In person, Seilala Sua-Zumbado is not nearly as imposing as her resume.
The soft-spoken pregnant mother of a 2-year-old became the University of Hawaii’s new throws coach last fall. Before that, she was the winningest athlete in NCAA track and field history and a two-time Olympian. In the past five years, she took 25 Cal State Northridge throwers to NCAA regionals.
Seilala Sua-ZumbadoAt UCLA, Sua-Zumbado won seven NCAA championships and was a 14-time All-American. She competed in all four throwing events — shot put, discus, hammer and javelin — and still ranks in UCLA’s top 10 in each.
Now, she is the nurturing, analytical force for a team of throwers that includes seniors TeRina Keenan, Emma MacCorquodale and Kellsey Trimble.
Keenan has won the past two Western Athletic Conference discus gold medals and goes into this week’s WAC indoor championships looking for her third straight top 10 in the shot put. MacCorquodale has won two WAC bronze medals in hammer and is seeking a top-10 indoor trifecta in weight throw.
Sua-Zumbado, her husband and their son are enjoying what has so far been a seamless and joyful transition from Southern California to paradise. When Garrett Collier left for a position with British Columbia Athletics, Sua-Zumbado called head coach Carmyn James about the job.
That was about all James needed to hear. Sua-Zumbado, only the second woman to win four consecutive NCAA track and field championships, has a remarkable history in her sport. She also came with Hawaii connections.
Her father is Samoan and lived here a few years as a child. He went to Brigham Young to play football and, after marrying his Mexican-Filipina wife, moved to Florida, where he directed a Polynesian musical show. Their other daughter coaches softball at Stanford.
Sua-Zumbado also coached Hawaii’s Careena Onosai for a year at UCLA, before taking the full-time position at Northridge. Onosai, not coincidentally, transferred home.
"The whole family was fantastic … ," Sua-Zumbado said of the Onosais. "I had never coached a fellow Polynesian before. It was awesome. That (leaving Careena) was my one regret when I took the job at Northridge, but at that time I really wanted to coach."
She still does, but don’t expect her to make dramatic changes with her three seniors. Sua-Zumbado believes it takes a year for real change to be realized in throws and she has let them know she is here only to "enhance" their performances this final season.
"I’d like to make changes with TeRina because she is so tremendously talented," Sua-Zumbado said. "But throwing is all about feel. Once it took me four years to get one thing.
"TeRina has got long arms, long limbs, she moves very well. She is still so very young in terms of what she needs to learn, but her willingness to want to learn is pretty amazing."
Keenan, a three-time national high school discus champ, aspires to compete for New Zealand in the Olympics, after finding a national coach who brought out her best last summer. She would like to break the school records in shot put (52 feet, 6.5 inches) and discus (185-2) on her way out.
Keenan graduates in communications in May. She finds communication with her new coach easy, even in such a complex discipline.
"She’s making sure I’m on the right track and doing the right things," Keenan said. "It’s hard because you really need somebody there to tell you if you are doing something wrong. What you think you are doing may not be what you are actually doing."
Sua-Zumbado sees a ton of throwing talent here and hopes the opportunities that allowed her to go to college, the Olympics and live in Hawaii will be pursued. She turns 34 during the conference championships on Saturday and knows exactly what she is looking for: young women with strong legs, stronger minds and athletic backgrounds.
"If I was simply a thrower and didn’t play other sports, how athletic would I be?" Sua-Zumbado says. "I’ve played basketball, softball and volleyball since I was 10. That allowed me to excel because I knew how to move correctly and quickly and be agile. When I recruit girls, I look to see if they play other sports. That helps in terms of athleticism. Yeah, you can be strong, but can you move?"
The Wahine go to the WAC indoor championships in Boise, Idaho, from Thursday through Saturday.
