She isn’t E.F. Hutton from the 1970s TV commercials, but when Chloe Obuhanych talks, people listen.
That’s what winning three state championships — two in judo and as of last week, one in air riflery — will do. The kicker: Obuhanych speaks so infrequently, only her small circle of family and friends converse with her.
At Blaisdell Arena, the Pearl City junior won the girls individual state championship with a score of 640, just three-tenths of a point off the record. Her score tied Lauren Kadooka of Kailua (2016), and was just behind the 640.3 carded by Francis Dela Cruz of Waiakea (2023). The record is within reach not just for Obuhanych, but for some of her Pearl City teammates.
Senior Ella Wenceslao posted an excellent 634.3 in her final state tournament, while juniors Jenna Liang (636.2) and Serah Yogi (539 in three rounds) gave the Chargers a team score of 2,181, which shattered the previous record of 2,137 set by Punahou in 2016. Obuhanych does her work quietly, always observing, but rarely speaking due to a condition known as selective mutism. She is comfortable typing into a laptop or phone to communicate, which she did during this interview.
“It feels amazing to be a part of the championship team, especially since everyone on the team are really good shooters. It also didn’t feel real when I won individually since air riflery is not my main sport and my teammates were shooting better than me during the season,” Obuhanych said.
She became the first girls air riflery state champion from Pearl City since Jolana Gollero in 2006. Obuhanych signed up for air riflery as a freshman at Pearl City two years ago with Yogi, her best friend and fellow judoka/wrestler.
“We do everything together. It was between air riflery and cross country. Cross country, no thank you,” Yogi said. “We were terrible when we first started in air riflery. I couldn’t hit the paper. Missed everything.”
Obuhanych and Yogi stuck with the new sport through trying times.
“I thought air riflery was very confusing at first in ninth grade because of all the different equipment and things to remember, but it became really fun,” Obuhanych said. “I liked how it’s a lot different than all the other sports I’ve done. And there was no big expectation for me.”
The thrills began in 2022 when the then-freshmen — Liang, Yogi and Obuhanych — began to score in the 500s as the Chargers took the state title.
“In air riflery, my favorite memory was our team winning states the first time,” Obuhanych said. “I didn’t expect it at all.”
“We were motivating each other. We always have that competitive edge,” Yogi recalled. “Always trying to get the better score. Coach (Les Aranaydo) said we were the first freshmen to get a 500.”
Obuhanych is the best in the state with her air rifle, but is still relatively new. Some shooters are able to time their shots, pulling the trigger in between heartbeats.
“I didn’t know that was a thing,” she said. “I just breathe out and then shoot when I’m on the target.”
Obuhanych is perfectly content with a 4.0 grade-point average, not including a 4.18 in the first quarter this fall. She loves to draw. Her favorite class is architecture.
“She could go into engineering,” said her mother, Laura (Yoshida) Obuhanych.
Laura Yoshida grew up in a judo family. After graduating from McKinley, she grew interested in wrestling, which was just becoming an official state-championship high school sport in the islands.
“I’ve seen her trophies from wrestling and judo,” Obuhanych said.
Laura Yoshida led McKinley to OIA judo championships in 1997 and ’98. Little Chloe grew up on the mat. While her father, Thomas, took her older brother to baseball practices and games (and coached him), Chloe and her mother were the ultimate tag team, and still are. Chloe, a two-time medalist in the state wrestling championships, has come a long way. She still remembers the last time she and her mom challenged each other on the mat. It was fun.
“I won,” Chloe said.
She has trained for more than a decade in judo and wrestling. The reward: two state titles at 105 pounds in judo with a 35-1-1 record. In wrestling, she overcame a torn labrum last year to place third statewide after a runner-up finish as a freshman. Her wrestling ledger: 42-7.
The hunger is always there, literally and figuratively. Competing against the best locally and nationally keeps the fuel tank full.
“I wanted to just kind of prove myself since I’ve been doing wrestling for such a long time,” she said.
Freestyle wrestling in mainland tournaments, which is the college format, is a universe she likes.
“I like how free it is. There are so much moves in wrestling you can do and you can never know everything about the sport,” Obuhanych said. “I think the hardest part about wrestling is the practices rather than the matches. There’s a lot of conditioning and endurance in wrestling, and the practices really focus on that.”
Thomas Obuhanych grew up fishing and diving on the east side of Honolulu, bodyboarding at Sandy’s. He met Laura when they were students at the University of Hawaii. After coaching at McKinley, Laura helped out at Campbell, then was head coach at Mililani. Judo restrictions meant Chloe couldn’t train until she was 5, so wrestling became her routine at 4. When she was 7, family friends brought Chloe’s family to train with Cedric Yogi at O2 Martial Arts Academy. Yogi is also the judo head coach at Pearl City. His daughter, Serah, remembers Obuhanych’s arrival clearly.
“I met her when I was 7 at gymnastics. I remember I was kind of the best in the class. Chloe came along and she was kind of good. I looked up to her,” she said. “Then one day she showed up to wrestling class. Just like gymnastics, she was real good.”
Serah’s training parter was Sky Ramos, who now wrestles for Moanalua and became the 2024 state champion in Obuhanych’s division, 105 pounds.
“Sky would stop partnering with me and partnered with Chloe, so I was mad at Chloe. One day, Sky left. She went to another wrestling club. Then Chloe and me were forced to partner up and we found out we had a lot in common,” Yogi said.
It was the beginning of a besties friendship.
“I like how she’s always supportive of me and wants me to do better. She never puts me down and always makes me feel included whenever we hang out with teammates or other friends,” Obuhanych said.
Obuhanych’s tendency to be silent around strangers struck both Coach Yogi and Serah.
“In the beginning, Chloe was very quiet with kind of a timid demeanor until she started wrestling,” he said. “It’s very minimal that she’ll talk to me, but it’s maybe three girls she’ll talk to. At our house, I can hear her talking to Serah. I call her the ‘Silent Assassin.’ “
That bond between friends is what Coach Yogi is in tune with.
“I know one thing. Because of her selective mutism, some people talk to her and think there’s something wrong, and she hates it when they talk to her like she’s a young kid. She’s super intelligent,” he said.
Standout wrestlers have a history of raising the bar at Pearl City. The mat brings truth.
“Ray Cooper was freakishly strong. Billy Takeuchi had lungs forever. Chloe has a great IQ. She’s long and lanky and knows how to use it. She’s not muscle-bound like the Kamehameha and Lahainaluna girls, all buffed out. She doesn’t have that intimidating look,” Coach Yogi said. “She’s very diverse. I’d be hard pressed to tell you what’s her favorite move. That’s part of her strength.”
The cerebral part of the sport continues to grow.
“At this point, it’s the little things. (Trilogy coach) Dave Crooke, he’s very similar in style to what we do with coaching and techniques, but it’s at another level. He helps them get to the next level. That’s one of the big helps,” Yogi said.
Obuhanych was in middle school when her parents met Crooke at a tournament. They found a lot in common when it came to wrestling and life. She has trained at Trilogy in lower Pearl City ever since.
“Chloe’s really focused. I can teach her something 30 minutes before a match and she’s hitting it on a high-level wrestler,” Crooke said. “When you first meet Chloe, you don’t know if she’s paying attention, then she hits the move and after that, I never question her attention span again. She recollects everything on call.”
Over the years, the Obuhanych ohana traveled extensively for tournaments, mostly wrestling, including national tournaments. Obuhanych competed against some of the top wrestlers in the country.
“The most unusual thing is she’s caring enough where she fights an opponent in nationals, she has premade gifts for her opponents. The mom them are super good,” Coach Aranaydo said.
Aranaydo coached wrestling for 26 years, overlapping for several seasons with a 27-year stint as air riflery coach. He never coached anyone who was a state champion in both sports. The Obuhanych family has fun to go with their commitment.
“Funny story. Her mom printed a shirt for me saying, ‘Thank you for being Chloe’s favorite coach.’ I thought I was special, but our whole coaching staff got the same shirts,” Aranaydo said.
He wears the shirt proudly. It makes him smile.
“Her parents are very humble and she’s a good mirror of her family,” he said.
Chargers judo coach Rob Puahala saw Obuhanych wrestle as a 5-year-old.
“She was competing against my daughter (Logan Puahala). Chloe was a tactician. For that age, her technique was clean and she had good footwork,” Coach Puahala recalled. “She is a natural, has the ability to adapt during a match. Most people will go back and watch the tapes of their wins and losses, but she can do it within a match.”
Obuhanych has a superpower of sorts.
“She’s kind of able to be emotionless where nothing affects her. She’s stone cold and I think that comes from years of preparation and hard work. What’s pressure for a normal person is nothing for her,” Puahala said. “She’s on track to do some great things.”
Coincidentally, what Obuhanych shows on the surface sometimes belies what is below.
“My favorite judo memory was during state finals when my team was cheering for me,” she said.
Connect the dots, and both Yogi and Puahala wrestled for Aranaydo at Pearl City, and they also played judo. Two decades later, Aranaydo winds up coaching one of the few air riflery/judo state champions in island history, Obuhanych.
Though she feels apprehensive about talking to people she doesn’t know well, there is no hesitation at the keyboard of a laptop. So many questions, but as usual, she knows all the answers. Spending time with family and friends fills her tank.
“I went fishing a lot with my dad until he sank the boat,” she said. “I usually bodyboard with him whenever we go to the beach.”
Chloe Obuhanych
Pearl City air riflery, wrestling, judo • Junior
>> 2024 air riflery state champion
>> 2022, ’23 judo state champion (105-pound division)
Top 3 movies/shows
1. “Cobra Kai”
2. “Lord of the Rings”
3. “Pirates of the Caribbean”
Top 3 foods/drinks
1. Taro boba (Boba Cafe)
2. Korean BBQ (Gen Korean BBQ House)
3. Sushi (Sushi Bay)
Top 3 homemade food
1. Dad (Thomas Obuhanych)’s chicken katsu curry
2. Dad’s spicy salmon or ahi poke bowl
3. Dad’s Korean chicken
Laura Obuhanych (mom): “She used to take off all the (chicken) fat and skin, the squishies.”
Thomas Obuhanych (dad): “But the last four, five years she hasn’t been as picky.”
Funniest teammate: “Either Jenna Liang (air riflery) or Taydem Uyemura (wrestling)
Smartest teammate: “Pretty much everyone on the girls air riflery team!”
GPA: 4.0
Favorite teacher: Ms. Mahina Goo (freshman year)
“She lets us stay in her class whenever.”
Favorite class: Architecture
Favorite motto/scripture: “I don’t need easy. I just need possible.”
Hidden talent: Drawing (people and cats)
New life skill: Cooking
“Omelettes, crepes and other breakfast food.”
Youth sports: Gymnastics, cheerleading, flag football, track, tennis, jiu jitsu, wrestling, judo.
If you could go back in time, what would you tell your younger self?
“Hard work pays off in the end.”
Shoutouts:
>> Air riflery coaches: Lelan Aranaydo, Lester Aranaydo, Gordon Aihara
>> Wrestling coaches: Dave Crooke, Cedric Yogi, Jon Lum, Steve Thai
“And the rest of my favorite O2 Rhino club and Pearl City High School wrestling coaches.”
>> Judo coaches: Rob Puahala, Steve Alphabet, Roy Kawaji, Randall Platt
“And the rest of my favorite Leeward Judo Club and Pearl City High School judo coaches.”
>> Jiu Jitsu coaches: Mike Onzuka and Chris Onzuka, Grant Arakawa from O2 Martial Arts Academy
>> Bernie Soriano from Central Oahu Physical Therapy
“They are my ‘favorite’ coaches since my mom made shirts for all the judo and wrestling coaches last year saying ‘Chloe’s favorite judo/wrestling coach’ for everyone.”
>> “All of my judo, wrestling and air riflery teammates, friends and family
>> “My bestie Serah Yogi.”
>> “Mom and dad.”
