Wrestling Into the New Year

Wrestling Into the New Year

Take a look on what the future holds for Damien Memorial Wrestling.

With the 2022-2023 wrestling season approaching its finale, Damien Memorial hopes to leave this year's state tournament with a gold medal. Ke Ali’i caught up with one of Damien’s most experienced wrestlers, Jonah Ching, to get all the details of what this team means to him and what the future of Damien wrestling looks like. Jonah Ching has been wrestling for Damien since the 7th grade and is now a senior who has already wrapped up his season at the ILH Championships on February 11th. It’s also worth noting that he’s been playing football since the ninth grade and served as one of the team captains in the 2022-2023 ILH Football season as well. Just as he is devoted to his faith in God, Jonah is just as devoted to making the future generation the best they can be. 

Jonah Ching is a veteran and has seen what this wrestling team is capable of. He states that “every single person” on the team has the potential to walk out of this year’s HHSAA state tournament with a podium finish. There is a ton of young talent on the team, and most of the underclassmen played ball with him. So, there is a lot of mutual respect amongst the group. After finishing his season on February 11th, Jonah looks to help those qualified to bring home a gold medal.

For those interested in wrestling, Jonah has a few words of advice. In an interview with him, he makes it clear that “no one will last in wrestling if they join it for fun”. He also argues that it’s one of and if not, “the toughest” sport out there. However, Ching also makes it clear that at a certain level and depending on what sports people have played, every sport is the “toughest sport”. So why bother joining if there’s no fun? Jonah strongly believes that wrestling is “the most disciplining” sport and the lessons he learns on the mat, transfer off the mat as well. There is a lot of physical work in wrestling, but none of that matters if your mind isn’t trained. Wrestling has taught Jonah that anything can happen and what matters most is how you respond to it. The biggest lesson that Jonah has taken away from wrestling is “to look at the answer instead of focusing on the problem.” 

Joining the wrestling team isn’t hard. Everyone is welcome no matter how young you are. Athlete or not, one can expect to be a part of a family. After joining, wrestlers can be expected to be welcomed by Coach T.C. and Coach Jon, two of Damien’s lifelong coaches. Both of these coaches were present when Connor Villarmia won back-to-back state titles for Damien in 2015 & 2016. Last year’s team struggled a bit due to the absence of wrestling in 2021. Wrestlers hadn’t competed on the mat in over a year and dealt with a small varsity team in 2022. 

Going into the 2023 season, Jonah did quite well in preseason. With wins over Moanalua wrestlers and Kamehameha wrestlers, Jonah took that same energy into the regular season. Taking down opponents with ankle picks and low singles, Jonah mauled his way through the brackets. Ke Ali’i picked up some information on how the year goes. First, wrestlers start with preseason and wrestle schools from all over the state. Jonah explains that after preseason is over, he has “a good look at where he’s at” in terms of skill. Then, the ILH season starts. ILH wrestlers will only wrestle other ILH opponents and OIA will strictly wrestle OIA opponents as well. After a couple of months, championships arrive. This is essentially the “ticket” to the HHSAA State Championships. From there, wrestlers from all over the state will meet in one stadium, hoping for a shot at the podium.

Damien’s wrestling team has a bright future ahead of them. Jonah Ching along with a couple of other seniors will be leaving this team and passing the torch to the underclassmen. After being with the team for so long, Jonah Ching realizes that everything this team has accomplished was made possible due to the amount of work they’ve put in. Everything he has ever done for this team will have an impact that will affect generations to come. He puts his trust in next year’s seniors with the hopes that they can keep the flame burning.