ISLE FILE
Former Farrington star Tanuvasa named Pearl City football coach

Advertiser Staff

Onosai Tanuvasa, who in 1969 became the first Interscholastic League of Honolulu player to rush for 1,000 yards in one season, has been named head football coach at Pearl City High School.

Tanuvasa, 50, replaces Ernest Otake, who retired after three seasons.

"It's a new challenge for me, I'm looking forward to it," Tanuvasa said. "The Pearl City community has a lot of kids, and I think down the road we'll have a good choice of players to look at."

Pearl City, despite having an enrollment of more than 2,000, has struggled to compete for any kind of championship on the football field. The Chargers have not had a winning season since 1986.

Tanuvasa is Pearl City's fourth coach since then.

"We're happy he could come aboard," Chargers athletic director Roy Ichinose said. "We feel he can bring a new look and new sense of pride to the school, and hopefully develop our football program to a new level."

Tanuvasa, who was The Advertiser's ILH Back of the Year in 1969 as a Farrington senior, rushed for a league-record 1,076 yards that season. Radford's Bernard Rembert had set the O'ahu Interscholastic Association record the previous season with 1,413 yards.

Tanuvasa went on to play for the University of Oregon, where he was teammates with Russ Francis, Dan Fouts and Bobby Moore, who later became known as Ahmad Rashad. At Oregon, Tanuvasa also met current UH coach June Jones, who spent his freshman year there.

Tanuvasa later transferred to UH and played his final two years here. After a brief stint as a high school assistant, he began coaching Pop Warner football in Moanalua, where he spent 18 seasons.

Tanuvasa spent the past two seasons as head coach of Pac-Five's intermediate team.

GOLF

• Mid-Pac's Higashiyama fires 66: Mid-Pacific Institute's Troy Higashiyama shot a 6-under-par 66 Saturday to lead all golfers in Interscholastic League of Honolulu action at West Loch Golf Course.

Kamehameha's Christian Akau was a stroke back, and MPI's Walter Ching, Kamehameha's Eric Fong and Iolani's Matthew Ma and Pomaikai Shishido tied for third with 71s.

Mid-Pacific finished atop the team standings with a score of 286. Kamehameha (287) was second and Iolani (299) was third.

This report was compiled by staff writer Wes Nakama