Retired Baldwin teacher becomes guardian of tennis

Running late to bring her 7-year-old son to practice at the Wailuku Junior Tennis Club, Lauren Akitake heard a voice carry all the way to the parking lot.

“You’re late! Two laps!”

“I knew the voice down to my core,” recalled Akitake, 37, of Waikapu.

It was the voice of Mike “Kino” Kinoshita, her former biology teacher at Baldwin High School and tennis coach when she started the game at age 7.

Kinoshita, 75, who retired in 1999 after 32 years at Baldwin, volunteers to oversee tennis tournaments from the Royal Lahaina to Wailea. He manages adult leagues. He hustles up volunteers for tennis events. He takes calls to fix nets from people who think he works for the county. And he’s there every day to run practices at the Wailuku Junior Tennis Club, an all-volunteer operation from board members to referees to coaches.

“He’s the one who makes it all run,” said WJTC President Craig Nunokawa. “A majority of coaches do this only a limited amount of time. What I like most about Mike is he’s been coaching a number of years with the same passion for the kids and everything. He never complains. He’s so humble and doesn’t ask for any type of rewards.”

Donning a white U.S. Open T-shirt and aviator-style glasses, “Coach Kino” arrives with a quiet and focused stride to open the Wells Park clubhouse. As we talk story, he fields calls from across the island, smiling and taking last-minute changes.

“Tennis ability is second to everybody enjoying it,” he says. “I tell kids it’s something you can play all your life.”

Adults join us later on the stoop to play, drop off their kids and tell me what Coach Kino means to them. He keeps his eyes on the court.

“He really understood me and I appreciated that as a kid,” said Akitake, a lawyer and former state high school doubles champ whose son and husband now play. “I could confide in him. He was always there. He’s serious and fun and sharp.”

The Wailuku-born Kinoshita has become a quiet guardian of tennis on island — “The Godfather,” as Nunokawa calls him.

“Everybody jokes that one of three generations have either had Kino as their coach or their biology teacher,” said the 40-year-old Wailuku dentist and two-time state doubles champ at Baldwin.

Kinoshita started playing tennis in 1957, hitting balls against the backboards of Wells Park. His mother would drop him off to figure out the game for himself. He thought he was good until he studied at the University of California at Los Angeles during Arthur Ashe’s time there, and decided it best to play socially.

He tells stories of great youth tennis players from Baldwin who took state titles, including doubles pair Daniel Tada and Alan Lau, or became pros, like Paula Smith. His coaching predecessors got him to assist. They include Wally Maeda, “Mr. Tennis” Shigeto Wakida of Lahaina and Stan Naga- matsu, a longtime WJTC coach and USTA Hawaii Pacific Tennis Hall of Fame inductee.

When Nagamatsu left WJTC, Kino stayed on so youth tennis wouldn’t disappear. “I thought maybe somebody else would take over,” he laughs.

It’s been 10 years now. Kinoshita credits the county for giving the youngsters reserved time on the courts.

He lights up talking about the kids and grandkids of this tennis family; he knows all their stories. The same glow brightens the stoop when anyone talks about Coach Kino.

N.T. Arévalo is a storyteller and strategist who offers stories of pono across our land. Share your pono story and learn more at story studiowriters.com.