Isle File
St. Francis hoops coach, AD resigns
Advertiser Staff
St. Francis School athletic director and basketball coach Tony Tyler has resigned from those posts in order to accept a position as an assistant coach with the Chaminade University basketball program.
Tyler will remain as a teacher at St. Francis, an all-girls Catholic school tucked away in a corner of Manoa Valley, but assistant Glenn Higuchi will take over as basketball coach and a new athletic director will be named shortly.
Higuchi also is a former coach at Kalani and Kaiser.
Under the direction of Tyler, who coached at St. Francis for 10 years, the once obscure Troubadours' athletic program recently found great success in volleyball and basketball. The volleyball team, coached by Sean Maskell, made its first state tournament appearance last fall and reached the finals.
The basketball team won its fourth straight Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II championship this spring and will move up to Division I next season.
"I've seen a lot of growth in the programs, and it's been fun," Tyler said. "I've really enjoyed it. And we've got a lot of good young kids coming up. But sometimes, you've got to step in when an opportunity presents itself."
Tyler said this latest opportunity presented itself 2 1/2 weeks ago during a discussion with Chaminade head coach Aaron Greiss. Tyler's stepson, Kaweo Feeney, recently completed his fourth year in the Silverswords program. Tyler's exact role as assistant has yet to be determined.
BASEBALL
• Bear signs with Titans: Baldwin baseball coach Kahai Shishido said Bears catcher Kurt Suzuki has signed a national letter of intent with Cal State-Fullerton.
Suzuki, the Maui Interscholastic League Player of the Year, is regarded by many as the best catcher in the state. Cal State-Fullerton is the No. 1 seed in this week's College World Series.
COLLEGE TENNIS
• BYUH's All-Americans: Five Brigham Young University-Hawai'i tennis players were named to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association NCAA II All- American Team earlier this week.
Representing the Seasiders were Petra Gaspar, Tagifano So'onalole and Tomoko Sukegawa from the women's team and Peter Madarassy and Hung Soon Park from the men's team.
Gaspar, So'onalole and Sukegawa, all juniors, led the Seasiders to a second-place finish at the NCAA II National Tournament with a 103-match win streak.
Madarassy and Park, both freshmen, were ranked second nationally in doubles as they led the team to a fourth place finish at the NCAA II National Tournament.
WATER POLO
• Kern gets grant: Honolulu Olympian Sean Kern is one of 26 Division I student-athletes to receive $5,000 NCAA scholarships for post-graduate study.
Kern, a Punahou graduate, is a two-time NCAA Player of the Year at UCLA. He led the Bruins to back-to-back NCAA waterpolo titles in 1999 and 2000 and was MVP of the NCAA Tournament both years.
Kern played in the Olympics last summer. He spent the last two weeks in Europe with the national team, and just returned to school to take exams.
To qualify for an NCAA postgraduate scholarship, a student-athlete must have an overall grade-point average of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale), or its equivalent, and must have "performed with distinction" as a member of the varsity team.
