Emotional farewell to BYUH hoops

Beneath the numerous NAIA and NCAA Division II national championship banners of various sports hanging in the Cannon Activities Center, a recent addition stood out.

This large red and black banner read, “Aloha oe Seasider Nation.”

It was an emotional and bittersweet affair on Monday night in Laie, as Brigham Young-Hawaii held its final men’s and women’s basketball games. The doubleheader served as a farewell of sorts for Seasiders athletics as a whole, as basketball was the last prominent spectator sport on the 2016-17 athletic calendar until the completion of a three-year phase-out.

“There’s been a lot of tradition, a lot of great teams that played here at BYU-Hawaii, a lot of great players,” Seasiders guard Tanner Nelson said prior to tipoff Monday. “So obviously we want to go out and salute them, and the whole basketball organization here in the last game tonight. We just want to do our best for them.”

The BYUH men — a collection of underclassmen, invited walk-ons and tryouts-made-good — closed the record books with an 84-66 loss to Point Loma, in which the Seasiders rallied from an early hole to take the lead but ran out of firepower late. They finished 6-20, a testament to the difficulty of competing as a vanishing program. Like the BYUH women’s team, which lost 81-58 to Point Loma, the Seasiders were already out of contention for the PacWest tournament entering the night.

The cheerleaders cheered for the last time. The chants of “SEA! … SIDERS!” — and boos at Point Loma — rang out loud and proud from the student-infused crowd of 1,287.

BYUH was for years renowned for excelling with international flair in several sports. In hoops it made an NAIA final four in 1992 and the 2011 NCAA II championship game.

A decision came down in 2014 from the BYU system level that BYUH would phase out athletics over a three-year period in favor of diverting more resources to building student enrollment. After Monday night, all that’s left is tennis, softball and golf.

Longtime athletic director and hoops coach Ken Wagner resigned last April. New coach Gabe Roberts and the Seasiders’ sports media relations staff are among those searching for jobs on the mainland in short order. Courtside staffers wore lei.

Hauula resident Harold Palimoo, 59, has been going to BYUH volleyball and basketball games since the 1980s.

“I’m saddened. I really don’t want it to go away,” said Palimoo, who wore an “I heart Seasiders” shirt and named Lucas Alves as his favorite all-time player. “But it’s the leaders of the church that make the decisions, so I guess you can’t argue with them.”

There’s been no indication of a last-minute reversal of policy.

“The only thing that I’ve heard lately, is just the same thing — there was a chance throughout the last couple years where discussions were made, but somebody higher up than our president made the decision that it just wasn’t going to happen,” Roberts said. “And once it goes away, then it’s (done). The thought was always, it’s easier to keep than it is to bring back. So I think once it goes away, then that’s it.”

The lone local player on BYUH’s men’s roster, freshman Juliun Perkins of Kailua, attended Seasiders games from when he was a kid because of family ties. He dreamed of putting on a Seasiders jersey someday, and got to do so after a two-year LDS mission when he passed a tryout.

He and about half the roster plan to stay around as regular students. The other half will pursue basketball elsewhere.

“I do (think the students will miss it), for sure,” Perkins said. “It’ll be really interesting (at) a school without sports. Even at Le Jardin, a smaller school, we had sports there. It’ll definitely be a different environment for the students. I know a lot of the students look forward to the games here — soccer, volleyball, basketball games.”

Seasiders assistant Darrell Matsui has coached in the PacWest for nearly 25 years, mostly with HPU and Chaminade. He recalled with a tinge of sadness the raucous crowds in Cannon during peak rivalry years in the NAIA.

“It’s kind of bittersweet, I guess,” Matsui said. “Them being a big rival all these years, driving home after losses and feeling

really sad and driving home after wins and feeling really, really happy.”

Perhaps the best-known BYUH basketball tradition is the distribution of ice cream to fans if the Seasiders score 100 points

or more in a win.

In their best chance at it this season, the Seasiders got stuck on 99 despite having several chances to go over the century mark late against West Coast Baptist.

“When we missed getting ice cream that one time, I didn’t hear the end of it for a couple of weeks. Everyone was upset,” BYUH guard Nelson said with a laugh.

On Monday night, while BYUH fell short of the win and the century mark, everybody walked out the door with a surprise parting gift — one last cone of ice cream.