the future through college — being in high school is very special, so I just come into the room every day grateful for the opportunity to wrestle, to be in this position and be around my friends,” Labuanan said.

Jona Dudoit, a Moloka’i High School junior, won the 120-pound title and was named the outstanding boys wrestler in the below 150-pound category. Dudoit was second to Lānaʻi state champion Diesel Del Rosario in the 120 class in this meet in each of the last two seasons. Del Rosario is now wrestling collegiately at Southern Oregon University.

“That felt good to me,” Dudoit said. “I put in a lot of work in the offseason and I don’t know, it’s coming. It’s coming. … I learned from Diesel: Don’t give up, never give up. Just keep pushing.”

Baldwin senior Jahlia Miguel is a two-time state champion with college wrestling in her sights — she won her fourth Ivey title on Saturday, at 170 with an 8-0 win over Baldwin teammate Shiloh Kamaka. Miguel, who spoke with several college coaches in attendance, including Johnson, has clearly taken on a leadership role this season.

“Being a leader is a lot,” said Miguel, who plans to study biochemistry on a pre-medicine track in college. “I try my best to have kids look up to me and follow in my footsteps, but I just want people younger than me to do even better than me. … I want to go to college and take my family far.”

Forest Grove won each of the team titles, scoring 229 points to easily outdistance second-place King Kekaulike (159) in the boys team race. Kamehameha Maui (133) was fourth among the boys, Baldwin (129) fifth, Lahainaluna (125.5) sixth, Maui High and Moloka’i (116.5) tied for seventh, Kūlanihāko’i (67) was 10th, Lānaʻi (35.5) 11th, Hana (12.5) 12th and Maui Prep (4) was 14th.

In the girls team race, Forest Grove edged Baldwin 134-132.5 for the title. Kamehameha Maui (120) was third, Moloka’i (66) fifth, King Kekaulike (59) sixth, Lahainaluna (54) seventh, Kūlanihāko’i (49) eighth, Hana (49) ninth, Maui High (48.5) 10th and Lānaʻi (7) was 12th.

The most outstanding wrestler awards for girls went to Kierra Holokai of Kamehameha Maui for 130 pounds and below, and Kennedy Blanton of Forest Grove for 135 and above.  

HJI’s “Monday Morning MIL” columns appear weekly on Monday mornings with updates on local sports in the Maui Interscholastic League and elsewhere around Maui County. Please send column ideas — anything having to do with sports in Maui County — as well as results and photos to rob@hjinow.org.