Recent coaching changes look like power struggles

We’ve seen this before, haven’t we?

A trend has developed of very successful Hawaii high school coaches being pushed out without a whole lot of logical explanation.

Alika Smith at Kalaheo basketball is just the latest. Last year football coaches Reggie Torres at Kahuku and Rich Miano at Kaiser were basically forced out of their positions despite some great on-field achievements.

But, then, maybe "despite" is the wrong word. Maybe the success itself is what cost these coaches their positions (interestingly, all three from their alma maters) — or the by-product of that success … power.

If we look closely at the demands made of Smith for him to remain at Kalaheo, the one that stands out as most interesting is about branding — which is a strange thing to consider when we’re talking about prep sports, especially at a public school.

Our initial reaction to the objections by principal Susan Hummel and athletic director Mark Brilhante of the basketball program identifying itself as "Stang Nation" instead of the school’s mascot, Mustangs, was to laugh at the surface-level silliness of the complaint.

But upon reflection, the name game looks like the biggest clue to the root of the conflict.

The real reason is not parental complaints about Smith’s coaching style. If every coach were let go because two parents complained, there would be new coaches for nearly every team at every school every year. Using Positive Coaching Alliance standards as a convenient crutch in this instance seems disingenuous.

"The bullet points (in Kalaheo’s proposed agreement with Smith) have people thinking PCA is all about fun and not yelling, and that’s not what PCA is," said Jeaney Garcia, the Hawaii chapter’s executive director.

What’s in a name? In this case, a lot.

‘Stang is simply short for Mustang, of course, and adding Nation to it makes it a trendy cliche — but one that gives the team and its supporters something of their own.

The school’s leadership would rather project a wider image of unity, one that includes the entire school. They don’t want a nation within their nation — a nation led by a powerful, charismatic, state hero of a coach.

Sometimes, because of his aw-shucks and usually soft-spoken personality, it’s hard to imagine Smith as a strong leader. But it’s obvious the former University of Hawaii star is an outstanding basketball coach, as was his father before him at Kalaheo, Pete Smith. Three state championships tells us that.

Two players who live in town recently completed paperwork to transfer to Kalaheo. One of last year’s stars, Kaleb Gilmore, transferred from Maryknoll.

That kind of pull — from the administration’s perspective, anyway — can create an image of the team and its coach being more important than the school itself.

Did Alika Smith do something that truly deserved his being forced out? We may never know.

Brilhante is widely regarded as a stand-up guy. He has remained mum on this.

What we do know is this is the third time in several months that a public school administration has put its foot down hard on a successful, high-profile coach, without much in the way of explanation — making it look like the result of a power struggle.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.

CORRECTION: Kaleb Gilmore’s name was misspelled in an earlier version of this story.