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Wednesday, May 31, 2000
Getting the jump
Monica Duester went
By Brandon Lee
from obscurity to state
prep triple-jump champion
Special to the Star-BulletinVERA Simms, Victoria Chang and the Kamehameha boys' team owned the spotlight at last month's high school state track and field championships.
But one of the meet's best stories involved an athlete from a school unknown for its track prowess, competing in the sport's most obscure event and coached by a man in a wheelchair.
Before Allen Nash became her coach, Monica Duester was triple-jumping nowhere fast.
But with Nash's help, the athlete from Mid-Pacific Institute won the state championship. Next year, she'll do her leaping for San Diego State.
"You could tell she had a lot of ability," veteran jumps official Heaton Wrenn said. "But she had a problem hitting the board. Once she was able to find the board she was OK. She peaked at the state meet and popped a great jump."
When she found Nash, she found the board.Duester's jump of 36 feet, 10 inches was almost a foot farther than that of second-place Krisha Kai of Kahuku.
Duester said Nash gets a lot of credit for her improvement.
"He's a big part of my success, and I don't think that I could have done it without him," she said. "He verbalizes things really well and I was only mediocre before him. Considering the situation he came from and his willingness to help me, it only made me want to work harder."
Nash was diagnosed with non-cancerous brain tumors in 1985 and 1996. Complications from the operation to remove the second tumor rendered him a quadriplegic.
The former long-time coach and teacher at Campbell High and University of Hawaii assistant coach was asked by Pac-Five head coach Al Wilson to assist with the high-jump.
Duester sought out Nash to be her coach.
"I had heard really good things about him and I wasn't going to let his situation prevent me from seeking him out," Duester said. "My goal from the beginning of the season was to win the state championship and also possibly break the state mark, and I knew I would need more guidance to make these things happen."
Nash trained Duester three times a week, despite the fact that he could only teach with his voice.
"I was only waiting for the opportunity and somebody to ask me," Nash said.
"I was ecstatic about the chance to coach again, and then I was even more excited when I saw how much talent I had to work with in Monica."
While Nash could no longer demonstrate the jumps himself, he guided Duester to within sand-spray distance of the best mark in state history. But he deflects the credit to the athlete.
"When you have a gem, you don't do anything but polish it," Nash said.
"All the credit goes to Grandma and Grandpa, and Mom and Dad, for bringing her into this world and raising her well."
