Balancing school and athletics not a problem for Agoura's Combes-Knoke
By Shuhei Matsuo Special to the Acorn

Pascal Combes-Knoke

Pascal Combes-Knoke does it all. And everything he does, he does well.

The Thousand Oaks native is a scholar-athlete at Agoura High and holds impressive records in both athletics and academics.

He's finished the winter season as one of the top 30 wrestlers in California and took fifth place in the CIF Masters meet, representing about half of the schools in the state. Academically, Combes-Knoke is a straight-A student with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average.

Being a scholar-athlete, however, is no easy task.

"It's definitely hard to be an athlete and a scholar," the high school senior said, "but sports have made me good at time-management, because when you have less time, you figure out how to do things more efficiently."

During the wrestling season, Combes-Knoke's day began at 7 a.m. with a morning practice session before class. After school, he went to another practice. Oftentimes, he didn't come home until 8 or 9 p.m. but still managed to finish schoolwork late at night.

Dennis Ritterbush, head coach of the Agoura wrestling team, needed only a few words to describe Combes-Knoke's dedication to his sport and school.

"Bold, strong, and (he) works hard," Ritterbush said.

Combes-Knoke's physical strength comes from his daily workouts.

During wrestling and football seasons, he spent a lot of time in the weight room. As a 5-foot-11, 171-pounder, Combes-Knoke benches 265 pounds, squats 415 and clean-lifts 280. He also holds the school record in the vertical leap with a mark of 35.2 inches.

The talented Charger said he enjoys wrestling because he can focus on one opponent at a time.

"Because of the fact that I'm in complete control of the situation, I've been able to take myself as far as I want to in wrestling," he said. "That's part of the reason why I was able to go to the state and all that."

Now that his high school wrestling career is over, Combes-Knoke is looking forward to continuing the sport at a higher level.

He's already been accepted to Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and Carnegie Mellon University. He said he'll probably choose Pennsylvania and study mechanical engineering. Even though he says he wants to focus on academics in college, Combes-Knoke will continue to compete on the mat.

"It's going to be very difficult (to balance out academics and athletics), but I've always pulled through in the past," Combes-Knoke said. "I'm sure I'll be able to pull through in the future."

Studying and sports aren't the only activities in Combes-Knoke's life. He also spends a significant amount of time on community service.

Every year he participates in Relay for Life, where teams of volunteers have at least one person from each team walking around a track for 24 hours. In his junior year, Combes-Knoke demonstrated leadership by founding the Hacky Sack Club. He's also contributed to the Acorn by writing an opinion piece on vandalism for the Jan. 12, 2006, issue.

In his spare time, Combes-Knoke enjoys making music. He sings and plays piano, guitar, bass and percussion. He has even produced a full-length music CD that includes 10 original compositions.

"I brought a friend who plays a piano over here, and I bought all the recording equipment and put together a CD," Combes-Knoke said. "I just laid tracks over each other- I played drums and guitar together."

There's another skill he's added to his repertoire- speaking French. Combes-Knoke's mother is from France.

"Oui, je parle francais (Yes, I speak French)," he said.

Combes-Knoke has had an opportunity to travel outside of the United States and learn about other cultures.

He's spent at least eight summers in France and two summers in Brazil. He says these international experiences have taught him some important life lessons.

"The United States is not the center of the world," he said.

"Most Americans think they are the best, but all countries have their own personality and uniqueness. It's pretty cool to just go out there and see how everyone else reacts to different kinds of situations."

At 18, Combes-Knoke has already seen the world and experienced some amazing things. Still, even he admits he's not perfect.

"I can't fly," he said with a smile.