Ken Wagner is a man of faith, but he lives in the real world. So, with Brigham Young-Hawaii’s intercollegiate athletic program slated for extinction in three years he hopes for the best and … well you know the rest.
"It would be very, very tough," the BYUH athletic director said, when asked if there’s any chance for a reversal of the decision that came from the school’s leadership last week. "It’s a philosophical thing."
Over the decades BYUH has provided some of the most successful teams, dynamic athletes and exciting moments in local sports.
Anything that decreases opportunities for student-athletes is not good. And anything putting great coaches like Wagner (basketball), Dave Porter (tennis) and Mona Ah-Hoy (volleyball) and everyone else who makes a living from BYUH sports out of action is regrettable, too.
Porter is arguably the most successful coach of any college sport in the state’s history — or maybe it’s not even up for debate, maybe he just IS. You can certainly make a strong case for it, going by the numbers and the championships.
He coaches both teams, and their seasons are at the same time, ongoing now.
The men, whom he has guided since the 1984-85 season, have won 629 and lost 39 matches under his direction.
The women, whom he took over in 1992, are 633-20, including 16-0 going into Sunday’s match at Notre Dame de Namur.
His winning percentage of .955 is nearly as good as mortality’s. Porter’s most impressive feat was completed in the spring of 2003, when both teams successfully defended their national championships of the previous year.
The other sports aren’t as insanely dominant but are always competitive and often excellent. Ah-Hoy’s volleyball team went to the national championship match last year and Wagner’s basketball team did the same in 2011.
That Seasiders hoops team was irresistible, with Taiwan’s Jet Chang and Kahuku’s Junior Ale leading an exciting international and neighborhood cast of ‘ballers. They were worth the long drive to Laie, even if only to watch the championship game being played in Springfield, Mass., on the big screen at Cannon Activities Center with the student body.
And where else does everyone get free ice cream when the team scores 100 points?
The CAC has always been a great venue, going back to the NAIA days when players like Elijah Jackson and Robbie Nielsen went to war against Chaminade, Hawaii Pacific and the rest of feisty District 29 when games were just as likely to end in fisticuffs as hugs.
"A great facility for college basketball," said retired Star-Bulletin sportswriter Jim Easterwood. "And BYU-Hawaii was a big part of the golden era of small college basketball when the NAIA teams were better than UH for a fair amount of time."
The Seasiders’ relevance in Hawaii sports has stood the test of time, but now time is running out.
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. Read his blog at staradvertiser.com/quickreads.
