Mormon girl chooses not to wrestle for state title on Sunday

LAIE, Hawaii — When the recent 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile started a tsunami or harbor wave racing across the Pacific Ocean, it led officials in Hawaii to call for evacuating all low-lying areas as a precautionary measure and rescheduling the 2010 state high school wrestling championship finals in Honolulu from Saturday, Feb. 27, to the next day — Sunday.
 


The tsunami, which fortunately didn’t materialize into waves big enough to cause damage in Hawaii, also led a young Mormon woman to opt out of her finals match rather than wrestle on the Sabbath.
 


Leading up to that decision, Amber Anuhea Ah Sue, 18, the daughter of Bill and Yvonne Ah Sue, was ranked No. 1 seed in Hawaii in the 155-pound weight class on the strength of her undefeated senior season. She also won her first two matches in the state competition.
 


Ah Sue, of Samoan, Hawaiian and other ancestry, is an advanced placement senior at nearby Kahuku High School and one of the girls wrestling team captains. She placed second in her weight class last year in the state high school judo meet, is active in other sports and Polynesian dance, has been named Kahuku High’s Lei Day queen, is the current president of her Laie 5th Ward Laurels class and has been accepted at BYU in Provo, Utah.
 


Ah Sue said she knows she made the right decision but that it was painful to give up her realistic goal of winning the individual championship, and subsequently seeing her wrestling sisters — "we’re really tight, like a family" — miss winning the overall team championship by just 2 1/2 points.



"We knew there were LDS girls at our school and others, but we made it clear it was their decision," said Joe Whitford III, Kahuku High athletic director and a former bishop of the Laie 4th Ward. "To make matters a little more difficult, some of the members of the team felt Amber’s decision didn’t show much leadership. With the state championship — both for her individually and for the team — hanging in the balance, it was tough; but she was resolute about not wrestling on Sunday, and I believe she made the right decision."
 


Whitford explained that without rescheduling the finals, neighbor island wrestlers would not have been able to compete and the venue might not have been available if the matches were moved to a weekday. He also pointed out that because of Kahuku High's proximity to Laie, about 70 percent of the approximately 1,100 students at the school are members of The Church or Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as many of the faculty and staff.
 


Ah Sue recalled that it was not clear by early Saturday morning if the state finals would be held later that day or postponed. By the time it was determined to continue on Sunday, head coach Reggie Torres "asked if everyone was going to wrestle, and most of the girls said 'Sure, why not?'
 


"I was texting my mom, my brother and my best friend, and every one of them said I had to pray about it," Ah Sue said. "But I thought, 'Why am I going to pray about something I already know I’m not supposed to do?'" Meanwhile, another brother texted her decision to the coach.
 


Torres then told Ah Sue, "Whatever you decide, I’ll respect that."

She said, "He was trying to stay neutral about it, and not trying to sway me, but to win as a team in wrestling you need as many people participating as you can.”
 


Ah Sue admitted she might also have confused the issue because when the coach called a practice Saturday afternoon, he said all the non-wrestlers could stay at the hotel, “but I went and kept thinking maybe it will get postponed again.”
 


Ah Sue’s mother, a fourth grade teacher at Laie Elementary School who had evacuated the rest of the family to Honolulu to give her daughter support, told Amber, “You’re still a wrestler. You’re still a team leader. You’re still a champion. Just get out there and treat yourself like one.”
 


Ah Sue said, "At the end of that practice, the coach was trying to motivate everybody for the next day, but I was thinking this is the end of my season. My mom was hugging me and I was bawling. I just knew that was the last time I would ever be on the mat. I never thought it would end like that, because the practices are hard. So many times I just wanted to walk off, but I kept thinking I was a team captain and I had to be a good example."
 


__IMAGE1__Her mother, Yvonne, confirmed Ah Sue’s mixed emotions: “It was the hardest thing to watch her when she came off the mat and know that was the last moment. I could see in her face how disappointed she was. I followed her into the locker room, and I’ve never seen her cry like that before. She was hurting so much, but I was so proud of her. She really stood her ground. She knows exactly what the right thing to do is."
 


Back at the hotel, Ah Sue gathered her wrestling sisters to confirm her decision. "When I walked into the room, everyone was there, and I got so nervous. When I told them I had decided not to wrestle on Sunday, everyone cried. The coaches said, ‘You have to respect her decision, and she’s still your sister. You still love her.'"
 


"Some of the girls said, 'I’m disappointed. We counted on you, and now you let us down,'" Ah Sue added, "but inside, I knew I’ll be blessed if I don’t wrestle. A lot of the girls tried to change my mind, but I told some of them that I grew up keeping the Sabbath Day holy."
 


Yvonne Ah Sue said, "I know she felt, 'My team is going to hate me,' and I think that was probably the hardest part of her whole choice, how her decision affected other people. My advice to her was, be solid in your mind and heart, and let the Lord know what your choice is. When he knows that you’re solid, then you’re definitely going to be blessed.
 


"We’ve taught all of our kids the right things to do," she continued, "and I trust her judgment. There was no doubt in my mind what she was going to choose, but it was so painful watching her go through that process. I don’t know if it was a conversion process, but I do know she trusts the Lord and she made him number one.
 


"For me, it was a proud moment, because after all that you put into your kids, she made the right choice. She put her trust in the Lord, and I know blessings will come to her for being obedient. I’m really proud of her."
 


Amber’s father, Bill Ah Sue, a Honolulu Police Department officer, added that "her decision did not surprise me. I just knew we had to give her a lot of support; and if the girls knew Amber better, they wouldn’t have been surprised either."
 


On Sunday morning, while the other Kahuku wrestlers went to the finals, Ah Sue returned to Laie to attend church meetings. "I was comfortable there, but it seemed like everything was about my decision," she said. “For example, one of the sacrament meeting songs was 'Did You Think to Pray,' the Sunday School lesson was about Abraham’s sacrifice, and in Young Women we sang 'Choose the Right.'"
 


Since then, Ah Sue said she’s glad she made the right decision, "and a lot of people have said they’re proud of me."

Her mother added, "She’s received a lot of support from not only faculty, staff and students, but she’s also received Facebook  messages from all over Oahu, the outer islands and Las Vegas. A lot of people have sent her messages of encouragement."
 


Whitford said, "As an AD, parent and former bishop, I know it’s tough in these times; there’s a lot of peer pressure. We also live in a community where athletics are really important. So I think it shows the true colors of a member not to compete on Sunday."
 


Meanwhile, as Ah Sue now practices for the judo season and looks forward to leaving Laie for BYU in the coming months, she said, "This helps me to know that I’ll make the right decisions."
 


Her mother agreed. "As a parent, when you see your kids walk out the door, you always worry: Did I teach them right? But with Amber, when she leaves we’re going to miss her terribly, but I’m not going to worry about her because I know, absolutely, when the time comes she’ll make the right choices."