Sidelines
NOW, he could exhale. Yoshida leaving on cloud 9
Hugh Yoshida was the man who had jumped out of an airplane and lived to tell the tale. He'd made it, and the laughs could come out of him easily, involuntarily, the way they do when your body is overcome with relief. It was over. The chute had opened. It was finally over.
He smiled and laughed and joked and had a case of what Kapena called the "glittery eyes."
Now he could close that chapter and concentrate on the rest of his life.
"I want to beat June Jones at golf," he said.
Good luck.
"Today is about Hugh Yoshida," Hawaii president Evan Dobelle said.
It was. It was, and he deserved it. Good for him. He deserved the relief.
"I don't want Hugh Yoshida's job," June Jones said. "Trust me right now, don't anybody ask me that. I tell him every time I sit down with him, and he will tell you that it's the truth, that I tell him I don't know how he can sit there and do what he does, with all the agendas and all the things that happen at this school."
What is happening now is change, and we knew it, and everybody knew it and we all saw it coming. Especially Yoshida. That is fine, because when administrations change, other things sometimes change with them. That's the way it goes. That's life. We all know it. Especially Yoshida.
So it is good that he can exhale now. No more waiting, no more free falling. He goes out happily, comfortably, at peace, waving to his grandson in the first row ("Hi buddy!"), so giddy he even zinged Dobelle with jokes.
It's his time.
The chute opened, and he can laugh and relax and reflect on the thrills of the great adventure of a kid from Kauai who went to Oahu's heights, a high school football coach who became one of the state's powerful men.
And what a roller-coaster ride it was.
"It's something that's been very, very enjoyable and sometimes I ask myself, 'Why in the hell did I take this job?' " Yoshida said. "You know, I used to say, 'How stupid was I to take this job?' Because of all the trials we went through, sometimes I swear I got shot in the back about five or six times and I was able to stand up again. But it was something that when I reflect back it was an exciting journey, I think something that was really enjoyed, and there's not a whole lot of people that have been blessed like I have to be able to be the athletic director at the University of Hawaii.
"It is the greatest position."
It was a great story.
Not a perfect one. But there are other days to speak of other things. This day was Yoshida's day, a man honored for service given.
"Hugh is a man who believes that the name on the front of the uniform is more important than the name on the back," Dobelle said.
And the name on the front is having perhaps its greatest overall success. Jones said Yoshida is going out on top. But that's not quite right.
He's safely back to Earth.
Kalani Simpson's column runs Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.
He can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com