---

State champ
wrestles with
anonymity

RYAN Tuzon is shooting for scholarships now, out fighting to become the next Hawaii wrestler to make that big jump, with all the difficulty that entails.

"I've put a lot of videos out," his Baldwin High School coach, Mike Donahoo says. "I always use, 'Nobody wanted Travis Lee.' "

And of course Lee, the face of Hawaii wrestling, only went on to become a two-time national champion at Cornell.

Nobody really wanted Grant Nakamura, either, another Baldwin guy. Today Nakamura is a starter for national power Iowa State. Donahoo can sell this, too. But it's still a tough sell. People aren't beating down the door to recruit Hawaii wrestlers.

Yeah, Tuzon was the state champion at 160 this year. But the question always comes back: Who did he beat?

So Tuzon is out doing it the way Lee did. Going to the mainland, getting their attention on the mat. He was in Denver for a week, and got in some time at the Olympic Training Center. He went to the Southeast Junior Regional Championships in Louisiana, going 5-0 against some of the best of the best.

"He was able to go because of his good work ethic in the classroom, so we got permission from the teachers and the principal," Donahoo says.

This is big for him. This is his big chance.

So two weekends ago, at the Junior Nationals in Las Vegas, Donahoo tried something in hope of getting some of these college coaches to look at Tuzon in another light.

"I got in trouble for it," Donahoo says. "But I sort of forgot his birthday."

He entered his state champ in the 18-22 age division, to take on guys who've already made it where he wants to go.

"He's only 17. I put the wrong year on there, sort of purposely. In the college division. I did get an earful about it."

You've got to watch that Donahoo. Clearly, the man can't be trusted.

"I remember back in March, States, he said if we come up with three state champs he would shave his mustache," Tuzon says.

THE LETTERS. When Tuzon won his state championship, after a comeback in which he took his only lead with 29 seconds left in the match, his coach gave him two things. A hug, and a big yellow envelope.

They're so close. Donahoo calls him "Bulla."

"He's been there a lot for me," Tuzon says. "He's more than just a coach to me."

So Tuzon wasn't sure what to do with the envelope, when to open it. He took it back with him to his hotel room after the tournament.

"It was all quiet," he says. He sat there with the envelope. He sat there in the quiet, holding it in his hands.

He'd had a rough childhood, growing up on Maui. He saw "drugs, abuse, violence." Awful things. His father died before he was born. His mother and two brothers went to prison. He and two other big brothers lived in a homeless shelter for a while. It was a tough life for a kid. A tough reality for anybody.

"Today all that is gone," he says.

Wrestling. He immersed himself in the sport, in the team, on the mat.

"Everything went away," he says. "It kept me strong. It kept me always striving for something new."

Tuzon told his story publicly for the first time before the state tournament. A group of Pearl City students saw it and were inspired to write him. They sent letters about their own lives, what they had been through. There were stories about abuse, and drinking, and drugs.

The coaching staff had read them first.

"It was a bawl fest," Donahoo says.

He decided to save the envelope for after the state final match. He decided to give it away with the hug, like a graduation gift.

Tuzon sat in the quiet of the hotel room after his win, reading letter after letter, the chicken skin washing over him.

"For me," he says, "the feeling that night was more special than the state championship. It was an awesome moment reading that. Just getting to know that people care and they understand."

It was like they were with him, now.

"I get a lot calls from people," Donahoo says.

Why is he selling Tuzon so hard? Why does he believe in him so much?

"What makes him a special kid? I've probably had better wrestlers ..."

The people who wrote those letters, they understood.

HE'LL DECIDE THIS week, which college to go to. He's going over it now, the lists, the pros and cons, the various financial aid packages. But he's going. He's going to the mainland and he's going to wrestle and he's going to school. And he's going to make it.

His grade-point average?

"Three-point five last quarter," he says.

He's going to be the next Hawaii wrestler to take that big jump, with all the difficulty that entails.