RONEN ZILBERMAN / RZILBERMAN@STARBULLETIN.COM
Donell Bradley holds plaques she won -- they are from the 2003 university nationals (second place), 2000 university nationals (third place), and 2003 senior nationals (fifth place).
Wrestling with success
The sport of wrestling has taken Aiea's
Donell Bradley to the top of her field -- on
the mat and in the classroom
Donell Bradley of Aiea graduated two weeks ago from Missouri Valley College with a degree in athletic training and a future rich in options.
She is the first person in her immediate family to earn a college degree.
Were it not for the emergence of women's wrestling, first in Hawaii's high schools and then as a scholarship sport at some mainland colleges, it might not have happened.
Entering her sophomore year at Radford High School in 1996, a college degree was not on Donell Bradley's radar.
"College wasn't really a big thing in my mind," Bradley recalled. "I thought I would go straight to work after high school or go into the military like my dad did out of high school."
Wrestling wasn't on her radar, either, but her father, now-retired Army Staff Sgt. Donald Bradley, "believed everyone should get involved in a sport because it centers them as a person and teaches them discipline and teamwork," Donell says.
A classmate, Aloha Chaves, was on Radford's girls wrestling team and convinced Bradley to try the sport -- then new to Hawaii.
PROFILE
>> Four-time All-American at Missouri Valley College (2000, '01, '02, '03)
Donell Bradley>> 2000 U.S. Girls Wrestling Association College Division Champion
>> USA Wrestling University Women's Division runner-up (2003), third place (2000)
>> 1999 U.S. Girls Wrestling Association national high school champion
>> Two-time Hawaii High School Athletic Association champion (1998, '99)
"The first day of practice, I never felt so bad in all my life," Bradley said. "I wanted to cry -- all these people were grabbing at me and beating me up. I had never had that happen to me before. I didn't know what to do." Ê
Were Bradley a person of less resolve, her wrestling career might have lasted one day.
"I couldn't see myself quitting," she said. "I'm a real stubborn person. Once I start something I finish it."
So she persevered, and learned as the sport grew.
"There were only three or four other girls at my weight in the whole state my sophomore year," Bradley said, "and not a whole lot of competition in the first sanctioned state championship the next year."
Bradley won the first two HHSAA girls state championships, in 1998 and '99, in the 220-pound division, far above her actual weight.
She also won three Oahu Interscholastic Association championships and the 1999 U.S. Girls Wrestling Association national championship. She was chosen Radford's Female Athlete of the Year in 1999.
"Wrestling gave me more motivation and more discipline," Bradley said. "I started picking up my grades."
She graduated from Radford with a 3.4 grade-point average, and thought her wrestling career was over because only one college (Minnesota-Morris) had a women's program and it did not give wrestling scholarships.
But women's college wrestling was about to surge.
"The day before the placement test for UH, I got a letter in the mail from the wrestling coach at Missouri Valley College," she said. "I started talking to him on the phone and he visited Hawaii and talked with some of the girls.
"In June or July he offered me a wrestling scholarship.
"He said, 'We are starting a team and we want you on it.'
"I was set on going to UH and staying at home with my friends, but my parents kind of pushed me out the door.
"They wanted me to get experience with something outside of the islands."
So Bradley went to Missouri Valley in a class that included Radford graduate Lauwa'e Smith, Roosevelt's Clarissa Chun and Moanalua graduates Renee Nakata and Shelley Ann Tomita. (Only Chun, who has been an Olympic Training Center resident and U.S. National Team member for two years, and Bradley are still wrestling.)
At Missouri Valley, Bradley was a four-time All-American, won a U.S. Girls Association college division championship, had second- and third-place finishes in USA Wrestling's University Women's Division and the U.S. Girls' North American championships, and finished in the top five three times in USA Wrestling's Senior Division.
Although she was on a wrestling scholarship at Missouri Valley, Bradley said she "made sure it was known to everyone around that I was there to get a degree and that wrestling was second.
"Some coaches understand that you are a student above all," she said.
Now Bradley has her degree, and she hopes she isn't finished with wrestling.
"I would definitely like to wrestle this year with Olympic trials coming up in the middle of May," she said.
"Money is kind of tight," Bradley said.
"But I would like to get to the University Nationals in Minnesota in March and to the Olympic Training Center to get familiar with the competition" for the Olympic team.
Bradley earned "funded access" to the Olympic Training Center for a year by placing second at the University Nationals last spring. But she has to pay her own way there.
Hawaii wrestlers in current
Men
U.S. college rankings
NCAA Division I
Dec. 9 Rankings by InterMatWrestling.com
125 pounds: 6. Grant Nakamura, sophomore, Iowa State (Baldwin). 133: 1. Travis Lee, junior, Cornell (Saint Louis).NCAA Division II
Dec. 10 rankings by Division II coaches association:
5. Joey Bareng, senior, San Francisco State (Moanalua)
WOMEN
Dec. 16 rankings by TheMat.com (Website of USA Wrestling)
48 kg (105.5 pounds): 3. Kristen Fujioka, junior, Pacific, Ore. (Castle). 51 kg (112.25): 1. Debbi Sakai, freshman, Missouri Valley (Mililani). 2. Kapua Torres, freshman, Pacific, Ore. (Kahuku). 55 kg (121): 4. Caylene Valdez, freshman, Menlo, Calif. (Moanalua). 63 kg (138.5): 4. Ku'ui'ini Johnson, freshman, Lassen JC, Calif. (Radford). 72 kg (158.5): 2. Stephany Lee, freshman, Missouri Valley (Moanalua)
