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Fresh off national title, Nakamura opens doors to new Wailuku gym

By Robert Collias 5 min read

WAILUKU -- As Grant Nakamura guided his young wrestlers in his newly purchased Nakamura Wrestling Gym on Mill Street in Wailuku on Thursday, he did it with a sly smile on his face.

Nakamura recently moved his group of grapplers from his garage in Pukalani to the steamy quonset hut facility in Central Maui.

The facility opened in earnest after Nakamura returned from the USA Wrestling Masters National Championships in Las Vegas, held April 25-27, with a national title in the Masters B Division (32-40 years old) in the 70 kilogram (154 pounds) weight class in the greco-roman style.

Nakamura also took fourth in the same weight class and age group in freestyle.

"Actually last year was the first year that I did it, since 2008," Nakamura said. "Last year I competed in the masters meet down at 62 kilos, which is 136 (pounds) -- that's a pretty big (weight) cut for me, but this year we went up, we took a couple guys with us and 70 kilos was just a much easier cut for me.

"It's the meet that all the guys go to to make the world team or the Olympic team."

Nakamura, now 39 years old and a lieutenant in the Maui Police Department, was once one of those guys vying for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team after his career at NCAA powerhouse Iowa State University.

To walk away with his first national championship trophy, Nakamura was grateful.

"It was good, I mean we train hard, I have a lot of good partners down here, we work hard, we went in there serious, we weren't going to just train for a month and try to do it," Nakamura said. "We put in the time. It had a lot of tough guys, old college wrestlers. It was a good tournament, it was a real good tournament."

It definitely brought back memories of Nakamura's hey day after he won a state title for Baldwin High School in 2001 at 125 pounds.

He made trials for the USA world championship team in 2006 and 2007 and the Olympic trials in 2008, just before when he retired from national level competition.

"It was a pretty tough tournament, I'm beat up from it for sure," Nakamura said of the event last month. "It was cool because I entered that tournament, I want to say six times -- I placed four times, from 2002 to 2008, I placed four times that I competed."

Nalu Scott, a former Lahainaluna state placer and fellow coach at the new gym, and former Baldwin standout Lean Gumboc made the trip with Nakamura to the national masters event.

Gumboc placed second in greco-roman and sixth in freestyle in the 62 kilogram weight class in Division B. Scott was fifth in greco-roman at 58 kilograms in the A Division.

"They both did well," Nakamura said.

Nakamura completed the purchase of his new gym less than a month ago and when he and his fellow coaches returned, they started several different classes. Nakamura is at the facility two to three hours every day.

"We do wrestling, we have two jiu-jitsu classes, one in the morning, one at night," Nakamura said. "We have a krav maga class, it's (Israeli) martial arts. James Terry, he's a sergeant in the police department, he teaches that one. We also have a class we just started, boxing, Muay Thai kickboxing -- that just started this week on Monday."

Right now the total number of kids coming to the gym is "about 50 or 60," Nakamura said.

The search for the facility has been a long process.

"I was kind of looking for a place for years, we basically had a garage group, my garage in Pukalani," Nakamura said. "We had about eight to 12 wrestlers at a time in there. It's always been a dream of mine, we just never could find the right place for it.

"It kind of just fell into our hands in April and it was too good of a deal for us to pass up, and fortunately so far it's worked out."

For the last week and a half, Bellator MMA flyweight contender Sumiko Inaba has been honing her wrestling skills in the facility and gets down on the mats with high school-aged competitors as well.

Chaela Gantala, a freshman at Baldwin, was fourth at 122 pounds at the HHSAA state championships in February. She said working out at the new gym is a dream come true.

"I've been working with (Nakamura) since I was in the seventh grade," Gantala said. "He's a super good coach, he cares about you a lot and he works with you to perfect everything. We worked out at his house and then he got this (facility) and everybody moved with him here."

Gantala said the new space "is cool, it gives you a sense of belonging in the wrestling community."

Seeing her coach return from Navada with a national championship trophy put a smile on Gantala's face.

"That is super trippy, it gives us all a sense of pride that our coach can go out there and he shows what he teaches us and that it works, like his method of teaching and wrestling works," Gantala said. "He's made me a lot better, like, a lot better."

Nakamura is clearly enjoying his second life in wrestling.

"We have a lot of good kids, a lot of kids that are here and want to move to that next level," Nakamura said. "It's a lot of fun."

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.

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