Washington lets his skills do the talking

After sitting down and talking to soft-spoken Khari Washington, you would be hard pressed to tell he’s an intense competitor for one of the country’s premier junior college wrestling programs.

During the 2010-2011 season, Washington played football for coach Eric Waldstein and played running back for the Hawks in addition to wrestling.

After a successful season on the mat last year. Washington decided that wrestling alone would be in his future.

“You never know what you can do until you try something,” Washington said. “It was a big opportunity.”

The results of Washington’s freshman year were successful indeed. He advanced to the NJCAA wrestling tournament and finished fourth in the 171-pound weight class.

“It made me more humble,” Washington said.

Wrestling has been prominent in Washington’s life since the seventh grade, when he was introduced to the sport by Vincent Jones, who is the father of Washington’s 21-year-old sister Vinese Jones.

Washington says he used wrestling as a tactic for staying out of trouble.

Washington attended a high school more known for its basketball program than for wrestling. But as Washington will remind you, “Once I got there, we changed the program around.”

Washington flourished under the tutelage of retired Proviso West assistant wrestling coach Vernon Hanson. Hanson just happens to be Washington’s cousin.

“(Hanson) was always been there for me when I needed him,” Washington said. “He showed me another side of myself that I did not see.”

Hanson still travels to most of Washington tournaments.

While wrestling for the Panthers, Washington made three appearances at the IHSA state tournament in Champaign. Each time he left with a bitter taste in his mouth after quarterfinal losses.

“It just made me more hungry,” Washington said.

But Washington was used to having to go through adversity. He grew up in the tough suburb of Maywood, and his mom was not often around. That left Khari to spend most of his days with the strong male infuences in his life from the wrestling arena.

“I was always the type of guy to be my own leader,” Washington said of resisting the negative choices that were available to him.

“He has gone through a lot,” said Harper coach Dan Loprieno.

Washington says his mother, Kimberly, was and still is a big influence on his life.

“My mom does not want me to go down the track that others have gone down,” he said. “I was raised to make my family proud.”

As a senior in Champaign, Washington caught the eyes of one coach in particular — Loprieno.

“I saw a lot of untapped potential,” Loprieno said. “With a little fine-tuning, he could do a lot of good things.”

Washington was a solid student in high school but did not receive much attention from college coaches, partly due to disappointing ACT scores. Harper was the only school that Washington made a formal visit to.

Loprieno believes wrestling with higher quality competitors in training has helped Washington improve.

By any measure, Washington is making his family proud. He’s become the first male in his family to attend college. He’s maintaining a high GPA and is leaning toward majoring in fire science once he decides on a four year school.

“He had the best semester he has probably ever had academically,” Loprieno said of Washington’s winter semester performance in the classroom.

Washington has also put in a lot of wrestling work during the collegiate off-season. He competes in Greco-Roman tournaments and tries to improve upon his fundamentals.

Both Loprieno and Washington hope that pays dividends by the end of this season.

“I feel like I can win (a national title),” said Washington, currently ranked No. 2 in the nation at his weight class. “I don’t want to lose to anybody in the district.”

“He has the right kind of attitude,” Loprieno said.