Three years ago, Leilehua’s Kelani Corbett thought of herself as a poor wrestler.

A freshman at the time, she was losing matches in bunches and there seemed little chance she would rise to the level of her older brothers.

But things changed in a hurry. Now a senior, Corbett has that rare opportunity to win a fourth state high school championship.

“A lot of people don’t know it,” Corbett said after Friday’s practice, “but I lost at OIAs and Westerns before I won states. I lost to the same girl (Campbell’s Aaliyah Wright) five or six times that year.

“I’ve written a lot of essays about this for school. I think something switched in my head. One of our coaches told me you don’t have to wrestle a good season and that you can be 0-15 and still win a state title as long as you have a good tournament.”

That thinking gave Corbett a starting point, albeit a late one. A few weeks later, her father, Mules head coach Kevin Corbett, said something that still resonates with his daughter and serves as an enduring mind-set.

“It was about 10 seconds before my state final freshman year,” Kelani said. “He said, ‘No matter what happens, the next day will come and the sun will still rise and the world is not going to end. Wrestle with no regrets.’ ”

If the assistant coach’s words let the light in, Kevin Corbett’s words — which had Kelani crying — rang the proverbial bell that his daughter continues to answer emphatically.

“After that, the floodgates opened,” Kevin Corbett said. “That weight was lifted off of her and everything just kind of kicked in. From there, it’s been a whirlwind.”

Kelani Corbett, who is No. 1 pound-for-pound in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser rankings, is No. 7 p4p and No. 1 in her weight class in USA Wrestling’s Future Olympians rankings. She’s also been highly successful in national and world tournaments, and ranks her fifth-place finish in the Cadet Worlds as her biggest accomplishment.

“I should have taken third, but that’s my fault,” she said.

A fourth state championship, if it happens, would surpass that highlight at the top of the list. As a sophomore, she wrote in black marker on the back of her Nike wrestling shoes: “4x state.”

“Ever since I won that first state title, I said, ‘I can actually do this.’ That’s when I started believing in myself,” she added.

Corbett still wears those shoes, but not all the time.

“I think I have more wrestling shoes than regular shoes,” she said.

A fourth state championship is far from a done deal, though, and Corbett was reminded of that on Dec. 1, when she lost a match to Waianae’s Kaleinani Makuaole. That was Corbett’s first high school loss since her freshman season.

“Things happen, so now it’s about getting that mind-set back and put it back on the right track,” said Corbett, who committed to compete at Lyon College in Batesville, Ark., where older brother Kevin (a two-time Hawaii state placer at Campbell) is the head coach.

Another older brother, Liam, was a two-time state champion and four-time state placer for the Mules.

“Kevin was the athlete, very physical with power, strength and speed,” the elder Kevin Corbett said. “Liam, technique-wise, was one of the best scramblers I’ve seen in high school. Kelani is kind of a mixture of both. She can play the power game if she has to and she also has the technique. I always said if I could mix my two sons together, I’d have the ultimate wrestler, so I’m assuming that’s probably what I ended up with.”

Kelani, who has stayed in the 155-pound class throughout her high school career, has gotten plenty of wrestling insight from her brothers as well.

“I learned from Kevin that I need to start my matches faster, not stopping, and keeping constant pressure,” Kelani said. “In high school, he was a bull in a china shop. From Liam, I learned that if you give up a takedown, you just escape and get another takedown. As a freshman, I would hold back and worry too much about, ‘What if I give up a takedown?’ ”

Corbett is preparing for the Garner Ivey tournament on Maui this weekend and the annual Officials tournament at the Leilehua gym the following weekend.

Last season, Saint Louis’ Corey Cabanban became the most recent Hawaii wrestler to claim a fourth state title. Only nine (five boys, four girls) have done it.

Corbett wants it badly. If not? The answer is the same as it was in February 2016.

“What’s the worst that can happen?” her father’s recalled saying then. “Lose? It doesn’t matter. The sun comes up tomorrow. I still love you.”