Samantha has made that feat difficult with a successful judo career and wrestling accolades with Manteca High School that earned her a scholarship to compete with arguably the nation’s best women’s collegiate wrestling team— Oklahoma City University.
But these days, Sarah Phillips, 14, a New Haven Elementary graduate and incoming East Union High freshman, has been getting advice to blaze her own trail.
“My parents say that I am not only going to follow in Samantha’s footsteps, but I am going to go a step further,” Sarah said. “I know that’s going to be hard because I know Samantha got her black belt in judo and has taught me a lot.”
Sarah Phillips did her best to distinguish herself with a first-place finish at the 2009 California Judo Inc. State Championships in San Diego. With 540 contestants in 119 sparring divisions, Phillips won the juvenile 48-kilogram division, topping Jennifer Adachi of Los Altos in the final.
It was an improvement over her third-place finish in last year’s state championships in the same division.
“It was a lot of fun, but I was also really nervous,” Phillips said. “I always start shaking before a big tournament.”
The Stockton Judo Club product will join East Union’s wrestling team in the winter season, with eyes on the second annual Sac Joaquin Section Girls Wrestling Invitational Tournament and California Interscholastic Federation Northern Regional Championships.
It’s tournaments like those where Samantha garnered recognition as one of the top recruits to the college wrestling scene. Sarah would love to compete in college, but her immediate goals are simpler.
“First, I want to get to the point where I am a black belt in judo,” she said. “I am a blue belt now, so I am only three belts away, and I know I can do it.”
Phillips will compete in the Judo Nationals on July 11 in San Francisco and hopes to create enough sponsorship support to travel to the Junior Olympics in July in Orlando, Fla.
“It’s fun competing, but the best thing about judo is meeting new people,” she said. “Judo has taken me a lot of places.”
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Ohio
CLEVELAND -- A veteran wrestling coach who has worked at the high school, college, and Olympic levels has earned a prestigious national award.
Tadaaki Hatta, who teaches art at Ravenna High School and still assistant coaches at St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, is the recipient of USA Wrestling's "Coach of the Year" award.
"I was pleased because it was my peers voting," said Hatta, who won the honors for his leadership of the Women's Freestyle Wrestling team during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. "I feel the time and effort paid off."
Hatta is currently coaching at the Northwestern University wrestling camp being held at Fairview Park High School, and has coached other camps since the end of the school year.
Hatta attended Northwestern and earned a masters degree in art there, after graduating from Oklahoma State where he won a national wrestling championship in the 1960's. He was also an assistant wrestling coach at Northwestern for five years.
Hatta's 50 year career in wrestling and coaching followed in the footsteps of his father who revolutionized the sport in Japan during the 1930's.
The Coach of the Year award was presented to Hatta at the national wrestling conference in Council Bluffs, Iowa. He had no idea it was coming.
Hatta, who lives in Elyria, says a greater thrill was the recent birth of his granddaughter Sydney Elizabeth Hatta. Hatta's son Robert told him that his granddaughter would not grow up to be a wrestler.
"I think she is going to do whatever she wants to do when she grows up," Hatta told WKYC. "So may she become a wrestler one day? Who knows?"
© 2009 WKYC-TV========================================================================================================
FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR: Local schools loaded with talent
By ERICK WALKER
Covington Reporter News
Jun 18 2009, 6:10 PM · UPDATED
When selecting a Female Athlete of the Year for the Kent schools it was no slam dunk. That’s a compliment to the overall high school athletic gracing the area these days.
Kentwood’s Jessie Genger took home The Reporter’s top honor last year and probably could have received the nod a second time around after helping the Conquerors win a state basketball title and place among the top four at state in volleyball for the third straight year.
Still, the final decision was difficult — and a look below at the Reporter’s Top Female Prep Athletes will show why it was difficult.
JOLENE CROOK-MEYERS, KENTWOOD
Crook-Meyers is as gritty and tough as they come, yet she was all smiles holding a bouquet of flowers at the end of the state wrestling tournament. Her ear-to-ear grin was understandable as Crook-Meyers became the school’s second female to ever win a state crown, pinning Skyline’s Alexis Willcher in 1:12. She finished the wrestling season with an impressive 29-3 record. In addition, she also pinned her way to league and sub-regional titles. But Crook-Meyers was nearly as good on the soccer pitch, where she earned first-team All-SPSL North accolades as a midfielder, leading Kentwood to a league title and its fourth straight state berth
