Hall Pass: Kawika Lam

It seems like Punahou never loses in tennis, mostly because of athletes like Kawika Lam.

Lam won three singles titles and a doubles crown in his four years of prep tennis and for that will be inducted into the Enterprise / HHSAA Hall of Honor on June 7 at Dole Cannery Square’s Pomaikai Ballroom.

The Punahou boys tennis team won its 25th straight state title this season, with 12 individual champions and 16 doubles champions during the span. That’s a lot of supremely talented players, but none of them are quite like Lam. Erik Shoji is the only other Punahou boy to make the Hall of Honor as a tennis player, and he made his most of his hay in volleyball to go with a single state doubles title.

Lam is only boy to win state titles four straight years, teaming with Zander Kim for the doubles title as a freshman in 2012. They were the top seeds in the tournament and rolled through their competition, losing 14 games in six matches. Lam and Kim split up the next year and both went into the singles bracket, where Lam was awarded the top seed as the ILH champion. Lam swept his way to the final where he met Kamehameha’s Marcel Chan, who beat Kim in the quarterfinals.

Lam avenged his teammate’s loss with a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (6) thriller for his first singles title. He was ranked 29th in the nation among 16-year old boys at the time.

Lam was ranked 48th among boys under 18 years old as a junior, and he cruised all the way to the final again where he found a new rival. He lost the first set to Hawaii Baptist’s Jeffrey Liang 7-6 (6) in the singles championship match after not losing one in the run-up but rebounded to win the next two sets 6-0, 6-2 for his second crown.

With the memories of Mililani’s Alyssa Tobita’s loss to freshman Taylor Lau of St. Francis the previous year fresh on everyone’s mind, Lam met Liang again in the final as a senior. Tobita, a 2014 Hall of Honor inductee, lost to Lau in a bid for a fourth singles title in her final match.

Lam had no problems, though, taking care of his friendly rival 7-5, 6-3 to complete his perfect run through high school.

Lam is the only boy to win state titles four years in a row and the first to win three successive singles titles since Punahou’s Bill Bartlett from 1975-77. Bartlett lost to Kalani’s Bob Deller in the singles semifinals in 1974 before starting his run.

Even though the sport of high school tennis will lose its most successful boy and most influential coach (Buffanblu coach Rusty Komori stepped down after Lam’s win), the game is in a good place as far as the Hall of Honor is concerned. A tennis player has been inducted four years in a row, with Lam following Tobita, Kamehameha-Hawaii’s Shaun Kagawa and Kristine Felix of Baldwin, although the latter pair excelled at other sports.

Tennis players in the Hall of Honor
1992 Ryan Ideta M Lahainaluna
2000 Erin Hoe F Mililani
2000 Bradlee Lum-Tucker M Kauai
2001 Edward Ruhland M Hilo
2002 Tiana Lum-Tucker F Kauai
2008 Erik Shoji M Punahou
2009 Kristin Lim F Punahou
2012 Kristine Felix F Baldwin
2013 Shaun Kagawa M Kamehameha-Hawaii
2014 Alyssa Tobita F Mililani
2015 Kawika Lam M Punahou

Hall of Honor Members