Editorial Note: This is the second in a series of four profiles on the Big Island Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2015.
A holy trinity of volleyball coaching legends — Tony Crabb, Chris McLachlin and the late Richard “Longy” Okamoto — influenced Chris Leonard, who carries on the lessons of each and passes those core values to his players.
Crabb and McLachlin were Punahou coaches back in the day and known for their strict adherence for high expectations, commitment and discipline.
During his prep career, Leonard was at Punahou for three years, before transferring to Kailua High as a senior in 1987.
Crabb was an assistant on the U.S. men’s 1984 Olympic gold medal team. McLachlin won 11 HHSAA state boys volleyball championships. He serves as TV color commentator for UH Warrior and Wahine volleyball.
Okamoto, who passed away in 1995 at age 66, founded the Kamalii Manaloa Volleyball Club in 1976 with an emphasis to take local youngsters and turn them into collegiate talent.
It worked.
Longy had a long list of players who became Rainbow Wahine, including Tita Ahuna. He coached with a huge heart, something that still sticks with Leonard, who’ll be inducted Nov. 15 into the Big Island Sports Hall of Fame, along with Don Memmer, Luella Aina, and Elson Mori.
“I’m pleasantly surprised. I’m tremendously honored to be mentioned with great sports people over the years,” said Leonard, who reflected on his old coaches. “Tony Crabb had high expectations. He demanded your best every day, and Chris McLachlin was the same way. He was a tremendous motivator, and had a huge influence on me as a player, and later in life as a coach.
“One of my favorite stories is when I was playing in a summer league and we were finishing first or second on Tuesday and Thursday nights. One night, he lectured us for 20 minutes on our level of play and commitment. He didn’t care about the wins. He demanded commitment and excellence, even during the summer.”
Leonard also pointed out that guys were showing up five minutes before a match with their shoes not on, and sand in their hair from surfing all day. That would get a disciplinarian like McLachlin boiling.
“That was an eye-opener. If you wanted to be part of a program, you had to be committed,” Leonard said. “That’s carried over to this day, that demand for excellence.”
Okamoto was also focused on important fundamentals like passing, but his devotion was the well-being of his players.
If players didn’t have a ride to practice, coach Longy would pick them up in his van.
“He had a compassion for kids,” Leonard said. “If they had a desire to play, he’d try to find a way to make it work.
“Longy was a huge factor for me. He was about defense first. If you can’t pass, you’re not going to play. I got an appreciation for passing and defense, and that’s the hallmarks that I work on as a coach.”
In Leonard’s senior year, Kailua just missed the state tournament. The Surfriders were the OIA’s No. 3 team. The league had only two spots and Castle and Pearl City got in.
The Kailua girls qualified for states in 1986, when the tourney was held at Hilo Civic. Leonard came as a student-coach, and returned later with the Kamalii club team for the Haili tournament.
Big Isle impact
Leonard moved to the Big Island in 1992 and soon started to help former Waiakea boys volleyball coach Ammon Borges.
When Ecko Osorio took over in 2000, Leonard planned to stay aboard for three years. He’s still there and busier than ever.
In 2010, Leonard took over for Waiakea girls coach Lee Ann Maikui, who was pregnant, and led the BIIF runner-up Warriors to fourth place at states, the highest finish in school history.
That was a memorable season. Waiakea beat Kamehameha-Maui, which featured former Rainbow Wahine Ginger Long, in the quarterfinals, and lost a close match to Kaiser, which had UH’s Nikki Taylor, for third place.
For Leonard, it reinforced the belief that someone doesn’t need to be 6 feet, 4 inches like Taylor to compete on a high level. Others things like passing, discipline, and a demand for excellence are just as effective.
In all the years at Waiakea, Leonard never coached his own kids. He finally did as a Kamehameha assistant with his daughter Zoe from 2011 to ’14.
Leonard joined UH-Hilo as a volunteer coach last year. He’s not getting paid and his daughter is attending another school. Zoe is a freshman libero at Dartmouth.
He started coaching with Osorio’s Pilipaa club team in 2005, and through the years a gold, two silvers and two bronzes have been brought back from the USA Volleyball Junior Olympics.
In 2007, Leonard became the Pilipaa girls club director and coach. His teams started piling up awards and recognition from tournaments such as USA Volleyball Junior Nationals, Olympics and High-Performance, AAU National Championships and the Las Vegas Classic.
Leonard’s crowning achievement was his first graduating class of 2015. Nine in all are attending college, and a bunch of Pilipaa members are playing ball at the next level.
Like Longy
In perhaps the best compliment, Leonard has become like coach Longy: taking undersized locals and turning them into collegiate talent, focusing on the lessons and core values from his three old coaches.
He points to 2015 Kamehameha graduate Kaiulani Ahuna as a perfect example. She’s a 5-9 outside hitter but is on scholarship at Division I Eastern Washington.
“The kids can look at Kaiu. She’s not 6-2. When she was much younger, she spent a lot of time sitting on the bench,” Leonard said. “I want the kids to realize if you work hard enough there is an opportunity for you. You have to be willing to work hard in volleyball and in the classroom.”
Another perfect example is his daughter Zoe, who is at an Ivy League school playing against Brown, Columbia, Cornell, front-runner Harvard, Penn, Princeton, and Yale.
“He’s helped others by teaching skills that are beneficial not only as volleyball players but as people in our community,” Zoe said. “He’s never given up on a player and is very patient, which I can image would be hard with a bunch of teenagers.
“He always wants to learn more, how to be a better player and coach. I’ve learned from him that opportunities will present themselves if you work hard, listen, and stay humble. He has been the biggest influence in my life and I wouldn’t be playing Division I volleyball if it weren’t for him.”
Leonard has had a lot of help, too, in volunteering his time as a Pilipaa coach, while maintaining a busy workload as president/GM of New West Broadcasting Corp.
“My wife Kathy has been an integral part. She’s put in a lot of time as has Carla, Ecko’s wife,” he said. “I couldn’t do it without her support. She keeps things organized.
“We went to New Orleans (for the USA Junior Nationals) and thought it would be nice to slow down. But when you look at the kids, you see the impact.”
