ISLE FILE
Ex-UH basketball player Taylor will be moved home
Advertiser Staff
Former Rainbow Wahine basketball player Janevia Taylor, who remains in a coma a year after a car accident, is in the process of being moved home in California.
Family friends say Taylor's mother, Joy McClendon, is receiving medical training so she can care for her daughter at home. Taylor has been in the hospital and at a convalescent home since she apparently fell asleep at the wheel and struck a motor home after work one night in California.
She had planned to return to Hawai'i and become the first in her family to get her degree. Taylor was engaged to be married. The accident happened two days before her 22nd birthday.
UH started a fund to help Taylor, who had no insurance. As of this month, it had paid out a little more than $27,000 toward her medical invoices. According to Natalie Webb, a Rainbow Wahine booster who helps administrate the fund, there are a "few thousand more dollars" left in the account and organizers hope to pay off other invoices by the end of the month and close the account.
Initially after the accident, visitors found Taylor with her eyes closed, but last fall her mother told friends Janevia was opening her eyes and "tracking" movements. Doctors say there is nothing wrong with Taylor's brain and family and friends are waiting for her to wake up, with no timetable or expectations.
Taylor was the 15th player in Hawai'i history to score 1,000 career points. She graduated from San Bernardino (Calif.) High School in 2003 and had never ridden a plane until coming here.
UH-HILO
TWO SPORTS SUSPENDED
Dr. Luoluo Hong, the vice chancellor and acting athletic director at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo, announced yesterday that the men's tennis and women's golf programs will be suspended beginning with the 2009-2010 season.
"We won the PacWest Commissioner's Cup this year, which tells us that we have the potential to go even farther next year and beyond," Hong said. "This decision will allow the department to focus on building the competitive level of our 11 conference programs."
Hong also cited the need to meet externally mandated responsibilities including honoring commitments made to bring the department into Title IX compliance and providing sufficient medical care support for student-athletes in line with NCAA guidelines. Rapidly rising travel costs for team travel contributed to the decision, as well.
During the 2008-2009 season, both programs will have minimal operating budgets, but all awarded scholarships for eligible student-athletes will be honored.
"We felt it was important to give the students one year's advance notice so that they could plan accordingly for themselves," Hong said.
This will be the second hiatus for men's tennis, which was revived in 1994 as the Vulcans joined the NCAA and the Pacific West Conference. Over the past six seasons, coach Kula Oda has taken the program to three regionals. Women's golf became an official sport in 2004.
GOLF
KIM FINISHES SECOND
Former Hilo resident Kimberly Kim closed with a 5-under-par 67 to finish second yesterday at the Rolex Girls Junior Championship. The 54-hole event was played at Carmel Country Club's South Course in Charlotte, N.C.
Kim, who will be a high school senior this fall, shot rounds of 72-73 earlier. She finished two shots behind winner Victoria Tanco, of Florida.
Former Maui resident Kyung Kim tied for 60th, at 75-230.
At the SJGA FootJoy Invitational in Greensboro, N.C., 2006 Hawai'i state high school champion Chan Kim tied for sixth. Kim, who moved to Arizona last year, closed with 70 for a four-day total of 1-under 279. The winner was Cameron Peck, from Washington, at 66-271.
JUNIORS QUALIFY
Plenty of familiar names rose to the top at the sixth annual Hawai'i Optimist International Junior Championship qualifier, played Wednesday at Turtle Bay's Fazio Course. The 117 golfers ages 10 to 18 were competing for qualifying spots in the 2008 national tournament in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Marissa Chow (73), Cyd Okino (74) and Kristina Merkle (74) qualified in Girls 16-18, while Bradley Shigezawa (68) won the Boys 16-18 over Alex Chu (69) and Lorens Chan (70), with all three qualifying. Mariel Galdiano (83), Donny Hopoi (69), Eimi Koga (76), Rudy Cabalar Jr. (71), Cassy Isagawa (73) and Michael Fan (71) were medalists in other age groups.
UH SOCCER
ASSISTANT JOINS STAFF
Gina Brewer, a former Idaho and Utah State assistant, will join the University of Hawai'i as a soccer assistant coach, the school announced yesterday.
Brewer, who played at Washington (1998 to 2001), was a graduate assistant at Idaho from 2003 to 2006 and an assistant at Utah State for one season.
