Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week, Abe Inouye: Lowering the boom

Barry Faulkner

Estancia High senior Abe Iouye is a 112-pound time bomb with a

short fuse. If he hasn’t exploded during the first four minutes of his

six-minute matches, his opponents might want to take cover.

“I’m a third-period wrestler,” said Inouye, who needed just less than one

period to pin his younger brother Ben, a sophomore representing Corona

del Mar, in the 122-pound championship match of the Pacific Coast League

Finals Saturday at CdM High.

“What I don’t have in skill and speed, I try to make up for with

endurance.”

Abe Inouye, who won the PCL crown at 103 pounds as a junior, admitted it

was awkward, though hardly unexpected, squaring off against his younger

brother in the title match.

“I had beaten him on a technical fall, 15-0, in our dual meet,” the Daily

Pilot Athlete of the Week said. “As soon as the brackets came out, my

coach (Nate Skaar) said ‘You’re wrestling your brother in the final.’

“We hung out at league finals and our dad was coaching us both. I didn’t

want to pin him, but (Skaar) told me we needed the points, because we

were in a dogfight with University for the team championship. During the

match, I could hear my father from the front row yelling ‘Go Abe,’ and

‘Go Ben.’ It was kind of weird.”

To help his team, Inouye wrestled most of the season in the 119-pound

division, which has plenty to do with his strong, though less than

pristine, 27-10 record.

“His record doesn’t show what kind of wrestler he is,” Skaar said.

“Whenever he gets the chance to wrestle 112-pounders, he shows his true

abilities. He was our best wrestler during league finals.”

Inouye has applied his abilities to formulate his uniquely aggressive,

attacking style, which seeks to wear opponents down, then dominate them.

“I’ve always been called a head hunter,” Inouye said. “Because when you

pin people, you usually grab up around their head. The people who wrestle

me have to be careful, because if they let their guard down, they’re

going to get pinned really quickly.”

His willingness to go for the pin, often leaves him vulnerable to more

technically sound foes.

“I’m a really dangerous wrestler and I get a lot of points scored on me,

because I’m always trying to pin people,” Inouye said. “If I try

something and it doesn’t work, I usually get into a situation I have to

worm out of.”

Skaar said Inouye’s style translates into thoroughly entertaining

matches.

“He’s very fun to watch,” Skaar said. “I’m really going to miss him next

year, because I always look forward to his matches. He’s a scrambler and,

if he’s still around in the third period, anything can happen. He can be

down by a lot, but he keeps his composure. Then, in that third period, he

really comes on and he usually comes out on top.”

Inouye built his endurance as a member of the Eagles’ cross country team.

He also added muscle by playing last summer with the school’s water polo

team.

His 10th-place finish at PCL finals helped the Eagles share the PCL team

title in cross country last fall. His top-10 finish earned him all-league

recognition.

“I ran cross country to help my endurance,” said Inouye, who maintains a

3.8 GPA, aspires to attend UC Berkeley and wants to become a lawyer. “A

lot of people die out in the third period, but I’m still going strong.

Even if I’m behind on points, I know I have a pretty good shot at

winning.”

Winning a league title was the first step toward a postseason Inouye

hopes will end at the CIF State Championships.

“Winning a league title is never anticlimactic, but it was expected,”

Inouye said. “Coming into this season, I was shooting for state. CIF

(Southern Section Division IV) will be a challenge, but I feel confident

I can advance to the Masters Meet. There’s a big difference between 119

and 112. But I wrestled up this year to help the team, because we had two

112 pounders, and my coach thought I could handle 119s better than he

could. I knew it would hurt my record, but, in the long run, it would

help me gain experience against better competition. It was a trade-off. I

feel like I’m on top of the world at 112s.”