Personal Statement

My name is Tyler Yoshiyama. I am a  senior from Hilo High School in Hilo, Hawaii. I am a cross country runner, wrestler, and Judo player.

I started wrestling my freshman year and it was my first season competing. I come from a Judo background which I think helped me a lot when transitioning to wrestling. I’ve been doing Judo for 6 years and have recently achieved the rank of Shodan (Black Belt) last summer. 

Last year I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I signed up for wrestling, but it was the best decision I’ve ever made. At first I signed up for wrestling just for fun, and as the season progressed I realized that I really enjoy wrestling. I enjoy the intense training and the competition that drives me to work harder everyday to get better. I had a lot of tough losses at the beginning, but I quickly improved and started winning more and more matches every week. I was surprised that I was able to beat upper class men who were more experienced. I was fortunate enough to make it on the varsity team at 113lbs and compete at the BIIF championships, placing 3rd, and qualifying for the state tournament. 

School is my main focus over everything and I am maintaining a 3.5 cumulative GPA, but I am working towards  a 4.0 or higher. I plan to major in some sort of engineering in college.

 Wrestling has become a passion of mine and I believe that my years of Judo experience compliment my style of wrestling. Although we are living during this unfortunate time of the pandemic, I am still continuing to train and improve myself physically and mentally and am ready for the upcoming seasons. I’ve learned hard work and discipline from both Judo and wrestling. I am looking forward to competing in high school and college in the upcoming years. I am very eager to continue growing and learning as a wrestler.