Hawaii’s Top 10
and a mulligan
IN Hawaii sports, 2000 was the Year of Kahuku football, Tiger Woods, Benny Agbayani and women's volleyball teams from the University of Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific University.
They were the ones who tugged at the heartstrings and captured the fancy of sports fans locally.
Picking a Top 10 list is never an easy task. For one, it can be very subjective. For another, some -- a team or an individual -- might feel slighted at being overlooked, their accomplishments minimized.
So to all the athletes who competed -- and the fans who cheered them on -- the realization that they did their best should be reward enough.
Hawaii's Top 10 sports stories of the Year 2000 (with an asterisk):
1. Kahuku wins the state football championship, beating St. Louis, 26-20, to end the Crusaders' 14-year domination in high school football.
2. Tiger Woods, the Associated Press athlete of the year, begins and ends the most remarkable year by any golfer with playoff victories in Hawaii. He goes eagle-birdie-birdie to win the Mercedes Championships at Kapalua, Maui, and eagle-eagle to win the PGA Grand Slam at the Poipu Bay Resort on Kauai.
3. Dave Shoji's UH Wahine place all six starters on the All-WAC volleyball team, finally beat nemesis Long Beach State in the regional final and reach the NCAA Final Four.
4. Tita Ahuna is named NCAA Division II coach of the year as her Hawaii Pacific women capture the national volleyball championship, the first to do so with an unbeaten record (28-0).
5. Benny Agbayani captivates Hawaii and New York fans as he helps the Mets win the National League crown and make their first World Series appearance since 1986 when they had another No. 50 from the 50th State -- Sid Fernandez.
6. St. Louis runs its remarkable record to 15 straight ILH football championships.
7. Paul Azinger posts an emotional victory in the Sony Open in Hawaii for his first PGA Tour triumph since 1993 after his comeback from lymphoma cancer.
8. Precocious 10-year-old Michelle Wie creates a stir nationally by being the youngest golfer to play and qualify in the U.S. Women's Public Links Championship.
9. Although he didn't medal in the Sydney Games, Brian Viloria was Team USA's most publicized boxer after winning the world amateur light flyweight title.
10. Minnesota's Randy Moss earns MVP honors as the NFC beats the AFC, 51-31, before a sellout Pro Bowl crowd.
THE asterisk? An 11th-hour entry, with 24 hours to spare, can still crack the Top 10 if Hawaii upsets No. 6 Tennessee in the championship final of the 37th Rainbow Classic tonight.
Among the year's other noteworthy stories:
Gary Player outdueling Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson to win $220,000 in the Senior Skins Game at the Mauna Lani Resort on the Big Island.
Waiakea High winning both the boys' and girls' state golf titles.
The University of Hawaii putting its colorful Rainbow logo on the back shelf and unveiling its replacement -- an Aztec-looking "H."
Call it bachi ball. UH suffered a disappointing 3-9 season, creating a vacuum in local football that fortunately was filled by Kahuku and St. Louis.
They say 2001 is the start of the real millennium. Let's hope so.
Coach June Jones and his UH football team could use a "mulligan" to start off this millennium right.
Bill Kwon has been writing about
sports for the Star-Bulletin since 1959.
