Athletic programs gear up for 2 new Kamehamehas

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Kamehameha Schools campuses on the Big Island and Maui will make their debut in high school sports in September.

Kamehameha-Maui headmaster Rod Chamberlain has appointed an athletic/activities director, 31-year-old Kurt Ginoza, currently athletic director of Moloka'i High School.

Kamehameha-Hawai'i headmaster Stan Fortuna was interviewing candidates for athletic director this week.

"We'll start out by offering the sports that don't require huge numbers," Chamberlain said, "and we will add more as enrollment grows."

By 2005-06, each high school is expected to reach its maximum planned enrollment of 576 students — about 144 in each grade.

They will be less than one-third the size of the original Kamehameha on O'ahu, which has about 1,830 students in grades 9 through 12 with class sizes ranging from 450 to 460.

Kamehameha-Hawai'i just entered the Big Island Interscholastic Federation and, depending on student interest, Fortuna said, it will enter girls and boys teams in junior varsity leagues in volleyball, soccer, basketball, track and field, and swimming or water polo. It will also have JV baseball for boys and JV softball for girls.

Fortuna said his school might compete at the varsity level in cross country.

Making early plans

Maui's plans are slightly different.

Chamberlain said the school has been accepted into the Maui Interscholastic League and sports expected to be offered next school year are volleyball, basketball, track and field, cross country, and paddling for boys and girls, and soccer for girls.

Chamberlain said no boys soccer team is planned next year at Maui because the season is the same as boys basketball and he anticipates student interest will only support one major team sport per season next year.

In tennis, swimming and wrestling, Chamberlain said, the Maui school "will try to support those who want to compete individually in Maui league JV or freshmen championship meets."

The following year, 2003-04, the Neighbor Island schools each expect to have 288 students and Maui "might run virtually all the JV programs," Chamberlain said.

Preliminary plans for the Big Island campus in Kea'au call for adding JV teams in 2003-04 in cheerleading, football, wrestling, paddling, golf, tennis, judo, diving and air riflery.

Fortuna stressed that plans could be altered, depending upon student interest and other factors.

In 2004-05, when both campuses will have grades 9, 10 and 11 and anticipate enrollments of 432, they expect to play varsity in all sports, with JV teams as well.

Neither campus has full athletic facilities yet.

Volleyball and basketball teams at both campuses will initially share gymnasiums with middle school students. The middle school gyms seat 700.

Maui also will have a soccer field and two outdoor courts in place by September on its campus in Pukalani, on the lower slopes of Haleakala.

Facilities will grow

Chamberlain said Maui will have a new athletic facility by the fall of 2003, including a gym the same size as Kekuhaupi'o Gym on the O'ahu campus, locker rooms, a wrestling room, swimming pool, soccer and football fields and tennis courts.

Baseball and softball fields will be built in the lower area of the 180-acre Maui campus in 2004, he said.

"Some sports won't have fields initially," Chamberlain said. "We will work with the community on using their fields and, of course, they will be allowed to use ours when they are built."

The timetable for facilities at Kea'au, on 310 acres off Volcano Road south of Hilo, is "somewhat parallel but not identical" to Maui, Fortuna said.

Ginoza, Kamehameha-Maui's new A.D., is the nephew of retired Wai'anae coach Larry Ginoza, one of the icons of Hawai 'i high school football. Kurt Ginoza has been athletic director at Moloka 'i since January 2001. Prior to that he was head boys soccer coach for six years and assistant junior varsity football coach for four years at Wai'anae High School.

He is an Iolani graduate.

"The skill sets he brings are a good fit for where we are," Chamberlain said. "Kurt understands the broader perspective of athletics and academics in a full educational program. ... There is no separate athletic handbook, we stress integration, not separation."

Ginoza officially starts work July 1 but will represent Kamehameha-Maui in league and state meetings next month.

Fortuna noted the first head-to-head competition of the two new Kamehameha schools also has happened — at a Math Counts state competition on O'ahu. "We both got honorable mention," he said.

Tonight, seventh graders from O'ahu and Maui will travel to the Big Island campus for a middle-school dance, the first interaction of all three campuses.

"We are all excited about the time there will be a Kamehameha vs. Kamehameha game," Chamberlain said.