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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Monday, April 21, 2003

Maui ADs recommend banning Baldwin soccer coach

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Athletic directors of the Maui Interscholastic League will recommend to high school principals on Friday that they ban Baldwin High boys soccer coach Fred Guzman from coaching in the league for five years.

Such a ban, related to a Baldwin player's assault on a referee, could end Guzman's high school coaching career on Maui. He has been Baldwin's boys soccer coach for 12 years and his teams have won five of the last six MIL championships.

The athletic directors, meeting last Monday, also voted to recommend that the Baldwin High boys soccer program be placed on "conduct probation" for one year.

The recommendations duplicate action taken by the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association on April 10.

One of Guzman's players, Eugene "Ekolu" Saffery III, 17, is facing possible criminal prosecution for assaulting a referee at the end of a state tournament game Feb. 12 on O'ahu.

Baldwin, previously unbeaten, lost the game to Pearl City, 4-3, on a goal in the final 57 seconds. At the final whistle, Saffery fell to the ground and pounded the grass with his fists. Then he arose, ran about 25 yards and hit referee Kaleo Benz in the back, knocking him to the ground. Benz, who did not see Saffery coming toward him, filed a criminal complaint, which Honolulu police are investigating.

Saffery was banned from participating in state tournaments for life, but he is a senior and does not play spring sports, so that ban was only symbolic.

Guzman was banned from coaching in state tournaments for five years and Baldwin was put on probation, meaning the boys soccer team's conduct would be "closely monitored" for a year, HHSAA executive director Keith Amemiya said, and additional penalties levied if its conduct was unacceptable.