Aloha Airlines’ No Hope In Dope program honors the WHS coach during the Pro Bowl HONOLULU — Jon Kobayashi, head football coach for the Waimea High School Menehunes, has been named the Aloha Airlines No Hope In Dope Coach of
Aloha Airlines’ No Hope In Dope program honors the WHS coach during the Pro
Bowl
HONOLULU — Jon Kobayashi, head football coach for the Waimea High
School Menehunes, has been named the Aloha Airlines No Hope In Dope Coach of
the Year, a statewide honor.
Kobayashi was also the No Hope In Dope Coach
of the Year for the Kaua’i Interscholastic Federation.
Other league winners
in the state were Wendell Look of Iolani, Leo Taaca of Waianae, Joseph
Balangitao Jr. of Baldwin, and Edward Rocha of Waiakea.
Kobayashi was
honored at a gathering of coaches at the Luana Hills Country Club and at a
midfield ceremony in-between quarters at the NFL Pro Bowl at Aloha
Stadium.
More than 90 percent of the state’s high school football coaches
attended the gathering along with NFL coaches Tony Dungy of the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers and Tom Coughlin of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Under Kobayashi,
each player on the Menehune team, signed a contract which prohibits the use of
tobacco, alcohol and drugs. Kobayashi and the players are asked regularly to
speak at middle and elementary schools to talk about the drugs, tobacco and
alcohol, according to Leighton Kaonohi Sr. of the No Hope In Dope
program.
Numerous letters of appreciation from school administrators,
teachers and students attest their effectiveness as role models and the
positive impact their visits have on younger students, Kaonohi
said.
“Football has become a very powerful weapon in the war against
drugs,” Kaonohi added.
“Those who know Kobayashi well say his greatest
asset is his ability to walk his talk in school, community and life,” Kaonohi
said.
Kobayashi has been the KIF No Hope In Dope Coach of the Year for two
years in a row.
