Co-coaches will handle Pearl City girls soccer
Advertiser Staff
Long-time assistant Frank Baumholtz III and Tracee Kono will be co-coaches of the Pearl City High girls soccer team, athletic director Roy Ichinose said Friday.
Baumholtz started coaching with Archie Chung, who announced his retirement Thursday, in AYSO in 1983 and was his top assistant for all 13 years Chung led Pearl City. Kono, a math teacher at the school and Pearl City alumnae, has been on the staff for three years.
She was head junior varsity coach last season.
"Archie's one of the really great guys," Baumholtz said. "The idea of filling his shoes gives me nightmares sometimes, but I like that challenge. We've got some great kids."
Baumholtz was head boys coach at Pearl City for four years, compiling a 45-12-5 record and winning the state championship in 1999.
His 14-under Pearl City girls team won the AYSO Rainbow Tournament this summer. "We've got at least nine very good freshmen coming to high school," he said.
Baumholtz said he would carry on Chung's tradition of "36 rules" and even add some.
"If there are no stars, and everybody puts in their 100 percent, we'll basically be hard to beat," he said.
BASKETBALL
• New Pearl City coaches: Athletic director Roy Ichinose has chosen two of his former players to lead Pearl City's varsity basketball teams.
Lionel Villarmia will coach the boys and Michael Morton the girls. Both played for Ichinose in 1982 when he was head coach.
Villarmia, a contractor, has been the boys junior varsity coach for more than 10 years and Morton was boys JV assistant last year and a girls varsity assistant for several years previously.
Mark Tawarahara, boys varsity coach the past seven years, said he was surprised to receive a letter from Ichinose saying he would not be rehired after his best season. Pearl City finished second in the O'ahu Interscholastic Association's Western Division with an 8-1 record.
Tawarahara has been in coaching for 22 years and was known for preparing pregame meals for his players.
He is a social studies teacher at Waipahu Intermediate and said he might assist with the program at Waipahu High.
"Villarmia will give us a new look and new direction," Ichinose said.
Alfredo Canencia Jr. resigned after nine years as girls varsity coach to pursue new business interests, he said. Canencia's best season was in 2000, when the Chargers won the OIA West with a 10-0 record, lost the OIA championship game to Kalaheo, and placed fifth in the state. The Chargers went 5-4 in the OIA West this year.
The boys' junior varsity team coached by Villarmia and Morton placed second in the West at 9-1 and reached the semifinals of the OIA Tournament last season.
