Posted on: Saturday, March 19, 2005

Coaches fired over drinking

By Leila Wai
Advertiser Staff Writer

Two Lana'i High girls basketball coaches have been fired after allegations that players were given alcohol during a trip to O'ahu last weekend, the school's athletic director confirmed.

Maui County police on Lana'i said they were investigating reports involving the girls basketball team that alcohol was distributed to minors and of sexual misconduct, but wouldn't name any suspects.

"The case is still under investigation; we don't have all the facts," Maui County Police Lt. Tivoli Faaumu said. "We still have officers and the school investigating the matter."

Lana'i High athletic director David McHugh acknowledged that head coach Russell Zablan and assistant coach Dale Kapua were "released" from their jobs.

Zablan would not comment at length yesterday. But he said: "It was a bad, bad judgment, a bad mistake on my part. I let down a lot of people."

Attempts by The Advertiser to reach Kapua were unsuccessful.

Zablan confirmed he approached the school's principal, Pierce Myers, on Tuesday to confess he provided alcohol to his players while on O'ahu for a preseason girls basketball tournament at Mililani High from March 10 to 13.

Eight of the team's 11 players have been dropped from the team and banned from all sports for the rest of the school year for underage drinking.

All players involved also were suspended from school, but Myers wouldn't discuss the length of the suspensions.

"The girls have admitted their involvement. I've had conversations with one of the coaches and he admitted his involvement," Myers said. "We've taken disciplinary action against the girls involved, and we're pursuing legal actions against the coaches with the Maui Police Department."

No details were released about the alleged sexual misconduct.

Sophomore guard/forward Anna Castillo, 15, who was released from the team, was angry.

"I'm really mad about it, and some girls took threats from (the coaches), and they told us to take it to the grave, and some girls are scared," she said.

On Thursday, March 10, the first night the team was on O'ahu, she said, the coaches drank around the players.

"That night, a lot of the players were just sitting around it, and they were drinking it in front of us," she said.

The next night, she said, "this time, some of the girls started to drink" some of the alcohol bought by the coaches.

On that Saturday night, she said, the team had a cookout at Kapua's relative's house in Pearl City, and "they drank some more, and some more of us girls drank, too."

Castillo, who was suspended from school for four days, said the team, along with the coaches, slept in the wrestling room at Mililani High, and the coaches usually drank just outside the room.

Castillo's stepfather, John Stumpf, said he was upset with the school.

"I want somebody in jail, but I also want someone to explain to me how agents of the school can distribute alcohol, but when the kids come back and rat them out and spill their guts, how they can get punished for it," Stumpf said. "I don't see how they can do that."

Principal Myers said the girls participated in the drinking: "They knew they were not supposed to, and we would expect they could get out of the situation before they get involved."

Athletic director McHugh said that before the season began, student-athletes signed an "acknowledgement of department policies," which said that they would not consume alcohol at any time — "24 hours a day, seven days a week" — or they would be prohibited from participating from sports for the remainder of the school year.

"Athletics is a privilege, and with athletics, you expect standards to be higher," said McHugh. He said it was Lana'i's athletic department policy, and "every athletic program in the state of Hawai'i has its own policy."

Myers also said the action taken by the school against the coaches stakes out its position on acceptable behavior.

"The message needs to be that adults who are in positions of authority need to make sure they are not involving any students in these situations," he said.

McHugh said the school was holding a "re-tryout" yesterday to determine whether to continue the season, because only three players remain on the team.

Lana'i Elementary and High School has about 640 students, according to the state Department of Education.

Meanwhile, a parent's allegation involving drinking by a Kahuku High girls' softball coach is being investigated by the Department of Education. The coach is accused of buying alcohol for and drinking with players. He is on administrative leave from coaching.

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2457.