Why UW Huskies commit Victor Sanchez Hernandez sacrificed taekwondo for football
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By Andy Yamashita Seattle Times staff reporter
LYNNWOOD — Joe Whitworth has taught the art of taekwondo for around four decades. He’s coached the highest level of the sport for the past 10 years.
Whitworth has endured some difficult discussions with his pupils during his time training some of the sport’s elite prospects. He’s told former students that they simply cannot advance any further. That they’ve reached the ceiling their talent and skill will allow. That it’s time to pivot to a new hobby, or a new phase of their athletic career.
Cutting Victor Sanchez Hernandez, however, was one of Whitworth’s most difficult conversations. Not because the then-16-year-old martial artist had nothing to offer in taekwondo. Whitworth maintained his former student’s unique mix of size, speed and skill were going to make Sanchez Hernandez “a lock” to represent Team USA at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Instead, Whitworth said, taekwondo didn’t have enough to offer Sanchez Hernandez.
“I cut him from the team,” Whitworth said, “but it was actually for him, because he refused to stop.”
Sanchez Hernandez, a 6-foot-6, 250-pound edge rusher from Kamiak High in Mukilteo, announced his commitment to Washington on June 23. It was the culmination of a decision Sanchez Hernandez had been building up to for years — not between college programs, but between football and taekwondo.
Victor Sanchez Hernandez, an edge rusher at Kamiak and a world-champion Taekwondo fighter, poses for a portrait on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, in Mukilteo. Sanchez Hernandez has committed to play collegiately at the University of Washington. (Nick Wagner / The Seattle Times)
Victor Sanchez Hernandez, an edge rusher at Kamiak and a world-champion Taekwondo fighter, poses for a portrait on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, in Mukilteo. Sanchez Hernandez has committed to play... (Nick Wagner / The Seattle Times)
Choosing the gridiron and the Huskies goes against conventional wisdom. He’s forgoing the proverbial bird in the hand. Yet Sanchez Hernandez said he believes it’s a decision that will lead himself and his family to a brighter future.
“I knew eventually, in both sports, the journey has to come to an end,” Sanchez Hernandez said. “I was just presented with two great opportunities. In life you have to make sacrifices.
“So I sacrificed taekwondo for football.”
Looking back
Sanchez Hernandez is an anomaly in the modern college football recruiting landscape.
Most high-level football prospects have spent years participating in the sport before they reach high school. Fellow 2025 UW signees Zaydrius Rainey-Sale and D’Aryhian Clemons started playing youth football together in fourth grade. The Huskies offered local 2026 edge rusher Derek Colman-Brusa during the summer after he finished eighth grade.
Sanchez Hernandez, in comparison, had never strapped on a football helmet until weeks into his freshman year of high school. He burst onto the recruiting scene seemingly out of nowhere.
Kamiak High’s Victor Sanchez Hernandez (12) rushes the quarterback during a game between Kamiak and Jackson High on Oct. 13, 2023, at Frank Goddard Stadium in Everett. Sanchez Hernandez, a highly decorated competitive taekwondo fighter, only started playing football as a freshman in high school. (Courtesy Victor Sanchez Hernandez)
Kamiak High’s Victor Sanchez Hernandez (12) rushes the quarterback during a game between Kamiak and Jackson High on Oct. 13, 2023, at Frank Goddard Stadium in Everett. Sanchez Hernandez, a highly... (Courtesy Victor Sanchez Hernandez)
His time as a football recruit paralleled his career as a competitive taekwondo fighter.
Whitworth described Sanchez Hernandez as a “flash in the pan.” Sanchez Hernandez erupted onto the competitive sparring scene after making his debut at 15, significantly older than a majority of Olympic hopefuls. His junior amateur career lasted fewer than two years.
Yet Sanchez Hernandez racked up a significant list of accolades: 2022 and 2023 Junior Pan American Championships gold medalist, participated in the 2022 Junior World Championships, 2023 Junior U.S. Open gold medalist and the 2023 USA Taekwondo (USATKD) junior national champion. Among others.
Whitworth compared Sanchez Hernandez to Jonathan Healy, a Team USA fighter currently ranked No. 3 in the world, and former French taekwondo fighter Pascal Gentil, who won bronze medals during the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the 2004 Athens Olympics. Sanchez Hernandez has sparred with Healy since he was 15.
Sanchez Hernandez’s time atop the taekwondo world was the pinnacle of a process he and Whitworth began seven years earlier when the UW signee, age 9, joined Whitworth’s Northwest Black Belt Academy.
Their collaboration began with a misunderstanding.
Sanchez Hernandez, inspired by the anime Dragon Ball and an early love for Power Rangers, had previously done a few years of kung fu, so Whitworth asked his parents what level he’d achieved.
Victor Sanchez Rivera and Maria Hernandez, Mexican immigrants from Morelia, Mexico, didn’t speak much English at the time. Additional difficulties translating kung fu belts to taekwondo belts landed Sanchez Hernandez in one of Whitworth’s most advanced classes. Many of the students were nearly five years older than him.
It went poorly.
Sanchez Hernandez’s size didn’t make up for his lack of skill. He spent his first several years with Whitworth being — literally — kicked around the gym. The veteran taekwondo teacher recalled holding several one-on-one meetings with a frustrated Sanchez Hernandez, occasionally on the verge of tears, after difficult practices where he’d been severely outperformed by his peers.
“A lot of normal kids would’ve quit,” Whitworth said.
Sanchez Hernandez persevered. Eventually, Whitworth said, the characteristics of a strong taekwondo fighter emerged. Sanchez Hernandez was agile, with a quickness that normally evades awkward teenage fighters still growing into their bodies.
At 13, Sanchez Hernandez was sparring with 18-year-old fighters. He credited training with older fighters and Whitworth’s approach, for helping him mature and teaching him toughness.
Victor Sanchez Hernandez (blue) kicks an opponent during a sparring match at the 2023 USA Taekwondo national championships in Jacksonville, FL on July 9, 2023. Sanchez Hernandez was one of five Washington natives to sign with the Huskies during the 2025 recruiting cycle. (Courtesy Joe Whitworth)
Victor Sanchez Hernandez (blue) kicks an opponent during a sparring match at the 2023 USA Taekwondo national championships in Jacksonville, FL on July 9, 2023.... (Courtesy Joe Whitworth)
Sanchez Hernandez made his competitive debut at the highest level of junior taekwondo at age 14. A year later, USATKD invited Sanchez Hernandez to train full time at the United States Performance Center in North Carolina.
Yet Sanchez Hernandez was already being drawn toward football. Whitworth had initially suggested the sport to his star pupil, he said, hoping that Sanchez Hernandez might be able to earn opportunities that simply aren’t available in taekwondo.
Sanchez Hernandez initially tried to play tight end at Lynnwood High, but wasn’t a great pass catcher. So he settled at edge, where his martial-arts background translated well into hand fighting and pass-rush moves.
He transferred to Kamiak before his junior season. Ivan McLennan, the former Washington State linebacker, was preparing for his first campaign as the Knights’ coach when Sanchez Hernandez arrived. The physical traits and discipline which made him an elite taekwondo fighter, McLennan said, were immediately apparent.
“You could tell that he was very hungry,” McLennan said. “Just seeing his motor early was great. From the moment I met him, I knew he was a strong-minded kid who wanted to work hard.”
Sanchez Hernandez earned 2023 first-team All-Wesco honors during his junior year at Kamiak, and some college attention. Washington State offered Sanchez Hernandez his first scholarship on Jan. 29, 2024. Other schools quickly followed. Air Force. Army. BYU. Navy. Oregon State. He began preparing for the 2024 college camp circuit, too, searching for any way to jump-start his recruitment.
Victor Sanchez Hernandez, an edge rusher at Kamiak and a world-champion Taekwondo fighter, poses for a portrait on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, in Mukilteo. Sanchez Hernandez has committed to play collegiately at the University of Washington. (Nick Wagner / The Seattle Times)
Victor Sanchez Hernandez, an edge rusher at Kamiak and a world-champion Taekwondo fighter, poses for a portrait on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, in Mukilteo. Sanchez Hernandez has committed to play... (Nick Wagner / The Seattle Times)
But the Mukilteo native wasn’t quite ready to cut taekwondo out of his life.
Sanchez Hernandez was still working as an instructor at Whitworth’s gym. He was preparing to make his senior debut at the 2024 Pan American Taekwondo Union President’s Cup in Heredia, Costa Rica, too.
Sanchez Hernandez said it was an extremely stressful period. Whitworth added he began to worry that Sanchez Hernandez was cutting out sleep to fulfill his obligations, and became increasingly nervous that the prodigious taekwondo fighter was going to suffer a serious injury as he pushed his body beyond its limits.
Whitworth’s worries became reality in Heredia on March 15, 2024. Sanchez Hernandez won his first senior bout, defeating Puerto Rican fighter Victor Nieves Torres to earn a place in the final for his weight class. His second matchup, against Chilean fighter Franco Muñoz, ended abruptly when Sanchez Hernandez suffered a hamstring injury, forcing him to withdraw from the match.
A few weeks after returning to the United States, Whitworth called Sanchez Hernandez into his office.
“It was complicated for me,” Sanchez Hernandez said. “Growing up, taekwondo was my life. It was really hard to let go. He helped make the decision simpler. He basically told me ‘Victor, you can’t show up here anymore.’ He kicked me out. There were no hard feelings behind it.
“He knew that football was going to provide a better opportunity for me in the future.”
Looking forward
The road to becoming a professional taekwondo fighter, Whitworth said, is a lonely one.
Fighters train for hours every day, forfeiting opportunities to hone their craft. They’re constantly on the road, traveling around the world for tournaments. Many fighters of Sanchez Hernandez’s caliber head to the United States Performance Center.
In many cases, the fighter’s family moves with them. Sanchez Hernandez said that wasn’t an option for him.
All those sacrifices are exchanged for fairly meager monetary rewards. Fighters live off stipends provided by USATKD. Most will never get a chance to make much money off their likeness, unless they win an Olympic medal. Preferably a gold one.
Universities don’t offer scholarships for taekwondo, either. When Sanchez Hernandez arrives at UW’s campus this summer, he will become the first member of his family to attend college. By finding a way to attend without costing his parents any money, Sanchez Hernandez is also ensuring his younger siblings, Brandon and Ariana, will have a chance to follow in his footsteps.
So Sanchez Hernandez made the decision — with some significant guidance from Whitworth — to fully commit to football. He performed well during the college camp season, picking up additional offers from Boise State, San Diego State and Utah. Then, on June 14, he received a scholarship offer from Washington after shining at UW’s Top Dawg camp. A little more than a week later, Sanchez Hernandez announced his commitment to the Huskies during his official visit.
Sanchez Hernandez said he has no regrets about moving on from taekwondo to play football. He was a first-team All-Wesco selection again during his senior season, and is excited for the challenge before him at UW.
He also has one major advantage. Most high-school recruits, regardless of their previous achievements, are following a path laid out to college, and eventually NFL, stardom by their predecessors. Sanchez Hernandez, in comparison, is simply retracing his steps.
The Kamiak edge rusher already knows what it takes to be truly great at something. To fully devote himself to his craft. To handle pressure at the highest levels of competition. To consistently search for improvement.
His long list of taekwondo accolades speak to his experience at a sport’s zenith. His memories of Whitworth’s gym, the hours spent being kicked around by older fighters, remind him of the depths he’s already overcome.
“I understand what it takes to be at the top,” he said. “I understand what it takes to be where you want to be.”
Andy Yamashita: ayamashita@seattletimes.com. Seattle Times staff reporter Andy Yamashita covers UW football.
Comments
Thanks Taft!
All I care is that we can refer to him as Dirty Sanchez