Love of baseball sparked venerable coaching career

More than anything, Ned Matsuyama just wanted to play.

Sure, he’d spent a season kicking around a Kona baseball league, but that hardly satisfied his desire to play the game the way it was meant to be played.

"I never did own a glove," Matsuyama says. "And in those days there were only three teams because we were in the country."

When Matsuyama finally had a chance to try out for the Konawaena High School team, the reality of his family’s hardscrabble life proved too persistent to ignore. He had nine brothers and sisters, and if his parents were to continue feeding and clothing them all, he would have to pull his weight on the family coffee farm.

"I never got the chance to play," Matsuyama says, the lingering regret stiffening his otherwise affable tone. "But you do what you have to, right?"

After high school Matsuyama spent two years in the Army — including six months on the front lines of the Korean conflict — before returning home and attending vocational school. Shortly after his return, he met and married his wife, Ann.

Matsuyama would go on to spend 15 years as a machinist for Hono­lulu Iron Works, a few more at the Sheraton Waikiki and another 15 at Matson. But baseball remained close to his heart.

In 1958 a friend asked whether Matsuyama could help coach a team of 9- and 10-year-olds from Moiliili. Thus began a coaching and officiating career that has spanned 52 years, hundreds of teams in the Manoa and Kahala areas, and thousands and thousands of impressionable youths.

"I never went to a coaching clinic, never read a book on coaching," Matsuyama says. "I learned the game through coaching, and I’ve tried to share what I see and what I’ve experienced directly with my players."

He admits to be old-school in his approach — don’t spit on his field unless you plan on cleaning it up with your mouth — but he never yells, never belittles, never stands in awe of his own power.

Matsuyama eschews team meetings and postgame potlucks lest he cut into the precious time his students have to eat dinner and do homework. He also refuses to accept money or gifts for his efforts, no matter how appreciative the parent.

"I tell them, ‘I don’t do this for you. Everything I do, I do for the kids,’" he says.

"Everything" includes pulling weeds, repairing fallen fences and busted benches, even scooping dog droppings from the outfield.

And, at age 80, Matsuyama still runs the bases with his younger teams and continues to throw BP, pitching hundreds of balls every practice.

Last month the City Council passed a resolution naming the baseball field at Kamamalu Park "Ned Matsuyama Baseball Field."

More than 100 people attended the official ceremony — despite the fact that Matsuyama didn’t bother to tell any of his friends about it.

"I’m not in this for awards or anything like that," Matsuyama says. "But that was pretty special."

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.