Taking 21 young judokas to O‘ahu for a tournament is no easy feat, but Sensei Mike Hayashi and his Shudokan Judo Club made it look easy — as 14 keiki returned to Hilo with gold medals, two with silver and two with bronze.
The Hilo-area club attended the 50th State Judo Association’s Warrior’s Quest Hawaii State Championship three weeks ago in Honolulu — Shudokan’s first trip to an off-island tournament since before the pandemic.
“It was a challenge,” Hayashi said, “we had not traveled for a couple of years, so everyone was really excited to go.
“It was wonderful. I was actually really surprised, I did not expect to come away with that many wins.”
Some of those wins came despite unexpected adversity.
Hilo High senior Kainalu Aurello was forced to move up a weight class, because his scheduled opponent no-showed. Aurello had to tangle with the big boys, facing a heavyweight foe from the 220-plus pound class.
Aurello won two of three matches, winning both by ippon to take gold.
“I was kinda nervous, because he was a lot bigger than me,” Aurello said. “I just wanted to go out there and do my best, obviously. It all worked out in the end.
“It felt pretty good, I felt accomplished — and like I could go on to high school judo and continue there.”
On the other side, Shudokan’s Iya Sadanchikova was able to compete down a division. She didn’t waste that opportunity, winning two straight matches by ippon to take gold in the female juvenile C 106 class.
“It was a surprise, because I didn’t have to cut,” Sadanchikova said. “It was a relief, because I was prepared to play people above my weight.”
“Iya did really well,” Hayashi added. “She showed really good groundwork techniques and managed to get first place.”
Sadanchikova competes for Waiakea High, winning the 98 pound class at the 2022-23 BIIF championship.
Alongside the 21 competitors and their families were instructors Derric Nishimoto, Bryce Hamamoto and Cindy Otomo — as well as coaches Kellen Goya and Kilar Fujimoto.
In addition, a brand new coach also joined Shudokan’s ranks — Irie Sakai, a 2023 Hilo High graduate and HHSAA State Champion, who was a longtime Shudokan Student, also training under Hilo HS coach Kerwin Tokeshi.
The black belt is now a college student at UH-Manoa, but still makes time to travel back to Hilo and coach at Shudokan.
“I just love judo and I’ve always been a part of Shudokan,” Sakai said. “I just wanna help support. I’m in college on O‘ahu, so I figured (Hilo) is just right there.
“Sometimes I see my younger self in (young Shudokan students), and I like to give them the advice that I wish I had and help them along the way, like how my senpais used to help me.”
Sakai’s younger sister, Ihilani competed for Shudokan at the Dec. 3 tournament. She won gold in the female juvenile B 141 class, winning two matches by ippon.
“I like that there were so many people that we could watch and learn from,” she said. “I was cheering all my teammates on, I was like ‘yeah!’ I thought it was an accomplishment that they got to do something with their hard work and practice.”
The younger Sakai is also one of the Vikings’ top female judokas, and is setting high expectations for herself going into the upcoming Spring 2024 high school season.
She found success at last season’s HHSAA championship, but was short of perfection — finishing at No. 4 in the 129 pound class.
“I’m excited, (the season) is coming up pretty quick,” Sakai said. “We just had the meeting (Wednesday), and we’re gonna have longer practices now. So, I think I have a good shot at states this year.”