Mid-Pacific saying farewell to 2 not-so-average Jo(e)s

It has been a time of milestone triumph in sports at Mid-Pacific Institute, where the Owls won a school-record three Hawaii High School Athletic Association state championships this school year.

But now, after hoisting trophies in girls swimming and diving, girls soccer and, most recently and dramatically, baseball, come a couple of significant losses.

Next week Jo Ito, the school’s athletic director, and Joe Rice, the president and CEO, two contributors to Mid-Pac’s emergence, are moving on.

For the Owls, they were far from a couple of ordinary Jo(e)s.

That eight of Mid-Pac’s 15 all-time state titles came in Ito’s five-year tenure is not a coincidence, people around the Manoa campus and state will tell you.

"He had an impact, a big one," said baseball coach Dunn Muramaru, who has piloted the Owls to five state championships.

"He made everybody more accountable, he streamlined programs, he got us what we needed … he did what an AD is supposed to do."

RICE, 64, HEADS into retirement having spent 17 years at the school and, in addition to overseeing the hiring of Ito, expanded the school to its present preschool through 12th-grade offerings and set an ambitious vision for the institution he recast and revitalized.

"Athletics played an integral role in Joe’s education visions," Kenneth Kupchak, chairman of the school’s Board of Trustees, said in an email.

Ito arrived a young (30) and unknown quantity, having grown up in Europe, where he will head Monday to become athletic director of the Frankfurt International School and rejoin family. Except for a brief stint at ‘Iolani, where he taught physical education, and

refereed basketball games in the state, Ito had no background in Hawaii.

But in short order he helped guide the Mid-Pacific program to new heights on the field and elsewhere.

"Jo has brought an extraordinarily high level of professionalism to Mid-Pac Institute, not only in athletics, but across the board," Kupchak said. "Jo stepped back and envisioned the role of athletics in education, which goes far beyond the playing field."

ITO DID MORE than make sure the Owls had uniforms and a tarp for the baseball field. He brought parents more into the process and built what people around Mid-Pac tout as a "culture" of character building in athletics.

"Our programs became an integrated team and life skills building in nature," Kupchak said.

"They’ve built a program and it isn’t just about winning," said Chris Chun, executive director of the HHSAA. "They’ve done it the right way and people have noticed."

Indeed, last year Mid-Pac received HMSA’s prestigious Kaimana Award for all-around excellence, measuring athletic achievement, academic performance, sportsmanship and service to the community.

It isn’t happenstance that the school has had to considerably expand its athletic trophy case at Mills Gym, a parting tribute of sorts to a couple of good Jo(e)s.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.