Championships. Perfection. Accolades.
It can be the ultimate illusion, and two-time state judo champion Thor Guerrero is fantastically elusive when the perks of glory come chasing after him.
On Saturday, he won the ILH judo championship after cutting 4 pounds overnight to make the 145-pound limit. He celebrated well with a chicken katsu plate at Zippy’s.
“With mac salad,” Guerrero added.
“Thor is one of the more popular kids on the team purely by his personality,” Kamehameha judo coach Nick Lum said. “Everybody loves him. Great guy to be around. That’s one of the most amazing things about Thor. He’s extremely talented, but how he is as a person is phenomenal.”
On Sunday morning, the Kamehameha senior was back on the mat at his home spot, Hawaii Judo Academy. Training. Seven days a week. Nothing changes, especially the expression on his face. The reaction to victory or defeat.
On Thursday, along with the homework assignments, daily practices and long days of class, he is at HJA teaching judo to parents and children.
Longtime judo, wrestling and football coach Reggie Torres lights up when Guerrero is the topic of conversation. Torres is a co-athletic director at Kamehameha — no longer coaching, but a keen observer. He first saw Guerrero compete as a sophomore in 2023.
“His balance was the biggest thing. You try to throw him, but he has balance. I was more impressed with him as a person. He epitomizes what you expect from a judoka. Humble. Win or lose, he’s the same. In his weight class, there’s a lot of good judoka, so it comes down to (who) makes the least mistakes,” Torres said.
After finishing third in the ILH tournament as a sophomore, he regrouped to win his first state title one week later at 132 pounds. Then came his second state crown last year as a junior at 145.
“That first practice after offseason, it was a surprise the amount of strength he gained,” Warriors assistant coach and former head coach Scott Motoda said. “Then from junior year until now is night and day. He’s even stronger than last year. When he wins, that’s it. He doesn’t gloat. Very humble. I’ve never seen him jump up and down, or react to a loss. That’s one of the greatest things about him.”
Though judo is a beloved sport globally, it is a not an official NCAA sport. Guerrero has a plan, however. He wants to touch the sky.
“I want to be a pilot for Hawaiian Airlines. Right after I graduate, there’s a flight school (Pacific Flight Academy). There used to be a wait list, but they bought two or three new planes. I had a discovery flight with them in February. I went up and they let me fly,” Guerrero said.
The discovery flight is a life-changing experience for some.
“I wasn’t really flying, but you know it’s real. My flight instructor was doing most of the controls and she let me take the controls. We flew from around the airport to Makaha,” he said. “The view is super nice. It took maybe 10 or 15 minutes.”
The plan is simple, but not easy. Tuition, he said, is close to $100,000, including costs for all licenses, over a three-year span.
“What makes it so long is getting all the hours to fly,” he noted.
Guerrero lives an almost monastic life on the judo mat, training seven days per week under former Olympian Taylor Takata.
There’s no second sport, no addictive off-mat hobby. He tried flag football, gymnastics and soccer at a young age, and none fit like judo.
“I really enjoyed judo and wanted to stick with it and keep going,” he said.
Many of his earliest best friends were judo buddies.
“Brendan (Kuwabara) and his brothers, Tyler and Jake,” Guerrero said. “Brendan is funny. We joke around a lot.”
Guerrero is the kind of state champion who has no idea what his win-loss record is. He’s not sure, but his last loss in high school competition may have been during the ILH tournament in 2023. To be fair, wins and losses tend to be recorded by dads, if anybody.
The story begins long before inception. Guerrero’s father, Kawika Bennett, was the son of Bob Guerrero.
“Kawika and his father look exactly alike,” Iris Simpliciano said.
When Bob Guerrero died, Kawika Guerrero was 2. His mother eventually remarried and Kawika took on the last name of his stepfather.
Kawika Bennett was a jiu-jitsu enthusiast, but dabbled in judo and kickboxing. When Iris Simpliciano was pregnant, the couple made a deal. If the baby was a girl, mom would name her. If the baby was a boy, dad would get the honor.
Three months into the pregnancy, they learned their baby was a boy. Kawika Bennett had no Marvel Comics book collection of Thor, Norse god of thunder. Instead, he was inspired by what he saw in the midnight sky. It was a dark and stormy night.
“There was lightning,” Simpliciano recalled. “All he told me for months was that he wanted a strong name. It’s so funny.”
Guerrero doesn’t hear about his name origin often.
“I think that’s pretty cool how I got my name. I love that story,” he said.
His parent-child class at the academy is on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
“He’s really patient with the kids. He’s very humble,” Simpliciano said. “He has the same traits as his dad.”
It wasn’t so long ago that Guerrero was a 3-year-old on the same mat, learning how to roll.
“Kawika was looking for something to put him into,” Simpliciano recalled. “He does a lot of research. He wanted a place that he thought was good. Taylor Takata went to the Olympics. Thor liked it. He didn’t cry. Back then, it was fun to him. It wasn’t until later he really learned judo.”
Bennett was always at his son’s side, absorbing the nuances from a master just as his son did. Takata’s impact was immeasurable then and remains so now.
“Thor was always there with Taylor. He would train at least two or three times a week when he was younger. When he got into the competition class, he trained four times a week,” Simpliciano said.
The first throw Guerrero learned was seoi nage. Later, he learned more throws. His family began taking him to mainland tournaments when he was 8.
“When I was around 12, I learned sode. Sensei Aryn (Tanaka) or Sensei Taylor taught me that,” he said.
The process of competing in national and regional tournaments was tough. Guerrero and his competitors often struggled to make weight. At a tourney in Seattle, he was 1-2 pounds over the limit on weigh-in day.
“They shaved my head. I still wasn’t losing weight, so they put me in the bathroom with the hot water on and it felt like a sauna,” he recalled.
After 30 minutes, he emerged and made weight.
“I hated that. I don’t think cutting weight is ever fun, especially at that age,” he said.
There was a local tournament in Salt Lake when he was 12. He was 13 pounds over the limit. He made weight.
But success near and far kept Guerrero stoked and going back for more.
“It’s going against the best. it just motivated me to keep training and training harder,” he said.
The learning has never stopped. Torres watched Guerrero execute a fireman’s carry during one match, basically a wrestling move without grabbing the opponent’s leg, which keeps it legal on a judo mat.
The annual summer trips began to expand beyond Dallas for Guerrero and his teammates at HJA. After the pandemic, he began high school with a dedication at another level.
“Since freshman year, I just felt more committed to judo,” he said.
Bennett was in lock-step unison with his son. Still training in jiu-jitsu, dabbling with him in occasional classes like kickboxing, Bennett crafted his schedule — his life — around his son.
“Hawaii judo is so strong even compared to the mainland because we have that solid base of old-school style. It makes us a strong community,” Motoda said. “Thor’s father, Kawika, he had a judo background. He was always there every tournament, always made sure he was by Thor’s side, talking to him, congratulating him. For the most part, he let us do our job as coaches, and he would come to us after and thank us. Very respectful. Some parents are the opposite. That’s what I appreciated about him the most.”
It was late 2023. Guerrero was training for a national tournament. He and Bennett were working out, as usual, at the academy.
“It was pretty normal to start that day. We were doing judo. We were drinking water before he collapsed,” Guerrero said. “Woh, why is he on the ground? I didn’t know what was going on. Some of the adults were checking on him. It was pretty scary. They started doing CPR on him.”
Soon, his mother and Bennett’s co-workers from the federal fire station arrived.
“We went to Pali Momi. We followed them. I was kind of scared. I didn’t really know what happened. It didn’t feel real,” Guerrero said. “We got a chance to see him after they got him stable. He seemed fine.”
Simpliciano was shocked when one of the staff told her that her husband had one clogged artery and another halfway clogged.
“They said, ‘We put a stent in. They’re going to get him ready for ICU and you can see him,’” she said. “This was at midnight.”
Guerrero saw his father, cautiously optimistic.
“He seemed fine. I went to my grandparents’ house in Pearl City to sleep,” he recalled.
More than 100 firefighters were at the hospital hoping for the best.
Simpliciano waited, hoping for good news.
“The ICU doctor comes out. ‘You understand he had a massive heart attack, and he’s not responding. He’s probably not going to make it,’” she recalled.
Guerrero got the bad news moments later.
“My auntie woke me up at 2 in the morning to bring me back to the hospital. They knew he was going to pass. It felt super unexpected. I did get in his room before he passed.”
At 49, Kawika Bennett’s time on earth was done.
“I was in shock,” Simpliciano said. “We just celebrated his birthday on Nov. 6, and he passed on Nov. 8.”
“Nobody expected it. He wasn’t even sick. He went to work on his shift on Sunday, now he’s not going to make it,” Simpliciano said. “He was very active. He did jiu-jitsu and judo. On his days off, he would work out at the station. We thought he was fit. He wasn’t overweight.”
She remembered the times Bennett had suffered with what they assumed was acid reflux.
“My cousin is a nurse and she said sometimes it’s actually your heart,” she said. “Now when I think of it all those times it was probably his heart.”
Simpliciano coped as best she could. Sometimes, she tried to talk with Thor about it. He couldn’t do it. His coping mechanism was to keep moving. Keep working. He was out of school for one week, mourning and recovering. Then he leaped back into his busy life without hesitation.
“I think judo really helped make it easier. I kept training. I still had a tournament in Irving (Texas). I had to cut 8 pounds to get to 132,” he said.
“I’ve never asked Thor how he felt,” his mother said. “Thor’s not the type that talks, you know what I mean? They were very close. They did everything together. Everything was about Thor. He would always tell him, ‘Thor, now is your time. Everything is for you.’”
One part of Kawika Bennett’s legacy will remain in his name. He had planned for years to change it back to Guerrero, but only after retiring from the federal fire department in 2024 and applying to become a state firefighter. The paperwork involved was more than he wanted to deal with, particularly with security measures. He almost made it 25 years.
“I don’t think it bothered Thor. He doesn’t care what other people think,” Simpliciano said.
What he cares about is humility and dignity, the same virtues he learned since he stepped on a mat as a preschooler. The way of the world won’t make him flinch.
“One time, we went to Colorado. These brothers from LA Judo came up to Thor and his teammate at the hotel. They said, ‘Are you ready to get your butt kicked?’ Of course, Thor and his teammate have no reaction. It doesn’t bother them. I was close enough to hear it,” Simpliciano said. “There was another tournament and Thor won the match. The boy didn’t want to shake Thor’s hand. What ended up happening, the boy’s auntie made the boy apologize to Thor and his coach.”
It’s all part of the equation. Guerrero sees the world through the lens of a judoka. Aside from judo and flight school, there is only one other quest.
“I want to meet Joshiro Maruyama and get thrown by him,” he said of the recently retired two-time world champion. “He does my favorite throw, uchi mata. He’s part of the reason I started doing it.”
Torres remains appreciative of Guerrero.
“The fact that he lost his dad, we were amazed that he came out for judo. I love him as a leader who leads by example as a representative in the art of judo,” he said. “Judo is the gentle way. To take the opponent’s energy and aggression and work it against him. Respect. Discipline. Humility. Some kids don’t behave with traditional judo. Thor has respect not just for adults, but his opponents, as well.”
There is no going back, but Kawika Bennett constantly kept his son moving forward, and Thor Guerrero’s work ethic and pure love of judo kept filling his father’s cup in return. The ultimate fireman’s carry.
“I would tell him, thank you for everything,” Guerrero said. “Thank you for all the sacrifices.”
THOR GUERRERO
Kamehameha judo • Senior
Top 3 movies/shows
1. “Thor: Ragnarok”
2. “Power Rangers Super Samurai”
3. “The Fairly OddParents” (Nickelodeon)
Top 3 foods/drinks
1. Honeydew melon/lychee — Cherry on Top frozen yogurt (Pearl City)
2. Steak — Oh My Grill
3. Orange Bang — Zippy’s
Top 3 homemade food
1. Mom’s grilled cheese sandwich
2. Mom’s fettuccine Alfredo
3. Grandma’s beef lauya soup
Top 3 music artists/favorite song
1. Morgan Wallen — “7 Summers”
2. Charlie Puth — “One Call Away”
3. Bruno Mars — “Moonshine”
Favorite athlete: Joshiro Maruyama, judoka
“He does my favorite throw, uchi mata. It’s something I use a lot. I don’t know about perfect 10. Mine is maybe a 5.”
Funniest teammate: Brendan Kuwabara
“We joke around a lot. He’s a funny guy.”
GPA: 3.8
Favorite teacher/class: Mr. (Benjamin) Ramos, economics
“I like the energy he gives the class. He’s always energetic. We’re learning about investing into stocks and other things. The (paper trading) stocks I invested in, I was making money, even if it was a little bit.”
Favorite motto/scripture: “Behold I give you the power to trample on scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing shall hurt you.” – Luke 10:19
Hidden talent: piano
“Ever since I was like 5. We have a piano at my grandparents’ house. So I would practice. I would learn from YouTube, just me. They show you how to play. I like playing my favorite songs, but it’s kind of been awhile.
New life skill: How to cut weight better
State championships
2023 — 132 weight class
2024 — 145
2025 — currently competing at 145
“I was 4 pounds over the night before (ILH championships). I usually cut down on rice. I’ll drink water. The day of the tournament I cut whatever I need to. Whenever I’m dieting I don’t feel as good. I think that’s what makes high school season hard, when you have to cut weight every week.”
Bucket list: “I want to meet Joshiro Maruyama and get thrown by him.”
Time machine: “I would go into the future. I’d say maybe 2070, 2080, just to see where my life has led to and everything I’ve accomplished.”
Youth sports: Flag football, gymnastics, soccer
