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Monday
Evening QB
You know you're a great athlete when you dominate a sport so thoroughly that people just stop challenging you. None better in
games of importanceThat was Les Higa. She whipped all of us in table tennis with ease and regularity.
Soon she couldn't get a game, and the table remained folded up in my brother's garage. Whenever Les showed up at one of our post-softball gatherings, a paddle was mysteriously missing, or the dog had chewed up the last ball.
Les would just smile and nod her head, and we'd all sit around and talk-story instead of play ping-pong.
In addition to possessing great eye-hand coordination and quickness that also served her well in volleyball and bowling, Les was a fighter who instinctively knew how to win any game she played.
That's why none of us were surprised when Les appeared to have beaten the breast cancer she was diagnosed with in 1996. But in 1998, Les got sick again. Doctors found a tumor in her liver this time.
Les fought hard once more, but she passed away, 10 days ago on St. Patrick's Day at age 44. More than 400 people attended her services last Friday night - some of whom had never met her in person.
"They had dealt with her over the phone at work (at Queen's Health Care)," said her husband, Danny. "They said she was so nice and helpful over the phone they just had to come and pay their respects."
Danny Higa has also positively touched a lot of people he never met personally. For many years, he coached basketball at the Boys and Girls Club of Honolulu. By giving youngsters something productive to do after school, Danny helped mold good adult community members.
He also met Les there, through coaching her children, Mark and Rayline. Both later played basketball for Kaimuki High School.
Danny and Les have a 9-year-old son, Danny Boy. He is an athlete like his parents, and Les did as much to teach him to play baseball, football and basketball as did his dad. Danny Boy wrote a Mother's Day letter to Les once, thanking her for teaching him "how to hit a home run."
"Even through all this, she was team mother for Danny Boy's PAL Mustang baseball team this season," Danny said. "They're planning on dedicating their next season to her."
It's been a very rough past 15 months for the Higas. Danny has lost three people very close to him, all before their time.
The best man at their wedding, George Wahinepio, was one of the top tennis players in the state in his age-group and our softball teammate.
In December of 1998, George was killed when hit by a car while riding his bicycle.
Danny's cousin, Larry, coached Danny's softball team in the Okinawan League. Late last year, Larry died of a heart attack.
And now Les.
"You wonder why, but not too much," Danny said. "You just fight through it and think positive. We as a family have to stick together. If anything, it's brought us all closer."
Whenever I read or hear the phrase "important game" I cringe - because it always has to do with the Final Four, the Super Bowl, or something else as trivial.
The truly important games are the ones people play with their children, and the lessons they teach them through winning and losing, participating and competing.
Over the years, I've met thousands of sportspeople. Of them all, none were better than Danny and Les Higa in the important games.
Dave Reardon, who covered sports in Hawaii from 1977 to 1998,
moved to the the Gainesville Sun, then returned to
the Star-Bulletin in Jan. 2000.
E-mail dreardon@starbulletin.com