Longtime Kaiser A.D. calls it a career

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Bill Von Arnswaldt has been with Kaiser when students and titles were plentiful, to now where enrollment is down and titles are scarce. "We have fewer kids to choose from, but they are great kids," he says. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Von Arnswaldt, 57, the athletic director at Kaiser since 1996 and a faculty member since the year after the Hawai'i Kai school opened in 1971, is moving to Las Vegas in July. He will join his wife, the former Patricia Allen, whose asthma condition prompted the family's move to the desert, and their daughter, Alexa.

Von Arnswaldt witnessed the change in fortunes in many sports at Kaiser as the demographics of Hawai 'i Kai changed, he said.

He helped coach more than 30 divisional championship teams in the O'ahu Interscholastic Association in football, boys wrestling, boys track and field and golf, and a Prep Bowl football title in 1979.

Those were in Kaiser's glory days. In the 13 years between 1978 and 1990, Cougar blue-and-gold pennants flew for 45 OIA championships.

In the 12 years since, Kaiser has won 18 league titles, and only six of those in high-profile sports.

Hawai'i Kai, from which Kaiser gets virtually all of its students, has changed, Von Arnswaldt said. "When Kaiser opened, it was more of a blue-collar community, and we grew to about 1,800 students at the peak of our championships."

Then real estate prices soared and Hawai'i Kai evolved into more of a white-collar district, he explained.

"More of the residents were graduates of private schools, and they wanted their children to go to private schools also," Von Arnswaldt said.

Today, he said, statistics show that 50 percent of the students leaving elementary schools in Kaiser's area move to private schools. Kaiser's enrollment has shrunk almost 40 percent to 1,100.

Kaiser is still "an excellent school in academic fields," he stressed. "More than 85 percent of our graduates go on to higher education. "We have fewer kids to choose from, but they are great kids."

Kamehameha graduate

Von Arnswaldt graduated from the Kamehameha Schools in 1963 and played football at Willamette University in Oregon with Ron and Cal Lee. He later helped Ron Lee coach Kaiser's 1979 Prep Bowl football championship team, which featured a transfer from Kamehameha, Boyd Yap.

He taught and coached at Kalani High for two years before starting his 30-year career at Kaiser. He had numerous coaching assignments at Kaiser before being tapped to replace Scott Chan as athletic director 5 1/2 years ago.

Von Arnswaldt was head boys track coach for 15 years, head golf coach for 10 years, head football coach for four years (and assistant for 12) and wrestling assistant for nine years.

His longest coaching tenure were in two sports not sponsored by the OIA — powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting. He coached Kaiser teams for 22 years and they won 17 consecutive O'ahu and state Clean and Jerk Olympic Lifting championships.

"Olympic weightlifter Chad Ikei was a product of Kaiser High," Von Arnswaldt said. "Weightlifting is very important for prevention of injuries and development of skills. If there were enough coaches who know how to teach proper technique, it could be a league sport. It is on the Mainland."

Another sport Von Arnswaldt championed was outrigger canoe paddling, which was sanctioned by the OIA in 1999 and the state this year. He was the coordinator.

Between college and teaching, Von Arnswaldt spent 16 months in Vietnam in 1969-71 and received a Purple Heart and Bronze Star.

His first job was pineapple picking on Moloka'i when he was 17. He hopes his next job will be connected with education in the Las Vegas area.