Joey Estrella, the former baseball coach and athletic director at Hawaii-Hilo, has always been an early riser, and has maintained that discipline, even now in semi-retirement.
Joey Estrella, the former baseball coach and athletic director at Hawaii-Hilo, has always been an early riser, and has maintained that discipline, even now in semi-retirement.
The day seems a little fresher, the sunrise even more magnificent when you can experience it on your own, at one with the world in the quiet before the hustle bustle begins.
Years ago, when the Vulcans were still playing Division I baseball, the team was in a hotel outside of Houston on a road trip when Estrella popped out of bed and went downstairs to get a newspaper before most of the guests had awaken for the day. It was about 5:30 a.m. as he recalls.
“I always liked to get a newspaper and have that time to myself to look through it,” he said, “but as I passed the entrance to the hotel, I see our van pulling up, with our trainer driving and one of our players in the passenger seat.”
Estrella gulped hard, expecting the worst while not even knowing what the worst might be. It turned out the player had a bad case of food poisoning, or something similar that had turned his stomach inside out and the trainer didn’t ask for permission, he just grabbed the player and headed for the nearest hospital emergency room.
“I was so surprised, I asked ‘Why I wasn’t called,’” Estrella said, “but (the trainer) told me ‘Nothin’ you could do, coach, you needed to get some sleep.’ That’s the kind of people we have here, we’ve always had that ohana approach and it’s real.
“I think it’s what people do in Hilo,” he said, “we’re different from a lot of places. It fills you with confidence in having those kind of selfless people around you, it makes us all better.”
If we don’t do it all year, we are moved to think about others this week, but not so much the people in the headlines, rather the people we usually don’t hear about, the ones behind the scenes who are every bit as much a part of the teams we follow as the coaches and the players.
And at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, the spirit of ohana is everywhere, it isn’t limited to the athletic department. Estrella can go on about the compliance and business departments, sports information, everywhere you go you feel it.
So if we ever tip our cap and offer up some gratitude, this might be the best week of all to do it, and in the athletic department, when you ask about people going above and beyond to help out, one of the first names you are likely to hear is that of Audrey Hirayama, whose title, secretary to the athletic director, almost obscures much of what she does.
She might be upset to see her name here. When asked to describe some of the things she does Hirayama suddenly said no, she didn’t want to talk about herself, she didn’t want to be quoted.
“I just do what I can,” she said.
Not true, according to those in the department who say she does far and away beyond “the job.”
“I’m not sure we could function without her,” said soccer director Lance Thompson. “She is an amazing person, she’s an overseer, she does little things we don’t even know she does.”
Hirayama is a regular at games, she organizes and sometimes cooks meals for players and staff, but she is just an example of the kind of people working at UH Hilo.
Diane Wissing, in compliance, “keeps all of us on track,” said volleyball coach Tino Reyes, “she makes all our jobs easier. None of us want to think about how much more difficult it would be without her knowledge.”
Dick Koch, the longtime athletic trainer, essentially runs the soccer program on road trips, before and after games. When the Vulcans are in California, Thompson needs to maximize his time through recruiting, watching junior college and high school players as much as he can.
“Dick runs things,” Thompson said, “he arranges dinners, maybe takes them sightseeing, or to a movie, he’s as much a part of what we do as anyone, he just never gets the attention and he doesn’t care about that. He just wants to help.”
Eddie and Susan Kalima are always there for the volleyball team, Eddie a valued assistant, Susan the do-it-all helper. “I can’t tell you all the things they do,” said Reyes, “but I can tell you we could exist without them, right? All you need is a net and a ball, but we wouldn’t be much of a program without them, they make us proud.”
Baseball coach Kallen Miyataki isn’t so sure what would happen to the program without assistants Roddy Sueoka, Shane Miura and Kevin Yee. These aren’t people who just walked in off the street and had an interest in baseball. Sueoka, as an example, is an adjunct professor at Hawaii Community College and Army Veteran, in charge of the Office of Veteran Services for the Island of Hawaii. The helpers are leaders, too.
“Really,” Miyataki said, “they allow us to exist, without them, I don’t want to say it would be impossible, but it would be impossible to be even close to where we are. They make it work.”
At the Division II level, the money isn’t what it is at the big schools, the staff is smaller, demands heavier and more persistent, the hours longer. The focus is always on the coach and players, which is understandable, but there’s a time and place for gratitude to the people behind the scenes, and this is it.
And sorry, Audrey, that goes for you, too.
Contact Bart at barttribuneherald.com with questions, comments]