Koral Sugiyama Classic wrestling tournament gathers 150 girls competitors
Shoshone-Bannock wrestler Koral Sugiyama.
By BREE BAKER
Sho-Ban News
POCATELLO — The First Annual Koral Sugiyama Classic, girls wrestling tournament named after Shoshone-Bannock tribal member, Koral Sugiyama was February 7 and 8 in Pocatello at Irving Middle School.
The tournament was at Irving Middle School because Sugiyama first started her wrestling career in the eighth grade. Over 150 female wrestlers from 15 Idaho high schools competed in the tournament. High schools present were Malad, Bonneville, Eagle, Preston, Mountain Home, Marsh Valley, Century, Skyline, Thunder Ridge, Aberdeen, Pocatello, Bear Lake, Challis, Highland, and Salmon.
Native student Cinncee Washakie from Highland High School competed at the event. There were 12 weight classes ranging from the 100’s to the 200’s, the first place winners from the were Raelynn O`Connor from Salmon in the 100 pound weight class, Tommy Stone from Eagle in the 107 pound weight class, Kinzie Williams from American Falls in the 114 pound weight class, Gracie Price from Thunder Ridge in the 120 pound weight class, Anika Jablonski from Highland in the 126 pound weight class, Desirae Haven from Malad in the 132 pound weight class, Ava Price from Thunder Ridge in the 138 pound weight class, Heather Byrne from Bonneville in the 145 pound weight class, Kate Allred from Preston in the 152 pound weight class, Molly Olague from Skyline in the 165 pound weight class, Shauna Anderson from Thunder Ridge in the 185 pound weight class, Bella Smith from Malad in the 235 pound weight class.
On Friday, Sugiyama gave a welcome to those in attendance. She said, “There weren’t very many Idaho girls wrestling, there was like five that I would see at tournaments. So, it’s crazy to see how many people are here today.” She wished the participants good luck and thanked everyone for coming and said, “I hope you guys have fun, you show up, that’s what I did, I showed up, wrestled, worked hard, and had fun.”
Sugiyama places an award medal on a wrestler.
The matches went on and there were three mats at the event. Wrestling matches continued Saturday at 9 a.m. and around 1 p.m. it was time for the face-offs, competitors for first and second place came out and wrestled for their places. After each weight class competed, it was time for awards. Sugiyama handed out awards and took photos with winners. Fifth through second winners were each awarded medals and first place winners were awarded a Koral Sugiyama Classic T-shirt, autographed card, and gold medal.
JB Plato and Teresa Praska worked together and came up with the idea for an all-girls wrestling tournament. When asked how she felt about the event and having it bearing her name Sugiyama said “It felt crazy. When I think about it, it makes me feel really small, intimidated, and like an imposter but we have grown a lot since I was in school.” She said the tournament is about the girls and showcasing that growth.
Sugiyama said she loves coming back home and always takes time to see her former high school coach JB Plato, “I wouldn’t be here without him, this wouldn’t be happening without him.” She shared “he started building on the girl’s state championship, making sure Idaho got sanctioned for that. I’m thankful for him.”
What she was most looking forward to is watching the final matches and “seeing the best the tournament had to offer.” After the weekend’s events, Sugiyama said there were really good matches, especially in the medal matches, fifth through third. She says, “You can see the growth in women’s wrestling through the technique.”
When asked how she felt about the event, Sugiyama said, “It was crazy. Just being in this room, in this gym and seeing all the girl wrestlers, just like filled only with girl wrestlers. Since this is where it started for me, I went to Irving, just the only girl in the room. I wasn’t too supported back then, at Irving, once I got to Poky, all the coaches wanted me there. I think that’s where my career really took off, you really see that support, see how that support helps cultivate the growth.”
Some of the differences she sees in girls wrestling from when she wrestled to now is coaching and growth is moving quicker. “These girls are tough, really tough. You can tell they are confident in their movements and skills, they are very sure of their bodies and how to move them. You can see the growth is a lot quicker than when I was doing it, they are understanding things a lot quicker. And it’s cool to see all the coaches, especially the women’s coaches. Women supporting women.”
Close view of the medals given to the girls wrestlers.
Her wrestling career began when she was in eighth grade at Irving Middle School. Sugiyama said, “I had to beg my mom to do it, she was really worried about me potentially getting hurt, as any parent would. But thankfully I was able to go out for the sport.” She gives credit to Melissa Plato and Tiffany Draper, two girls who tried to join the Irving wrestling team a few years before, but Sugiyama said, “They shut that down immediately, like no girls wrestling.” That led to JB Plato, brother of Melissa Plato, to fight to give girls the chance to wrestle at Irving Middle School. JB Plato called out Title 9 and called the newspaper and made a big deal out of it, she said neither of the girls went on to continue wrestling but she’s thankful it happened because it allowed Clayton Armstrong to allow her in the room, “Just allowing me in the room was pretty much all I needed,” she said.
While at the Irving Invitational in eighth grade she met Billy Wood, USA wrestling referee and women’s coach, he reffed one of her matches and ran her down as she was leaving and told her she should keep wrestling. Sugiyama humorously shared she said “Alright dude, weird stranger…” The pair later met again when Sugiyama was in high school and he said, “Hey, I’m glad you kept up with wrestling.” The two of them established a strong relationship, when he started to train her and do one on ones. She says having his high-level coaching and having Plato who is so passionate about the sport, helped her.
Since Team Idaho didn’t really have any women for nationals, Billy Wood sent her to Hawaii to train with Team Hawaii since he had connections there, she said training there really helped her train for nationals. She had a lot of fun and said remembers coming home, driving down the road with her mom and saying, “I really love wrestling” and at that moment she knew she wanted to continue wrestling. She shares that the community really came together to make sure she was supported where she needed to be — whether that be waking up early for practice, working out, opening the gym early, and supported her in any way. Sugiyama graduated from Pocatello High School in 2015, and she went on to wrestle for Campbellsville University in Campbellsville, Kentucky. Future plans for Sugiyama would be to get back into coaching wrestling.
Koral Sugiyama Classic at Irving Middle School.
Advice Sugiyama has for young athletes is, “just have fun and fall in love with the process. Falling in love with the process of hanging out with friends and seeing what you can make of yourself. It doesn’t always have to be about winning.” “Hanging out with friends is what I really loved about wrestling, especially when I went to national and international competitions. I got to travel with friends from other states that I didn’t get to see very often.” Sugiyama said “it’s easy to fall in love with the sport when you are winning all the time, but the sport is really hard so you have to focus on the little things, that build up to winning. I think that’s why I always liked practice because your just there having fun, rolling around and moving your body.” Sugiyama’s message to the wrestling community, “Thank you for opening your minds and letting us step on the mat. It kind of sucks we had to be ‘let’ to step on the mat, but I am glad it happened and I’m glad we can have a tournament for it here in Southern Idaho.”
