StarBulletin.com

Hawaii sports fans ought to appreciate the aughts


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POSTED: Friday, January 01, 2010

It began with 10-year-old Michelle Wie saying she wanted to play in the Masters someday. It ended with her finally winning an LPGA event at the ripe old age of 20.

In the middle were times it seemed Wie could do anything she wanted in golf (and, to the dismay of some, it was often enabled). There were other times she could do no right, at least in the eyes of others.

During years when most adolescents worry about prom dates and algebra quizzes, Wie polarized the golf world with her freakish natural talent, unabashed ambition, cross-section mass appeal and multi-million-dollar sponsorship deals.

She grew up under a microscope ... with, many would say, her parents putting her there.

Wie's odyssey had plenty of competition for the sports story of the decade in Hawaii—especially if you consider much of her story didn't happen in Hawaii.

Y2K coincided with the start of a remarkable run for nearly all things athletic in The 50th State. (One fact kept Jan. 1, 2000, from being the start of a perfect sports storm in the islands: June Jones' one-year turnaround of the winless-in-1998 University of Hawaii football team in 1999 culminated just a week before New Year's.)

               

     

 

BIGGEST HAWAII SPORTS STORIES OF 2000-09

        1. Michelle Wie's turbulent ascent
       

2. June Jones era capped by University of Hawaii football going unbeaten and to the Sugar Bowl despite administrative controversy

       

3. HHSAA evolves with classification, fundraising

       

4. MMA emerges locally, then nationally

       

5. Hawaii athletes shine at the Olympics

       

6. Hawaii teams win the Little League World Series ... twice

       

7. Exodus of Pro Bowl, other events

       

8. Wahine volleyball's continuous excellence

       

9. Kahuku shines in football, leads nation in NFL players

       

10. (tie) Tadd Fujikawa shines at Sony Open, UH men's volleyball forfeits national title

       

 

       

MOST SIGNIFICANT HAWAII SPORTS FIGURES OF 2000-09

        1. Michelle Wie
       

2. June Jones

       

3. Colt Brennan

       

4. B.J. Penn

       

5. Keith Amemiya

       

6. Bryan Clay

       

7. Herman Frazier

       

8. Dave Shoji

       

9. Shane Victorino

       

10. Tim Chang

       

 

       

MANY FACTORS can contribute to a golden era in sports.

Individual accomplishments. Dynastic team championships. Numerous historic firsts. Homegrown talent shining on national and world stages like never before.

By any of these measures, athletes and teams with Hawaii ties from the years 2000 through 2009 served up unprecedented levels of entertainment and achievement. During the just-completed decade, our state was home to the World's Greatest Athlete (decathlete Bryan Clay), its most controversial sports prodigy (Wie), and a pioneer and champion in his emerging sport nicknamed The Prodigy (B.J. Penn).

Clay highlighted a phalanx of Olympians with Hawaii ties who blitzed the award stands at the 2008 Games in Beijing. Kim Willoughby, Robyn Ah Mow-Santos, Lindsey Berg, Heather Bown and Clay Stanley all medaled in volleyball, as did Natasha Kai in soccer.

There were also World Series champions (Little League and Major League) and the most NFL players per capita of any state in the union. Hawaii athletes consistently appeared in Super Bowls and Rose Bowls.

A 12-year-old kid (not Wie) turned in the biggest single play of the decade for Hawaii sports: Michael Memea's homer won the Little League World Series for a team from West Oahu. And Waipio gave the state the same title three years later in 2008.

Like Wie, Jones made seemingly preposterous predictions early in the decade. His were about how the run-and-shoot offense could take UH football to unprecedented heights. For the most part—and despite some daunting disadvantages—Jones fulfilled them.

He put an offense on the field that was the best (statistically, at least) in the nation. He produced prolific quarterbacks. He took the Warriors to a WAC championship, a BCS bowl game and a national ranking. Jones became the winningest coach in UH football history. Tim Chang broke NCAA records and then Colt Brennan became a Hawaii folk hero for life when he returned for his senior season and placed third in the Heisman Trophy voting, leading the Warriors to a 12-0 record.

But shortly after UH scaled the mountain in 2007, it was blown off of the peak on the first day of 2008 by the Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl.

The rapid unraveling is part of the story, too, with Jones leaving for SMU (to triumphantly return with his Mustangs and a dominant performance against Nevada last week in the Hawaii Bowl). Controversial athletic director Herman Frazier was fired and replaced by Jim Donovan. Defensive coordinator Greg McMackin took over and is one game under a winning record after two seasons; his annual salary in excess of $1 million makes him a lightning rod for criticism.

As triumphant and turbulent as football was at UH, volleyball coach Dave Shoji and his program remained a steadily successful force; he racked up his 1,000th career victory and four final-four appearances in the '00s.

Football coach Siuaki Livai can easily get lost in the shuffle of all that took place in the '00s. But the Kahuku math teacher's role in changing the paradigm of high school sports in Hawaii should be remembered. In the 2000 state championship game, Kahuku beat Saint Louis, loosening the private school's death grip on prep dominance in football. The Red Raiders went on to win five state championships in the decade, but four other schools won titles, too.

There will never be parity in high school sports, but Kahuku's first victory was a tangible and symbolic bellwether; Keith Amemiya, executive director of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association, worked tirelessly to create more opportunities for state championships for boys and girls by adding state tournaments in new sports and introducing classification.

Some teams continued to dominate, such as 'Iolani basketball, which won five state championships. The Raiders dynasty under coach Mark Mugiishi produced the most decorated hoops player in state history, Derrick Low. Punahou's girls also won three championships with an elite marquee player, Shawna-Lei Kuehu.

SEVERAL PRO athletes from Hawaii starred and dominated at times in their sports, including world champion surfer Andy Irons, Chicago Bears Pro Bowl center Olin Kreutz, two-time world champion boxer Brian Viloria and soccer star Brian Ching.

Two to keep your eye on (in addition to Wie) are golfer Tadd Fujikawa and surfer Carissa Moore; both have already displayed flashes of brilliance as youthful pros and will likely break out into widespread stardom in the '10s.

Shane Victorino from Maui began his pro baseball career in 2000 and scuffled around in the minors before his skill in the nuances of the game caught up to his tremendous raw ability; coming out of St. Anthony, he was a multiple sports star now considered one of the top natural athletes in the major leagues. Another Maui product—Oakland catcher Kurt Suzuki from Baldwin—could join him as an MLB all-star soon.

It wasn't all positives—Hawaii men's volleyball forfeited a national championship, and the state lost the Pro Bowl (at least temporarily), the Hula Bowl and several golf tournaments. An arena football team came and went, as did a second run of pro winter baseball.

The state did gain the Hawaii Bowl and the Diamond Head Classic as new events, and the Honolulu Marathon continued to chug along as a big moneymaker; it was dominated by six-time winner Jimmy Muindi.

THERE'S MUCH we haven't touched upon in this space; that's the kind of 10 years they were ... folks who remember the great swimmers and boxers from here of the mid-20th century might argue the point, but the just-completed decade produced more prominent athletes with Hawaii ties than any other similar span.

And Michelle Wie—our state's greatest sports story of the '00s because of setbacks as much as successes—is poised now for much more of the latter than the former after a turbulent 10 years the state ... and world ... could not stop watching.

Reach Star-Bulletin sports columnist Dave Reardon at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), his “;Quick Reads”; blog at starbulletin.com, and twitter.com/davereardon.