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Liberty University Club Sports
University of the Cumberlands
Hawaiian connection: Lady Flames wrestlers emulate coaches from same culture
12/3/2021 7:05:00 PM | Women's Wrestling
Liberty University sophomore women's wrestlers Maile Ka'ahauni and Claudia Keanini, both from Ho'olehua on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, have a unique connection to the Lady Flames' sixth-year program.
Both trained under Randy Manley ('87, youth ministries), father of current Lady Flames women's wrestling coaches Charisse (Manley) McIlhenny and Cendall Manley, the team's first competitor who became a four-time NCWA Grand National champion before graduating in 2020.
Randy Manley wrestled for Liberty's men's wrestling program in the mid-1980s and is now Head Coach of the Molokai High School wrestling team, where he coached his three sons as well as the Manley sisters. He also serves as pastor to Ka'ahauni and Keanini at Molokai Baptist Church, where he and his wife, Louise, also operate a mission to native Hawaiians.
Charisse Manley won an NCWA Grand National title as a first-year graduate student at Liberty in 2019 before finishing runner-up in 2020, when she completed her degree in marriage and family counseling. Before officially taking the reins of the program from her now husband Josh McIlhenny ('18), with assistance from Cendall, last season, the sisters recruited both Ka'ahauni and Keanini during a trip back to Hawaii for Christmas in 2019.
"They came home during their Christmas break, and they would wrestle with us, show us moves, and during one of the practices they said 'Hey, we're starting a new team up there at Liberty, so it would be cool if you guys could come up and wrestle for us,'" Keanini said.
Ka'ahauni grew up as the only girl in a family with five brothers, including Kawika, who assisted Randy Manley at Molokai High.
"My family is all boys, and they all like wrestling, so I wrestled when I was little with them," she said. "Being around my brothers caused me to believe 'I can wrestle,' because they could and I wanted to have something in common with them, which is what started my passion for the sport."
Keanini's father works as a cowboy on a ranch with mostly cows and horses.
"My dad did ride bulls, and he got very excited when I told him I was going to start wrestling," she said. "He used to mug cows and wrestle them to the ground, so it pretty much runs in my veins."
Having similar backgrounds as their coaches has made the transition to life at Liberty, as well as adjusting to the collegiate sport, much smoother.
"Our island is very small, and coming to (Liberty, with a residential enrollment of more than 15,000), there's more people in the school than there are on our island," Ka'ahauni said, noting that Molokai has a population of just over 7,000 and is made up mostly of farmland and homesteads. "It's a pretty far journey, and the campus here is so big, it's crazy. So, it's nice being on the wrestling team and having (the Manley sisters) as coaches. It's like a little bit of home so we're not too homesick."
"It's really a family here, even with the men's team," Keanini added. "We don't get to practice with them, but we get to hang out with them and it's a good family culture."
Charisse McIlhenny said it has been a blessing to extend hospitality to team members from her home state, and to adopt others into the same atmosphere with a spiritual emphasis and familial focus. Keanini's sister, Trisha, is also part of the program, serving as a team manager while studying Camp and Outdoor Adventure Leadership with an emphasis on youth ministry.
"The Hawaiian culture is very family-oriented, and since we're a small team, the higher percentage of athletes are from Hawaii," McIlhenny said. "We want to have that be a part of the family culture here, especially at such a big school like Liberty. Our team offers an opportunity and a place to be taken care of in a little 'Ohana' family."
Ka'ahauni, Keanini and two other members of the Lady Flames are competing at this weekend's Patriot Duals hosted by the University of The Cumberlands near Louisville, Ky., where they are facing Eastern Oregon, Emmanuel (Ga.) University, Limestone (S.C.) University, Tiffin (Ohio) University, Campbellsville (Ky.) University, and other mostly NAIA and NCAA Division II and III schools.
The team is down to six wrestlers after Maria Ferello, a senior from Flemington, N.J., left Saturday for deployment to the Horn of Africa as part of Task Force Red Dragon with her National Guard Alpha Company from nearby Bedford, Va. That means one-third of the wrestlers, one half of the team managers, and both coaches are Hawaiian.
Keanini and Ka'ahauni said the Manleys expect just as much if not more from them as their father did.
"In high school, when we wrestled under their dad, he still had the same style that they wrestled with, because they wrestled under him," said Ka'ahauni, who is studying therapeutic exercise science. Like Manley, she wrestles at 170 pounds and may drop down to 155. "(Cendall) really set the bar high for us here, but on this team, it's kind of the same level and the same style."
"I knew (Randy Manley) was going to push us to where we could do our best, and that was the same with the Manley sisters," added Keanini, who is pursuing a degree in physical education with a Teaching License. She wrestles at 143 pounds, as Charisse did. "All of them are just really great coaches. They are very strong, and they know that if they push us now, then we're going to perform better later on. It's a way faster pace here than it was in high school."
McIlhenny said the way she develops passionate hearts for the sport of wrestling is by instilling a Christ-centered focus.
"We love wrestling, absolutely, but our main goal is to put Jesus first, and out of that will come the right heart motivation for the sport itself," she said. "If we're going after Him first, we are able to look at wrestling the way He would have us to do it, not as our whole identity. If we're called by God to do this, we're going to do this with all of our might as a way of worshipping and glorifying Him."
"They kind of instill in us, 'You are giving everything you can, not for us, but to worship God," Ka'ahauni added. "That goes with our slogan, 'My utmost for His highest,' and they constantly remind us of that in practice."
McIlhenny said both Ka'ahauni and Keanini have raised their technical and tactical abilities as wrestlers as they have grown in strength and stature as well as wisdom and mental dexterity.
"They have gotten extremely honed-in on their skills and as they have been maturing physically, they have gotten a lot better at the sport and more confident," she said, noting that Ka'ahauni went 2-0 in a quad-match Liberty hosted last month in the LaHaye Multipurpose Center. "Maile's really showing up this year with her moves being really fast and quick and aggressive. Every match they wrestle gives them more confidence and stamina. Wrestling better programs makes us bigger and stronger and I am excited to see what that they will look like at nationals."
Ka'ahauni said her exercise science major translates well to her sport.
"It gives me an understanding of how the body works and how the mind causes you to do things you wouldn't be able to do," she said. "Wrestling is 99 percent mental, and it mimics my spiritual battle. If I can push hard in wrestling and give my all in this, I feel like I can give God my all and it really trains me emotionally more than physically to rise up to the occasion."
Keanini agrees wholeheartedly. She has found wrestling has helped her grow in her faith and in overcoming any challenge she faces, on or off the mat.
"I definitely feel like (wrestling) strengthens me physically in my body, but it also teaches life lessons, for sure," she said. "It definitely builds character and allows me to have hope throughout the day. I get to give my all again to God and if I'm facing hard challenges in life — maybe financially or in interactions or relationships with others — it's nice to be able to know that I can push through it and it's going to be better. I just have to give this situation to Him and try my best to follow whatever He places on my heart."
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer
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