Throw a volleyball to Ecko Osorio and he’ll pass it on a dime to his Waiakea players, and along the way the Warriors will learn the game’s fundamentals and valuable lessons as well.
Throw a volleyball to Ecko Osorio and he’ll pass it on a dime to his Waiakea players, and along the way the Warriors will learn the game’s fundamentals and valuable lessons as well.
Osorio’s coaching philosophy mirrors that of the old proverb: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
After 20 seasons, Osorio has stepped down as head coach, handing the steering wheel to Napua Canda, a 2005 Waiakea graduate.
Osorio is still sticking around as an assistant. But now he comes to practice two or three times a week. He’s there for BIIF game days, too.
“It’s about time,” he said. “I do Pilipa‘a (his club team) and BIIF volleyball 10 months out of the year. With Pilipa‘a, I can help more kids from other schools and give them an opportunity to learn stuff.”
He’s taught generations of Warriors how to fish, including the new coach and his dad Chad Canda, who was there when Osorio had his first tour of coaching duty from 1986 to ’88.
Osorio returned as Waiakea’s coach in the 2000-01 season, his son Mark’s senior year. He also coached his other son Aaron, who graduated in 2007.
For 13 straight seasons, the Warriors were either the BIIF champion or runner-up. They last won the league crown in 2013.
Under Osorio, Waiakea’s highest finish at the HHSAA tournament was third in 2005, a season when Canda was the BIIF player of the year as a 6-foot-2 middle blocker.
He’s shining Example A of the Warrior fish project. Canda grew up playing baseball and basketball. He came out for BIIF volleyball as a sophomore and transformed into a rocket.
Canda was on Osorio’s 2004 Pilipa‘a gold medal boys 17s club division team at the USA Volleyball Junior National championships. Pilipa‘a also won two silvers and two bronzes at nationals.
He later played ball at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Calif., where Canda discovered a few coaching differences and a reason why Osorio’s undersized teams (both Waiakea and Pilipa‘a) overcame tall odds and opponents.
“What I know was taught to me by Ecko, and Ecko’s volleyball system works,” said Canda, who runs his own fencing business. “His system has always been about defense. He’s slammed that into us — defense, defense, and defense. Hitting was a privilege at practice.
“He’d always tell us to be committed to ourselves, to our teammates and the team. If everybody did what we were supposed to, then everybody had fun. That’s why we were so successful.”
Ecko’s aloha
Osorio’s impact goes beyond the Big Island and lands most significantly at UH-Manoa, where former Waiakea/Pilipa‘a alumni Evan La Rochelle and Mamane Namahoe are Rainbow Warriors.
On Canda’s staff are assistants Clayton “Braddah” Morante and Jay Hanagami. Other Osorio products on Oahu are Mason Waugh, a Hawaii Elite club coach, and Ryan Tsuji, who coached ‘Imi ‘Ike, a club that had Rainbow Wahine players.
What La Rochelle remembers most about Ecko was the way he coached. Osorio not only wore his personality like an aloha shirt, but he also brought it on the court.
“It was Ecko’s amazing ability to be humble and patient with his players,” La Rochelle said. “He is able to connect, teach, and refine players at all levels with patience, which is something that I admire. If you made a mistake and looked at him, he would smile or just laugh because he knew that you knew what you did wrong. He made it very clear of what he expected from us. That expectation from a coach drives players to just find a way to execute and be successful.
“He is a great coach and even better person. In both, he would take care of us and many times cater to the individual needs of players. When a coach puts so much time and effort into his players, it never goes unnoticed. He cared for us on and off the court, which is why he is such a well-loved coach in our community.”
La Rochelle graduated from Waiakea in 2011. Then he spent four years in the Air Force before walking on at UH.
No matter how much times passes, he never forgets the priceless memories from his old coach.
His sentiments about Ecko bring to mind the Maya Angelou quote: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
La Rochelle and the Lil Braddahs, all former Pilipa‘a players, were able to return the favor by winning the men’s AA title at the Haili tournament last year over Kailua Volleyball Club, becoming the Big Island’s first homegrown team to do so.
“My favorite Ecko memory was his face after we won,” La Rochelle said. “He watched our game and was yelling the whole way through. When we won, his face was filled with so much pride and joy.
“Those kinds of memories are unforgettable. The next day the team got together and brought the trophy over to his house because he was responsible for our success.”
A pair of songs
Osorio can talk about his former players and old teams but won’t mention anything about himself. If there’s an MVP award he won as a setter at some tournament, he’ll turn into a friendly clam.
“Ecko is reluctant in talking about himself,” said Chris Leonard, an old friend, former teammate, and coaching assistant. “That’s his humility.”
Osorio graduated from St. Joseph in 1982. His St. Joe coach back in the day was Sam Thomas, now the Kamehameha girls coach.
Ecko played on a Junior Olympic team that featured Reed Sunahara, Bubba Baldado (Puna’s paddling medalist), and Dom Canda (Chad’s brother), which was coached by his brother Dave and dad Elroy Osorio.
“We had a family connection. My father (the late John Leonard) and his brother Jon worked together in the music industry in Honolulu,” Leonard said.
Leonard knew Elroy Osorio for a number of years before moving to Hilo in 1992. He was looking for a team, and Elroy suggested he call Ecko.
“I did and we became teammates. We played together through much of the 1990s and won numerous tournaments and regional championships together,” Leonard said. “Ecko was one of the best setters that I have ever played with. I try to get him out of retirement. He’s in better shape than all of us and has better hands.
“He asked if I would assist him when he took over the Waiakea boys program in the 2000-01 season. It was a three-year commitment that turned into 14 seasons and a number of trips to the USA Volleyball Junior Nationals with our Pilipa‘a boys.
“I learned from him that it didn’t take money to develop the incredible talent in our back yard. It took someone with a vision, a love of the game and the dedication to work hard to develop champions. Ecko’s direction provided much of the inspiration that I needed to start our Pilipa‘a girls program in 2010.”
One of Ecko’s favorite songs is “Hawaiian Eyes,” by his brother Jon Osorio, a UH-Manoa professor, and Randy Borden. It was the Na Hoku Hanohano song of the year in 1981.
But a more fitting one to summarize Osorio’s time at Waiakea is Cecilio and Kapono’s old classic, “Goodtimes Together.” It was also a Na Hoku Hanohano winner in 1989.
Hit up the tune on YouTube or Spotify and listen carefully.
If the lyrics warm your heart, then you’ll know how Ecko’s fishing project Warriors feel about their old coach and how he feels about everyone.