Campbell baseball
coach steps down
Lane Watanuki is retiring as a baseball coach so he can be a baseball coach.
Watanuki, who has coached Campbell High School for 20 seasons, doesn't want to miss the opportunity to coach his 12-year-old son's intermediate school team in Wahiawa.
"My oldest son (Brock) is 19 now and I didn't really get to see him grow up and I feel real bad about not being a part of what fathers and sons normally do," Watanuki said yesterday. "My younger one (Kolby) just started in an instructional league last year, so right now is the time to do it."
Watanuki, 43, coached the Sabers to the 1995 Oahu Interscholastic Association championship and led them to several OIA West titles. But the winning was definitely secondary.
"I will miss working with the kids and the staff," he said. "We feel like we got the program moving in the right direction by guiding the ballplayers with discipline and the 'student-athlete first' attitude to mold them for the future. Kids living in our area really need that."
Watanuki is also proud of the work throughout the years that he and his staff put into the improvement of Campbell's baseball facilities, which he said rank near the top among the state's public schools.
"Coach Watanuki's accomplishments go far beyond championships and wins," Sabers athletic director Sam Delos Reyes said in a press release. "Through his philosophy of coaching and life experiences, he influenced his players to be responsible, respectable citizens."
Like many coaches who leave a position, Watanuki hopes one of his assistants can move up.
"I'd really like to see (former UH player) Rory Pico get it," Watanuki said. "He's in charge of our weight-training program and he's been very valuable to us the last few years. He played for me, graduated from Campbell and was part of that OIA championship team."
Owls decide to wait: Mid-Pacific Institute's administration met last week and decided not to begin a varsity football program next season.
The Owls completed their first intermediate level football program this fall and plan on eventually fielding a varsity team.
"It depends on numbers (of players) and we're not there yet," athletic director Bill Villa said.
Varsity-age Mid-Pacific football players will continue to play for Pac-Five (along with players from other small Interscholastic League of Honolulu schools).
If and when the transition to varsity occurs, Villa thinks Pac-Five will still be able to successfully continue its program, even though it won't be able to draw players from Mid-Pacific. The Wolfpack practice at MPI, so they would need to find other facilities.
"We envision Pac-Five continuing on and we would help in whatever way we could in the transition process," he said. "It's in the best interest of the league to have more teams."
