It’s the nature of high school sports. Coaches leave. Coaches are hired.
There’s been some movement lately. Kailua has a new girls volleyball coach and Radford has a new boys basketball coach.
Chantilly Pratt-Maiava is the new Kailua girls volleyball coach, according to Surfriders athletic director Ramona Takahashi. She is a volleyball lifer, having played since the age of 3.
Pratt-Maiava went on to play for McKinley before transferring to Kaimuki, where she graduated from in 2000, and eventually played for Taft College, a JC in California.
For the past five years, Pratt-Maiava has been an assistant with Kailua boys team head coach Cheriesse Shirmoa and assistant Nicole Kaaiana, who she was teammates with in high school at Kaimuki.
“I love coaching,” Pratt-Maiava said. “I feel like it’s a must to pass on the knowledge you’ve learned along the way. Keeping it to yourself doesn’t benefit anyone. Watching these kids learn the sport and grow in it is an amazing feeling of accomplishment. At the end of the season, if your record is 0-11 or 11-0, it truly doesn’t matter. It’s the growth of your team as a whole and building up self-confident individuals who understand the sky is the limit.”
Kanoe Bundy, the head coach at Taft, congratulated Pratt-Maiava on her new position and will be adding Pratt-Maiava to her recruit contacts.
Pratt-Maiava takes over for Glenn Chong, who led the Surfriders to the Division II state tournament and a first-round exit last fall.
>> Travis Armstrong is the new boys basketball coach at Radford, according to Rams athletic director Kelly Sur.
Armstrong, a teacher at Pearl Highlands, is a former Roosevelt JV head coach and varsity assistant.
“I’m excited to be the head coach at such an accomplished program and can’t wait to work with these student-athletes to be successful in both the game of basketball and in life,” Armstrong said.
David Lane coached Radford on an interim basis in the winter and told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser after the season that he wouldn’t be reapplying for the vacant position. He is in graduate school going for a master’s degree and very much enjoys his teaching position and role as assistant athletic director at the school.
“Thank you to Kelly Sur for this unique opportunity to be the interim head coach,” said Lane, who is a former Rams girls head coach. “The kids did well and responded admirably. They were always resilient and I’m very proud. It will be a while, however, before I step back on the court again.”
Lane took the interim job last season in place of outgoing Rams coach William Sankey.
>> At Kahuku, Mounia Tachibana regained her position as head coach of the Red Raiders’ girls volleyball team. After coaching Kahuku last season, she reapplied for the one-year position and got it, according to Red Raiders athletic director Gillian Yamagata.
Tachibana led Kahuku to the state Division I semifinals.
>> In another coaching change, Mid-Pacific hired Kurt Kagawa as its boys soccer coach to take over for Jayson Abe, who was hired recently as the men’s soccer coach at Chaminade.
>> No word lately from Kamehameha on the open football head coach position. Former Kamehameha standout Abu Maafala and former University of Hawaii assistant Dennis McKnight submitted applications for the job. Maafala interviewed with the school’s administration, but McKnight did not.
Also, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser has learned from reliable sources that former Kamehameha football head coach David Stant, former Hawaii assistant and Kaiser head coach Rich Miano and former Moanalua head coach Arnold Martinez were among those who submitted applications.
>> No word yet on whether former Hawaii star quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate Colt Brennan will officially become an assistant football coach at Moanalua under new head coach Savaii Eselu.
Apparently, there is a long process before approval can be made on the hiring of assistant coaches.
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