THE WEIGH-IN
A Hawaii High School Wrestling Column
By Nick Abramo, Bedrock Sports Hawaii
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I have written sports columns before in a career that stretches back to, oh golly, the days of the Flintstones and the Bedrock Daily Granite.
It’s fun, fun, fun — a real yabba-dabba-doo time — for reporters, who usually are tasked with more straightforward news stories. In journalism, if you have a column, you get to give your opinion and speak in the first person or write analysis on a hot topic if you want to.
Eh, but nowadays in this insta-journalistic world, opinion and first-person analysis is way more a part of the game than it used to be. These days at Bedrock Sports Hawaii, I can pretty much do opinion and analysis with any story, and I often do, but not always.
Still, it’s nice to have that thing called a column, and that’s what this here thing will be.
Back in 1882 (wait, that’s really 1982 for those who are paying attention), I started “Sports to Ponder” at the Marlboro Enterprise and Hudson Daily Sun in Massachusetts. I also used that same name throughout the 1990s at The Garden Island newspaper on Kauai.
At the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, I wrote an occasional column in rotation fashion with other reporters called “Press Box.” And then, I had the bright idea to start one called “Prose” (but the spelling was stylized to show that it was Pros with an arrow pointing to show that a smaller font ‘E’ was being tacked on at the end). The (dumb) idea was that I would write about Hawaii athletes who were in the pros from the minors all the way up to the majors. I had already been writing more straightforward stories about many of them anyway. It seemed like a good fit. Until it fizzled after a few attempts. The fizzling is one thing, but what about that (dumb) name? I recall Billy Hull, a friend and a colleague, would smile and say it to me for fun, with us both knowing that many people would not get the idea that I was trying to combine “pros” with “prose.” And I can still hear Billy pronouncing it like this: “Pro-Say”).
And, yo, yo, yo. It was not long after that when I had to chalk that effort up to utter failure. You learn though.
This time, the name of the column will not be the problem because it’s doubtful that anyone won’t get it.
So, yup, it’s time to WEIGH IN (verb) with this here new column called “The Weigh-In” (hyphenated noun).
Today’s topic is about singlets and two-piece uniforms, the latter is something relatively new to the sport.
And part of this subject is also about body image. Some who are first introduced to the sport, it has been well documented, have historically had trouble adjusting to the idea of competing with a skimpy outfit on. And part of the reason the sport added the two-piece uniform was to give people a choice and possibly help grow the sport even more.
Bedrock Sports Hawaii recently got input from three coaches about this topic and what most wrestlers are using for their uniform.
Tangential note: If you notice that these three coaches are the same ones who gave input on a recent story about possible weight-class changes, it’s not because they are the only three coaches whose opinion we value. It’s because these two topics were lumped in together when I was gathering information from them. For sure, Bedrock Sports will be looking for opinions of other coaches around the state when future topics crop up.
Below is a summary of how those three coaches approach the singlets vs. two-piece uniform discussion.
>> Racer Moody, Kalani:
“I definitely like that the kids now have the choice. I believe we were actually the first team to use two pieces in competition here in Hawaii about four to five years ago. It’s funny though, only my first-year boy wrestlers want to wear the two pieces for a couple of tournaments, then they start to build the confidence to wear a singlet like all the varsity guys do. Then they even start hiking their singlet up higher and wanting a smaller size so they can show off their muscles more.
>> Lucas Misaki, Moanalua:
“Some like to say that if they aren’t tough enough to wear the singlet then they aren’t tough enough to wrestle, and to that I’ll say ‘What?’ Winning a wrestling match only gets harder year after year due to kids wrestling year round and starting at a younger age. The singlet is an unnecessary barrier of entry to wrestling to two groups — the casual fan and most kids who would fall in love with this sport if they would just give it a try if not for an unbreakable negative connotation (of the skimpy singlet). But for traditionalists (who see no value in the two-piece uniform), the two-piece is the same story of Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” — how fear of the unknown hinders the development of informed opinions. Imagine a crowd of fans wearing the same uniform as their favorite wrestler like the do for NBA or NFL athletes (which is not possible with the singlet)? More people would see and appreciate the hardest sport around and our kids will feel the glory they deserve. We need to be as agile as the NFL with understanding the entertainment value of our sport and not stuck in the past like the dying sport of baseball.”
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