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Snohomish County sports
Wrestling with weight no longer a problem

By Greg Bishop
Times Snohomish County reporter

	DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES Jacob Kendo makes a move on a training partner at Cascade High School. Wrestling has helped Kendo get in shape.
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EVERETT — He holds the picture in front of his body, posing like the "before" and "after" shots in a late-night weight-loss commercial.

The person in the picture looks nothing like the Jacob Kendo you see today. Everything is different. The cheeks. The stomach. And a head transformed from sweat and wrestling mats, a head so different that his wrestling coaches should have to put a disclaimer on his letterman's jacket: "Parents, I shrunk your kid."

The flesh that once rolled off his stomach has been defined, the fat replaced by muscle and the puffiness replaced by strength.

"I loved him when he was that weight, too," Cascade High School wrestling coach Sherm Iversen said. "But this kind of thing really just sneaks up on you. He brought in that picture from three years ago, and it's shocking. It's absolutely shocking.

"He just looks like a different human now."

Here's the best part about Jacob Kendo's story. The Cascade junior didn't need a miracle diet. He didn't need a New Year's resolution. All he needed was something every kid in every high school can take part in right this second: high-school sports.

Kids such as Kendo give Iversen a reason to come to work every day. They're the reason high-school sports are as important as any textbook. Those sports provide discipline and activity and competition — healthy pursuits in the pursuit of something healthier.

Kendo turned out for wrestling his freshman season and lost a couple pounds in the first week.

"This is pretty cool," he thought to himself. "Let's see if I can lose more."

Coaches told Kendo how to eat right, so he dropped fast food and starting eating deli sandwiches. He cut out sodas and starting drinking juice and water. Greasy food didn't cut it on the wrestling mat.

"If I ate pizza, I could feel it," Kendo said. "It's true: You are what you eat."

He also bought into the constant motion of wrestling workouts, losing up to seven pounds of water each practice. His metabolic rate sped up.

And the weight, from his cheeks to his ankles, started melting off. One pound here, 10 pounds there, until we're left with the before and after.

It didn't happen overnight. Kendo lost 30 pounds during his freshman wrestling season, 10 pounds at a summer wrestling camp, 10 more pounds at a summer football camp and 10 pounds during his sophomore football season.

By then, he'd dropped from 260 pounds to 200, and he maintained that weight throughout his sophomore year. This year, he dropped 16 more pounds, down to 184, 76 pounds below where he started. He wrestles in the 189-pound weight class — not bad for someone who had wrestled as a heavyweight since sixth grade.

"I just feel better," Kendo said of the transformation. "It's helped my self-esteem.

"People are like: 'Wow, Kendo. You lost so much weight. I looked at my yearbook last weekend, and I didn't even recognize you.' "

Iversen said he's seen four or five similar transformations, but none quite as dramatic. Teammates nicknamed Kendo "Jared" after the dieter in those Subway-sandwich commercials.

Those who know Kendo said they aren't surprised. He plays football and puts the shot in addition to wrestling, serves as the junior-class vice president, mentors freshmen and belongs to the National Honor Society.

Sometimes, he thinks about what his life would be like had wrestling never hooked its claws and changed him. He keeps old student-identification cards from his freshman and sophomore years as reminders.

"He's got a huge heart," Iversen said. "He's one of those guys that everybody likes.

"There are a whole bunch of reasons why we have high-school sports. Winning is important. But a lot of times there are other things that, down the road, might be even more important. Like health. Jacob is a good example of the benefits."

The Lake show

Mark Hein entered his first year as boys basketball coach at Lake Stevens with modest expectations. A 5-0 start marked by unselfish play has certainly exceeded them.

Six Vikings have scored in double figures this season, and others have backed off trying to hit their scoring average every night in favor of better team results. Stars such as Matt Stevens and Tyler Long have been just that. But the Vikings are on top the WesCo North for different reasons.

"They're very unselfish," Hein said, before clarifying. "I should say extremely unselfish. A lot of guys could be scoring more points than they are, but they're content to be part of a winning team. That's meaningful to me. And it's made my first year pretty enjoyable."

Triple-teaming

How does a young Edmonds-Woodway wrestling team go 4-2 with five freshmen and two sophomores? By keeping it all in the family, of course.

That would be the Alfi family, which has three members on the Warriors' varsity. Last week, in a win over Mountlake Terrace, freshmen twins David (140 pounds) and Bradley (130) won their matches, as did senior captain Brian (145).

Edmonds-Woodway coach Mike Hanchett said the brothers all have different personalities. Get them on the mat against each other, and the sparks will fly.

"It's pretty rare to have three brothers on one team," Hanchett said. "It's most confusing for other teams at weigh-ins and things like that."

Around the county

• When the University of Washington announced last week that Kristen O'Neill would miss her junior basketball season with a stress fracture in her left foot, Snohomish County residents familiar with the situation just shook their heads.

It wasn't long ago that O'Neill (formerly of Meadowdale), Kayla Burt (from Arlington) and Kirsten Brockman (from Snohomish) moved in together before their sophomore season. But Burt and Brockman retired due to illness and injury. With O'Neill's setback, a once-promising local class keeps shrinking.

• With a nonconference victory against Mercer Island under its belt, the Snohomish boys swim team met WesCo power Kamiak last week — and won again. The Panthers topped the Knights 134-52, then swept all 11 events in a 120-52 victory against Everett. So how good are these Panthers? Good enough that Andy Ferguson and Chris Fulton swam state-qualifying times against Everett in events they don't normally swim.

• Those swimmers aren't on the only Snohomish team making an early mark. The girls basketball team beat Stanwood (70-28) and Oak Harbor (59-36) last week to improve to 5-0. With wins over Oak Harbor and Monroe already, the Panthers are the favorite in the WesCo North. They won it last year, too, but did not advance to the state tournament.

Greg Bishop: 206-464-3191 or gbishop@seattletimes.com

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