Leilehua head coach Kevin Corbett poses for a picture with daughter Kelani and son Liam following the conclusion of the final day of the Chevron Hawaii/Hawaii High School Athletic Association State Championships at the Neal S. Blaisdell Arena. Sylvia Lee | SL

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Kevin Corbett was one proud papa Saturday night.

The Leilehua coach saw two of his wrestlers stand atop the podium by the end of two-day Chevron Hawaii/Hawaii High School Athletic Association State Championships at the Neal S. Blaisdell Arena.

It just so happens that both of them happen to call him dad.

Senior Liam Corbett successfully defended his boys' 152-pound state crown in the early parts of Saturday's finals round and not long after that freshman Kelani Corbett captured the girls' 155-pound title.

Liam, the No. 1 seed in the bracket, pulled out a 2-1 victory over second-seeded KJ Pascua of Iolani in his final high school match.

"He did an awesome job and KJ is an awesome kid," Kevin Corbett said. "They grew up together and they've traveled together nationally and competed together as teammates, so he wanted to go out and go wrestle a real tough match in the finals and I thought it was an awesome match. The two boys definitely put on a show to start the tournament. I was very proud of both of them."

Kelani, who placed second at the Oahu Interscholastic Association championships a week prior, was one of the biggest surprises of the tournament.

After pinning her opening-round opponent — Pearl City's Nina Seoane — Friday morning, she upset top-seeded Taj Vierra of Kamehameha in the quarterfinals. She followed that up with an 8-5 win over fourth-seeded Erika Larsen or Kealakehe Saturday morning before coming away with a 7-5 win over Lahainaluna's Karina Arroyo Haro, the No. 3 seed.

"I really wanted to just wrestle hard and wrestle my matches because I feel short at both OIAs and Westerns and I just wanted to come back and get the win," Kelani said. "I was nervous, but I just kept wrestling. My dad told me the whole tournament to just wrestle my way and I did it and it happened."

Kevin Corbett said the improvements started coming for his daughter when she learned to keep it simple.

"I think her big thing was starting off she puts a lot of pressure on herself because of her brothers and I finally got her to understand to just go out and wrestle; that's all you've got to do and it'l take care of the itself. I think that's when she was able to just overcome the freshman fears and all that kind of stuff, but I thought she could do it."

Kelani started wrestling at the age of four, but stopped competing for about a year and a half despite still putting in time at practices.

"I didn't like wrestling the same person over and over again for PAL," she said.

Her father watched from a distance as Kelani ascended the podium Saturday night.

"I'm super proud, especially for my daughter, because Liam has been here before, but Kelani it's her first and she's my little baby girl, so that's a big one," said Kevin Corbett, who added that he's probably more nervous during his kids' matches than they are.

The reward for Kelani's victory is a dubious one: her father's beard must be shaved.

"I made a deal with my wrestling team this year that if anyone won states — other than Liam — that they could shave my beard off that I've been growing for two years, so my daughter actually won my beard so thank God tomorrow it comes off," Kevin Corbett said.

Kelani, who leapt into the arms of her father after winning her finals' match, said the relationship the siblings share with him is a special one.

"It's both dad and coach, but it's more so dad for me because I'm a daddy's girl, but when we're in the practice room, he's our coach," the freshman said.

Liam was happy for Kelani, but as with any sibling relationship, he expected there would be a little bit of ribbing from her.

"It's awesome that she's only a freshman — even though she's probably going to talk a bunch of trash to me — but it's awesome that she won," he said.

Making things even sweeter for the Corbetts was the fact that their sibling — who is also named Kevin — placed first at the NAIA North Qualifier in York, Neb. earlier in the day. He claimed the 174-pound weight class to become the first wrestler from Doane College (Neb.) to qualify for the NAIA national tournament.

"I'm ecstatic," the elder Kevin Corbett said. "It's very seldom that both your kids can win states on the same day being a brother and a sister and on top of that, their older brother won his tournament in college today, so we kind of did the old hat trick with the family so it was a really good day."