Kapaa High School alum Chas Okamoto put together one of the best stretches of his career last week and was rewarded for it with Wednesday’s announcement of Big West men’s tennis Athlete of the Week. Currently a junior at the
Kapaa High School alum Chas Okamoto put together one of the best stretches of his career last week and was rewarded for it with Wednesday’s announcement of Big West men’s tennis Athlete of the Week.
Currently a junior at the University of Hawaii, Okamoto won four straight singles matches from March 15-24, also splitting his two doubles matches during that stretch. On March 18, he played No. 2 singles for the first time all season against the 21st-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys. Though UH lost the match, Okamoto picked up the team’s only point of the day with a 7-6 (2), 6-4 win over Sebastian Sachs.
A day later against the University of San Francisco, Okamoto pulled double duty on both the singles and doubles courts. He won his No. 3 singles match in another tough two-setter, 7-6 (4), 7-5, against Thomas Takemoto. He and doubles partner Chris Meyer then notched an 8-7 (4) win over Takemoto and James Tallman.
On March 24, he made it three consecutive straight-set victories with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Cal Poly’s Corey Pang, helping the ‘Bows pick up their third team win of the season.
Okamoto is starting to have what could end up being his best collegiate season to date after dominating the Kauai ranks with an incredible run for the Kapaa Warriors. He won the Kauai Interscholastic Federation boys singles championship four straight times and finished off his career with an HHSAA state boys singles championship in 2011, becoming the first Kauai tennis player to ever win a state singles title. That particular run to the title was especially dominant. He entered as the No. 1 seed and proved worthy of that distinction by winning his first three matches all by 6-0, 6-0 scores. He then topped the 2- and 3-seeds each in straight sets to gain the state crown.
After the team’s homecoming win against Cal Poly, UH dropped a pair of matches on Wednesday and Thursday to see its record fall to 3-10 on the season. Okamoto has compiled a 5-7 singles record and a 2-3 doubles mark.
It’s the second time in his career that Okamoto has earned conference player of the week honors. He received the award as a freshman when the ‘Bows still resided within the Western Athletic Conference. He went 9-8 in singles and 3-3 in doubles as a freshman, following that up with a 9-10 singles mark and 2-6 in doubles last season as a sophomore.
Hawaii has five more matches scheduled for the rest of the season, all of them on the road. They start with a neutral site date with Idaho on Sunday in Eugene, Ore. The Big West Tournament will begin April 24 in Indian Wells, Calif.
