Friday will see the start of a new chapter in the sports saga of Kaua`i. Not only does the football season start as the Waimea Menehunes host Punahou at the Hanapepe Stadium starting at 7:35 p.m., but the days are
Friday will see the start of a new chapter in the sports saga of Kaua`i.
Not only does the football season start as the Waimea Menehunes host
Punahou at the Hanapepe Stadium starting at 7:35 p.m., but the days are
counting down, and like a school kid who can see the start of summer coming,
the Camper anticipates the arrival of Jason Gallic who will be the new
recipient of e-mail address “Kauaisports@pulitzer.net.”
Since March of this
year, the Camper has been trying to wear (sometimes with much difficulty) the
hat of Nick Abramo who left us for better opportunities across the sea. That
hat (or shoe) has been hard to fill.
But, there have been many hands
helping to keep the stew simmering on the proverbial burner while The Garden
Island awaited the arrival of a new sports editor.
Some of them work
shoulder-to-shoulder with the Camper, many of them remain unseen to myself and
the readers, but they all play a significant role in contributing to a Sports
page that hopefully, most of you enjoyed during the transition period.
Rita
DeSilva, despite her own heavy workload, was the first to step forward and
offer her services in creating the templates that form the skeleton of the
Sports pages.
She was joined by Brandon Sprague (Best Wishes and lots of
luck on your endeavors in California, Brando, and Shauna!) who, despite his own
heavy schedule, always found the time to create the pages so the deadlines
could be met. And, if you thought it ended there, the unintelligent Camper had
a LOT of questions in trying to make things fit into just one page!
Stories
are only as good as the results coming through the information pipeline, and
there were a LOT of good sources-most recently, Jack Layton and John Love who
have consistently supplied weekly results of the polo matches; Frankie DeCosta
with the senior softball program; Jocelyn Awong of the Kawaihau Little League
who could keep track of all the games, and still get them to the paper in a
form that was reader-friendly.
Karen Matsumoto and her staff at the Kaua`i
Youth Basketball Association and Ricky Rita of the Kaua`i county men’s open
basketball league (we can’t ignore the efforts of their scorekeepers to keep
everything readable) never missed a game.
Larry Moises of PONY Baseball
Hawai`i used e-mail to keep everyone tuned in on the progress of the program
during the playoffs.
Sue Strickland of the East Kaua`i AYSO district kept
everyone in the loop (now, when does the season start?) during the off-season.
Volleyball got their share of play thanks to the efforts of Cyd Arrington,
“Doc” Arrington, and Heather Roberts.
Melisa Itokazu introduced the island
to some of our Olympian visitors.
These community programs cannot succeed
without the support of the county, and Mel Nishihara, Bernard Carvalho, and the
staff of the Parks and Recreation department were always ready (with smiles on)
with information and assistance.
There was a whole semester of Kaua`i
Interscholastic Federation (KIF) sports thanks to Brent Mizutani, the athletic
directors of all three high schools, the coaches and coaching staffs of the KIF
girls’ basketball program, the track-and-field program, and the baseball
program, and more specifically, Kaua`i High School golf coach Winston Ogata for
helping the ignorant Camper learn some of the finer points of golf
scoring.
Keith Amemiya, director of the HHSAA was on hand to help out with
the state high school golf tournaments that were played here.
Summer
brought on a full slate of tournaments thanks to the efforts of the Kaua`i
Junior Olympic Softball program and ‘Coach’ Albert Soto and his staff of
hard-workers.
Lihu`e Baseball Association with Ron Kouchi hosted the
Mustangs’ state tournament!
Mike Koerte and the West Kaua`i Youth Baseball
Association hosted the Carlsbad California/Kaua`i goodwill tournament in
Hanapepe, and Kawaihau hosted the Little League state tournament.
Pat and
Lana Rosa, with her ohana at the Kaua`i Senior Centers Softball Association
just recently wrapped up a successful state tournament (watch for another one
coming up sometime in the Fall).
Then, add the faceless suppliers of
quality information that come in the guise of the HGEA (softball) updates, the
Kaua`i Junior Golf program, and the many periodic martial arts tournaments and
programs.
The realm of electronic media also contributed to the sports
pages thanks to Thomas Yoshida, public information specialist for the Hawai`i
High School Athletic Association (HHSAA), and Kelly Leong, of the University
of Hawai`i at Hilo Sports Information Office.
The stew is almost done (can
you smell it?)…Friday is rapidly aproaching.
But, Friday is just one more
day that brings you readers of The Garden Island Sports pages closer to newer
and more exciting things to come.
Thank you, readers! And, thank you,
supporters!
Welcome, Jason Gallic!
It’s all yours!
