Former UH track and field coach Joe Hilbe with his sons Michael and Mitchell and his wife Cheryl.
Hilbes stay on track
Former UH coach Joe Hilbe
brings his sons back to Hawaii
Joe Hilbe isn't as fast as he used to be. Who is at 59? His decrease in speed is more dramatic than most, though.
The former University of Hawaii track and field coach used to routinely break 10 seconds in 100 yards during his prime sprinting days more than 30 years ago.
But chronic back injuries resulting from an auto accident in the 1980s and other health problems have left him with more of a shuffle than a walk. His winces show that every step hurts at least a little.
Hilbe's son, Michael, has also been moving with some pain lately. He has a nagging hamstring injury that's dogged him for months. It didn't stop him from running a 50.7 in the 400 meters at a summer track meet at Kaiser High School yesterday.
"Why do I run the 400?" Michael repeats a question. "I'd say because it's the toughest race, and I love the challenge of it."
So far, he has met the challenge.
His best in the 400 while competing at Hamilton High in Chandler, Ariz., was 47.84 (electronic), good enough for a scholarship at the University of Arizona in the fall, even though the hamstring injury knocked him out of the state meet.
Another Hilbe son, Mitchell, will be a junior in high school in the fall. Football is his sport (although he does run track), and UH is among the colleges the wide receiver is looking at.
Cheryl Hilbe, Joe's wife and the boys' mother, also was at Kaiser yesterday.
"This is mostly because Michael has always wanted to run in a meet in Hawaii," Joe Hilbe said. "He was born here, but we moved soon after."
JOE HILBE, originally from Southern California, was the head coach of the women's track and field team at UH from 1978 until 1985, when the program was disbanded. UH also had men competing in the sport sporadically during that time. He was an assistant coach when Terry Albritton broke the world record in the shot put with a heave of 71 feet, 8 1/2 inches at Cooke Field in February of 1976. Hilbe also coached Gwen Loud, the school's most decorated female track athlete.
"Joe was on the world-class circuit, and he brought a lot of innovative training techniques to Hawaii, things that are still used in speed camps locally," former UH sprinter and assistant coach Rick Nakashima said. "I learned a lot from him."
There was a minor controversy during Hilbe's tenure at UH. The Rainbow women competed with some UCLA athletes in a meet here in 1983. Due to a misunderstanding, Hilbe said, the meet was reported as UH having beaten UCLA, although it was a non-scoring meet and some of the better Bruins athletes were not participating.
"We did very well in the meet. Gwen Loud beat Flo-Jo (the late Florence Griffith-Joyner) in the 200," Hilbe said. "It was unfortunate how it came out. What I meant was that in the events that we went against UCLA, if the meet was being scored, we would have won. I was just trying to give credit to our team for having a great meet."
Hilbe retired from UH due to disability from the car accident and moved to Arizona in 1985. He has a doctorate in statistics, is a UH professor emeritus and has taught at Arizona State. He is widely published and lectures often. But track remains his passion, especially with Michael's potential to be one of the Pac-10's best 400-meter runners.
Michael Hilbe, left, and his brother Mitchell Hilbe, far right, competed in the 100 meters yesterday at Kaiser High School.
AROUND 500 athletes competed yesterday at Kaiser. Among them were Nathaniel Nasca, high school state champion in the 100 meters and 110 hurdles, and Logan Taylor, the hurdles standout who missed the state meet with a broken wrist.Most of the participants were pre-teens from Oahu. Meet organizer Dick Sutton said neighbor islanders will come for the July 17 state summer championship, which is also a qualifier for nationals in Eugene, Ore.
The Hilbes weren't the family to travel the farthest for this meet. That would be the vacationing Minsbergs from St. Paul, Minn. Elana, 11, was the first girl to finish the 3,000 meters, crossing the line in 13 minutes, 7 seconds.
Elana and her father, Michael Minsberg, were impressed with how all the participants seemed to be enjoying the meet -- something not always true at meets in Minnesota.
"I'm very impressed with how all the kids are having fun," Michael Minsberg said. "Another difference is that you don't get sushi and Spam at track meets."
