Here at the Ala Moana Hotel ballroom for the Oahu Interscholastic Association school-year end banquet.
Saw a lot of OIA VIPs already — Sam Delos Reyes, the athletic director at Campbell, a school which manufactured more than a few league championships in 2014-15 is taking registrations at the front door.
Farrington AD Harold Tanaka stepped up to the podium before dinner, and, after introducing himself as “Kaiser AD Rodney Iwasaki,” he told the audience that if they had any complaints about the upcoming program, they should look for “Rodney Iwasaki” later.
Iwasaki, Tanaka’s good friend, is also here, taking registrations at the front door with Delos Reyes.
State champion Campbell baseball coach Rory Pico is here and so is OIA champion Sabers girls soccer coach Ryan Leong, as well as a whole slew of Scoring Live and/or OC 16 people, including Kalani Takase, Greg Yamamoto, Felipe Ojastro, Stacy Kaneshiro, Brien Ing and Dave Vinton.
The ILH was also invited, and outgoing executive director Don Botelho and interim head Georges Gilbert are here.
“Many people think the two leagues are enemies, but we are all really good friends,” Botelho said.
OIA executive director Ray Fujino just came over to say hello to the ILH table.
Waialua AD Bryce Kaneshiro, Waipahu AD Stacie Nii and Kahuku girls soccer coach Jay Hix were spotted in the food line.
The dinner was fantastic. Beef, shrimp, scallops.
The program will start in about five minutes.
The list of OIA teams to win state championships is up on the projector screen.
Great video of OC 16 footage throughout the year on the screen. Football … now cheerleading … girls volleyball … boys basketball … girls basketball … boys soccer … girls soccer … baseball … softball … boys volleyball … wrestling.
The video was capped with Tristan Ludiazo‘s state championship in wrestling.
Farrington football running back and basketball guard Ranan Mamiya did his wizardry in both sports on the video.
Mililani quarterback McKenzie Milton looked REALLY fast running for a touchdown. FYI, he’s a little bigger this year. Could he be faster?
Tanaka just introduced all of the HHSAA state championship winning coaches, and he’s recognizing the other OIA championship coaches (who didn’t also win states) now.
Chris Chun, the HHSAA executive director is here, and Russell Aoki of the HHSAA office was just spotted. He’s everywhere.
Athletic trainers with 10 years of service are being recognized.
Also, Delos Reyes went up to win a plaque for 10 years of service as an AD, and Tanaka introduced him as Sam Choy.
Waialua’s Lincoln Barit, Kaiser’s Simon Bitanga, Waipahu’s Nadine Villarmia and Waianae’s Kekoa Kaluhiokalani were among a group recognized for 20 or more years as coaches.
And the biggest awards of the night go to: Campbell softball coach Michael Hermosura as the male coach of the year and Pearl City bowling coach Mildred Gomes as the female coach of the year. The trophy presentation will be done on KSSK’s Perry and Price show.
“Farrington AD Harold Tanaka went to the podium for a quick few words before dinnner and introduced himself as Kaiser AD Rodney Iwasaki, his good friend, and told people that he would be available to talk with anyone who wanted to complain.”
So this means that Harold Tanaka stepped up to the podium and said “hello, my name is Rodney Iwasaki, the Kaiser AD,” and then he told people he would be available to talk to with anyone who had complaints?
Thanks for your readership.
I’m going to change it to this, which is clearer:
Farrington AD Harold Tanaka stepped up to the podium before dinner, and, after introducing himself as “Kaiser AD Rodney Iwasaki,” he told the audience that if they had any complaints about the upcoming program, they should look for “Rodney Iwasaki” later.