Bella Williams and her brother, Oscar, have won gold medals in prestigious wrestling tournaments on the Mainland.

LAHAINA – There is something about a Lahaina-based wrestling family. Moreover, there is something special about a wrestling coach from the West Side.

He’ll tell us till he’s red in the face that the 15-month recreational vehicle trip across the United States he has embarked upon with his family was to see the country, but we all know what he is up to.

Nathan Williams loves the sport of wrestling, and it becomes as clear as a wind-swept Lahaina sunset to see that the Lahaina Intermediate School wrestling program director would take his wife and young kids to every preseason wrestling event he could find on the Mainland sojourn.

Thus far the Williams kids have made quite an impression on their journey and have stood tall representing the Lahaina Roughnecks and MauiStyle wrestling.

They have recorded top finishes – including several gold medals – at the Cosmic Clash in Denver, Colorado; the NUWAY Summer Nationals in Atlantic City, New Jersey; the Conflict at Carver in Iowa; and the Freak Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This Las Vegas competition is one of the largest preseason youth wrestling tournaments in the nation and will feature 3,500 boys and girls competing on 32 mats.

Oscar and Bella Williams have taken first place honors at the Denver and Atlantic City events. The Conflict at Carver tournament in Iowa actually took place in wrestling rooms of Olympic and NCAA champion Dan Gable.

In this tournament, Bella wrestled in the 88-pound Elementary Division and won the gold medal with a 5-0 record for the weekend. She gave up zero points along the way.

“We think the reason for her success has been the MauiStyle season. Nobody has tougher girls than Maui. Maui No Ka ‘Oi! Our thanks to her coach from the very beginning, Conrad Bolor, and all her practice partners in the Lahaina Roughnecks program. We will be bringing our Lahaina pride to every tournament we enter this year,” beamed Coach Nathan.