Whitford named interim AD at Kahuku

Advertiser Staff

Aquatics coach Joe Whitford has been appointed interim athletic director at Kahuku High School and says he has applied for the permanent position.

Whitford, 44, has taught social studies for five years and coached water polo and swimming. He began his coaching career on Maui after graduating from the Kamehameha Schools in 1976 and Brigham Young-Hawai'i in 1984. He was among the students who helped start outrigger canoe paddling as a high school sport in his senior year.

One of Whitford's first tasks will be to replace himself as water polo and swimming coach (athletic directors are not allowed to coach in state schools) and to find a replacement for girls basketball coach Mona Ah Hoy. Ah Hoy is continuing as volleyball coach but has given up basketball so that she can coach a club volleyball team off-season, she said.

Girls water polo makes its debut as an O'ahu Interscholastic Association sport next spring.

Whitford replaces Linda Semones as interim A.D. She took over last summer when Hartwell Lee Loy transferred to Waipahu after nine years at Kahuku.

Whitford, his wife, Daryl, and their six children live in La'ie. Their oldest daughter, Makana, is a sophomore on the University of Hawai'i Wahine water polo team.