THE FAMILY TREE
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Although it is synonymous with education and athletics in Kalihi for three generations, the origin of one of the most distinctive names in local sports remains a mystery, even to those who bear it. What's in a name?
Agenharts excel anywayThe Ellis clan has produced elite
athletes in Hawaii for more than 60 yearsBy Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.com"Whenever I talk to people they always ask me where my (given) name came from and I have to tell them I honestly don't know," said Agenhart Ellis Jr., a Kamehameha graduate and long-time athletic director at Farrington. "My grandmother wouldn't even tell my father where it came from."
The Ellis family established its roots at Kamehameha when Agenhart Ellis earned Interscholastic League of Honolulu all-star honors with the Warrior football team in 1939.
Agenhart Jr. followed his father as an all-star lineman for Kamehameha in 1960 and '61, and his brother, Daniel Poki Ellis, earned similar honors as a defensive end in 1974.
Agenhart Jr. eventually married Dorothy Townsend, and their children, Agenhart III and Auli'i, also excelled at Kamehameha. Agenhart III emerged as a football and track standout, while Auli'i was a three-sport star in the early 1990s.
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"Hawaii is a small place, so people frequently remind you of your parents' accomplishments," Agenhart III said. "So when I actually started accomplishing things, it drove me to become something better."After Agenhart Jr. matched his father's high school accolades, he attended Kansas on a football scholarship, along with teammate and current Kamehameha Schools president Michael Chun.
He returned home a year later to help care for his father who had suffered a stroke and was invited by coach Jimmy Asato to play for the Hawaii football team.
Agenhart Jr. played three seasons at UH and earned a spot in the 1967 Hula Bowl. But education was always his primary goal.
"In those days the only way we could afford for me to go to college was an athletic scholarship," he said. "Athletics was just a means to an end."
Agenhart Jr. joined the Farrington faculty as a teacher and coach in 1968. He served as the defensive coordinator for the Governor football team until 1980 and spent 20 years as the school's athletic director.
Despite retiring from his AD duties last year, he continues to work at Farrington, filling in as a vice principal.
"The greatest experience I've ever had," Agenhart Jr. said of his years at Farrington. "Kamehameha is kind of sheltered in a way, they take care of a lot of your needs. At Farrington you see a lot of kids growing up and they don't have that. And the kids at Farrington are so honest and up front. You get what you see."
Despite their athletic backgrounds, Agenhart Jr. and Dorothy didn't push their children into sports. They enrolled Agenhart III and Auli'i in karate before allowing them to play team sports.
"I wanted to develop their mental attitude first," said Dorothy, whose father, George Puni Townsend, was an ILH all-star for Kamehameha in 1932
"I also wanted them to know what making a commitment meant. It wasn't the prowess of karate that we were concerned about, it was the attitude, being focused, making a commitment. And I think it worked."
Both children earned brown belts in karate before turning to team sports.
The siblings had their share of fights growing up, but Auli'i found having her brother already established at Kamehameha helped ease her transition to high school.
"He definitely looked out for me," Auli'i said. "It was a little easier going there because we already had a name for ourselves."
Agenhart III continued the tradition of ILH all-stars as a defensive back at Kamehameha. He went on to play at UH and was an All-Western Athletic Conference honorable mention selection as a senior in 1995.
And like his father, Agenhart completed his playing career in the Hula Bowl.
"That was the icing on the cake," Agenhart III said. "I was ready to end my career and I couldn't think of a better way, in front of my family and friends and playing with the best football players in the nation. I held my own and proved to myself I could hang with people who would be playing on Sundays."
While her brother added to the family's football legacy, Auli'i was the most decorated athlete of the clan. She was an All-State selection in volleyball, softball and basketball her senior year (1992-93) and played on six state championship teams in her high school career.
She went on to earn a volleyball scholarship at Santa Clara.
Agenhart III returned to Kamehameha as an assistant football coach in 1997 and is now the Warriors' defensive coordinator. His uncle Daniel also assists him as the defensive line coach.
"What's great for a parent is when your kids become better students than you were," Agenhart Jr. said. "They became better players than I was and better coaches than I was. They haven't been AD yet so I'm up on them in that."
Agenhart III's wife, Theresa, was also an outstanding prep athlete. She played volleyball and basketball, and ran track at Radford and was the school's female athlete of the year in 1988 and '89. She now works with Agenhart Jr. as a special education teacher at Farrington.
Theresa and Agenhart III have three daughters, 7-year-old twins Mahina and Taimane Choy, and 1-year-old Tenielle Ellis, but there aren't any signs of an Agenhart IV just yet.
Auli'i stayed in northern California after graduating from Santa Clara and is the district manager for Vector Marketing in San Francisco. Although she has built a successful career on the mainland, Auli'i hopes to return to Hawaii in two years to be closer to her family.
"It was the foundation of my whole life growing up," she said. "That's why leaving is probably the hardest thing I've ever done. It kind of broke my heart when I was away. That's the reason I'm moving back, because of my family and because of home."