CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa – As 125-pound Peninsula District champion out of Denbigh (Va.) High School a year ago, Robert Rhea wrestled more than 40 bouts, from preseason inter-area tournaments to the regular season and finally Virginia’s Eastern Region tournament in Chesapeake.

This year? After having transferred over the summer to Seoul American, Rhea, a junior, had less than 10 percent of that total entering last weekend’s “Rumble on the Rock” tournament on Okinawa.

Four bouts. All against the same opponent: Osan American’s Katy Hylton. All victories.

“There’s really no competition in Korea,” said Rhea, who finally got a taste of it when he won the 129-pound “Rumble” gold medal after going up against the best Okinawa had to offer, beating Mark Chase of Kubasaki three times. He wrestled six bouts last weekend.

As in the States, “Here in Japan you have to be stronger, have more technique, finish your moves, counter their moves and do your best to succeed,” Rhea said. “The States is very competitive, from region to state, it is very competitive.”

Coming from Annandale High, where he was eighth at 135 pounds in Fairfax County, Va., Seoul American 135-pounder Andy Webber noted the same thing. “A big difference,” he said. “Lack of matches. That won’t help us get ready for Far East.”

Their experience this season is a microcosm of two problems affecting the three DODDS-Korea wrestling programs, each of which has fallen on hard times – lack of athletes and lack of coaching continuity.

Each team has a new coach this season, Seoul American welcoming back Julian Harden after a year off; he may not be back next season, nor might David Dufour, Osan’s third head coach in four years. Luke Spencer and Kevin Jackson are Daegu’s third head coaches in five years.

“It’s going to be an ongoing problem until we get stability,” Harden said. His Falcons have 11 wrestlers, Osan eight and Daegu three.

“If they know the coach and he has a reputation for doing things, then they have no problem joining. But if you’re new, it’s hard to build that clientele. And that’s what we’re all dealing with now. All of us are new at this thing.”

One of Harden’s former protégés, ex-215-pound Far East champion-turned-Falcons assistant coach Scott Tunis, expressed surprise at the downturn. The coaching carousel “really took a toll on the team in terms of building up wrestlers,” Tunis said.

“We have a lot of young wrestlers. We can’t fill all the weight classes. Our level of experience is very low, compared to my era.”

Then, there’s the matter of finding enough athletes who’d rather engage in a grueling, exacting, disciplined sport such as wrestling instead of basketball, which is more free-wheeling.

“Good luck getting a kid in Korea who wrestles at one school for four years,” Dufour said. “Commitment is tough. They’re kids.”

A hard fall it’s been for a Seoul American program that won four Far East tournament titles and four Outstanding Wrestler awards under Harden’s previous stewardship from 1993-2009. Osan won three golds and an outstanding wrestler award from 2006 until last year.

“Every time that happened, it was because of coaching continuity,” Harden said. “It didn’t happen in the first or second year; they had to build toward that. It will happen again. It’s just going to take time.”

Even if the coaching carousel continues, for now, “we all work well together,” Harden said of the get-along, go-along between the three coaching staffs, all dedicated to improvement.

“If each team doesn’t improve, it doesn’t help the other out,” Harden said. “It’s a process that we all agreed to to try to do this correctly and get ready for Far East.”

Most wrestlers on the three teams are underclassmen, and each school has eighth graders already working out in the gym to get ready for their turn, coaches said.

“We’re building a core … We’re going to have a good team next year,” Spencer said. “And look at our three wrestlers; they’re all competitive,” he said of Jon Philley, Daniel Santil and Xavian Washburn, each of whom medaled at “Rumble.”

More opportunities such as “Rumble,” with DODDS having funded travel for the three schools to and from Okinawa, are “huge,” Harden said. “A lot of our wrestlers are visual learners. They have to see this over and over again before the light goes on.”

Spencer noted Seoul’s Charles Campbell finally beating Osan’s Brett Hammontree after four tries this season. “It takes progression, it takes work, it takes developing that character and those skills. It doesn’t happen overnight.”

Neither does broad, fundamental and immediate change, which means wrestlers such as Rhea must endure with little preparation for Far East, Feb. 14-17 at Camp Humphreys.

Does Rhea regret coming to Korea and miss his days at Denbigh?

“It’s a good experience for me finishing up high school here and getting to know all different kinds of cultures,” Rhea said. “I wish there was more competitive wrestling in Korea as there is in Japan.”

ornauerd@pstripes.osd.mil

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