Seabury Hall senior on life's fast track

By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer

Seabury Hall's Kyle Ellison will try to pull off an inter-island double this weekend — participating in the state tennis championships on Maui and running in the state track championships on O'ahu. Tim Hurley • The Honolulu Advertiser

"We've been best friends since the fourth grade, and we always talk about being on a fishing boat when we're 60," said Ellison, a senior at Seabury Hall. "We say we're going to be on the boat for a week, just fishing and talking about all the fun things we did when we were in high school. I don't ever want to have doubts, I don't ever want to say, 'I wish I did this.'

"We have to do all these things while we still have the chance."

The carpe diem boys of "Dead Poets Society" have nothing on Ellison.

He's got their brains — posting a 3.5 grade point average and 1,310 SAT score — and the time-management skills of a wedding planner. He also has the will and energy to compete in three varsity sports during the same season, two of them at a championship level.

Until a week ago, this was a typical spring day in the teenage life of Kyle Ellison:

• 5:40 a.m. — Wake up
• 6 a.m. — Running, either on the road or at the track
• 7 a.m. — Shower and eat breakfast at school
• 7:30-8 a.m. — Work on duties as student body president
• 8 a.m.-3 p.m. — Attend classes, which include pre-calculus, physics, Advanced Placement European history, English and political geography. During free periods, either practice with private tennis coach or study
• 3:30-4:30 p.m. — Baseball practice, working mostly with pitching coach
• 4:45-6:30 p.m. — Track practice, including training in five events (800, 1,500, 3,000, 4x400 and high jump)
• 7-8 p.m. — Shower, eat dinner
• 8-10 p.m. — Study
• 10 p.m. or later — Sleep

Of course, the schedule would vary, especially if work needed to be done for his private DJ business (he does school dances and private parties), or if he had rehearsal for a school play, or if he was asked to speak at a middle school and give advice to younger kids.

The fall season was almost the same, except he participated in only two varsity sports back then — cross country and volleyball.

"I didn't play basketball (in the winter)," Ellison said. "Part of me wishes I did, but that might have been too much."

Ellison, who won his second straight Maui Interscholastic League singles tennis championship two weeks ago, does not do anything with less than full effort. At the Maui Interscholastic League track championships last weekend, he won the 1,500 with a time of 4 minutes, 18.5 seconds and the 800 with a time of 2:04.1.

In baseball, he was a starting pitcher and earned his team's first victory of the season.

"This is not a novelty thing for him," Seabury Hall athletic director Dan Molin said. "He sincerely wanted to do well in all three sports, and he was using his time wisely."

Ellison has qualified for this week's state track meet at Mililani in both the 800 and 1,500, and his 4x400 relay team also has qualified. So despite being seeded No. 5 in the state tennis tournament at Wailea, also set for this week, Ellison plans on pulling a rare double.

His tennis match Thursday is scheduled for noon. He has booked a flight to leave Kahului for O'ahu at 2:30 p.m. The 1,500 trials is set for 4:45 p.m. at Mililani.

"My goal is to medal in the 1,500," Ellison said. "I know I can go a lot faster (than 4:18.5); I know I have a lot more in me."

If he makes it to Saturday's finals, that could mean another hectic day of playing tennis, island hopping and running track.

Sometimes, people feel exhausted just watching Ellison do his whirlwind routine.

"I've called him 'Imelda Marcos,' because he'll be carrying so many different pairs of shoes out of the house," said his mother, Christie. "Sometimes, I've asked, 'How are we going to manage all of this?' But when he was born on his due date, he came out at 5:30 in the morning, and he's been running ever since."

On one Friday last month, Ellison played a tennis match after school, competed in a track meet once the match was done and made it to his baseball game in time to pitch the final inning.

"I feel bad sometimes, because it's almost like I'm a half-member of three different teams," Ellison said. "But I have really understanding coaches and teammates, and I hope my results will be enough to make up for it."

Ellison's efforts already have earned him acceptance into Claremont McKenna (Calif.) College, where he will compete in Division III tennis.

That has always been Ellison's best sport, and he focused his entire junior year on it.

But as a senior, he couldn't pass up the opportunities set before him, couldn't deny himself more stories to tell on that fishing boat.

"The way I figured it, this is probably the last year of my life to play organized volleyball, organized baseball," Ellison said. "I put a lot of thinking into it, I looked at it hard. Realistically, it's not like I'm going to be on the ATP tour when I'm 30. And once these last (high) school days have passed by, they're gone. You can't press 'pause.' "

In other words, carpe diem.