Mahalo for supporting the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Have fun with this free story!
The three biggest stories of the Hawaii sports year that ends at midnight didn't end with victories on fields or courts. But they caught fans' attention for different reasons. Its newsworthiness was based on the human interest in rising from the ashes of tragedy, a flawed leadership transition process, and appreciation for the continued excellence of a team that had come very close to achieving an unprecedented feat.
1. Maui wildfires
The wildfires that swept through Lahaina on August 8 killed more than 100 people and destroyed more than 2,000 buildings — influenced all aspects of life on Maui and in many ways throughout Hawaii. This also included sports.
Although there were obviously other life-and-death priorities that needed to be addressed immediately, some relatively quick decisions had to be made when it came to sporting events. Could the Maui Invitational basketball tournament be hosted at the Lahaina Civic Center during Thanksgiving week as usual? What about the PGA's Sentry event at Kapalua in January?
And could Lahainaluna High School's sports teams compete in the Maui Interscholastic League even though most student-athletes and coaches lost their homes and much of their equipment to the flames? Many also mourned the loss of loved ones. Everyone was rebuilding their lives.
The Lahaina Civic Center was still standing, but was being used as a FEMA relief site. So the Maui Invitational, which featured some of the best college teams in the country, was moved to Oahu for a year.
With six weeks of preparation remaining and the golf course 11 miles north of Lahaina intact, the PGA will continue play at Kapalua, with the Sentry beginning Thursday. All eyes will be on Collin Morikawa, who has close family ties to Lahaina.
Athletics in Lahainaluna has resumed with help from many parts of the sports world. The Hawaii business community and individuals donated money, equipment and services through a Luna Strong program organized by the Downtown Athletic Club of Hawaii.
The always well-coached Lahainaluna soccer team made what many thought was impossible seem almost easy. The Lunas won all five games of a shortened regular season on their way to the MIL championship, inspiring the school, the community, the state and a documentary film crew. They even hosted a state tournament game on their campus, running out of time but never getting anywhere and suffering a 29-28 loss to Kapaa.
2. UH AD Hiring, Hiring Process
The decision to hold the Maui Invitational at SimpliFi Arena in the Stan Sheriff Center was an easy one, said Craig Angelos, the University of Hawaii's new athletic director. So the state high school open division football championship was held for the first time – the day after Thanksgiving and the day before UH's final football game of the season.
“How could we say no to both?” he said.
It definitely wasn't business as usual.
Angelos' hiring wasn't the case either. It was approved by the Board of Regents on May 18, but only after a “vigorous discussion.”
The regents were not so much concerned with who was chosen by UH President David Lassner, but rather with how it happened. Angelos' name was the only one Lassner gave them, and they were not allowed to interview Angelos.
“This is an important decision,” said Laurie Tochiki, one of three of the 11 regents who did not vote for Angelos. “It is a process in which the state invests a lot of money. … I would like such a process to be more transparent.”
The AD hiring process also drew public disapproval due to the lack of Black representation on the search advisory committee as originally constituted. There were also no members with a direct connection to football or men's basketball. After UH received a letter of protest signed by 27 student-athlete alumni (including Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi), former Warriors football star Ashley Lelie was added to the committee. Lelie is a former NFL player and Black graduate student at Manoa.
It's been more than a decade since Angelos was previously AD. But it was at Florida Atlantic where he helped build a stadium with a combination of public and private funds – a situation that would be familiar to any Hawaiian sports fan.
Angelos will be paid $325,212 per year, the same salary as his predecessor, David Matlin, who retired after eight years as AD.
“We will go as long as we have to go, we will go as fast as we have to go, we will go as far as we have to go,” Angelos said on the day of his BOR confirmation. “And we will do it, even if it makes us uncomfortable.”
This quote could be about the pursuit of athletic excellence, or it could be about weeks like the one in late November, when the lower campus hosted 13 basketball and football games — and more involving UH teams.
3. Almost a 3-peat
In the first few months of 2023, the UH men's volleyball program completed perhaps the best three-year run of any team in school history. If the Warriors had beaten UCLA in the national championship for the third straight year, there would be no “maybe” in the previous sentence.
The magical run began in 2021 when the greatest team, which very few saw in person (due to the pandemic), won the first of back-to-back national titles with a win over BYU. Things continued in 2022 when coach Charlie Wade's largely rebuilt team defeated rival Long Beach State.
Setter Jakob Thelle joined Wade and hitter Chaz Galloway as a central theme.
Thelle was the starting player when the Warriors joined the women's volleyball team in 1983 and became the only UH team to successfully defend a national championship.
And he was the national player of the year last season when the Warriors went 29-3 and advanced to the national championship game against the Bruins on May 6 in Fairfax, Virginia, where he fell 3-3 in a row four sentences.
Comments are closed.