The time finally arrived, they said, “You can open them now.” and you dived in to that one you had been eyeing for the last few weeks, tearing the paper wildly to discover the secret within.
I have two favorite presents, each connected to football, the one I desired wasn’t what I thought, the one I didn’t know about, I loved.
The first was the electric football game with the players buzzing around on the field. It looked really cool, everybody wanted one but the thrill lasted until about midday of the 26th.
That same year another gift was a football board game with two spinners, one for offense, one for defense and there were little circular cards you used to pick your plays. Wore that thing out, wore the edges off the cards, wore off the plays printed thereon.
It made me realize not to prejudge things. Let the world come to you.
The last few days, thinking about the holidays and presents, smiling faces and good cheer, it occurred to me that I’ve already been given great gifts in the form of getting to meet some great Big Island people who made this past year more fulfilling than I could have guessed it would be.
It’s the people who make this place special. The opportunity to meet special people known by their ohana, friends and neighbors, but maybe not known to anyone else was inspirational. I take this opportunity to thank them for their spirit, their honesty and a belief in which they all share.
Here are a few of those folks:
Peter Pua honored me with an invitation to the Papaaloa home he shares with wife Flo to reminisce a bit on the Haili Tournament, the enduring Big Island volleyball tournament that was once a seeming magnet for the top teams and players from Hawaii.
The sport has since blossomed, major tournaments can be found everywhere and the Haili has almost returned to its roots as a local celebration of the game. Pua doesn’t get around like he used to. He used to be the most feared front line player you could imagine, but these days he’s a libero who competed for the 45th year in the 60-year old tournament.
At 79, what keeps him coming back?
“It is a team sport,” he said, “and if you don’t play like a team it will be very hard to win, very hard. You have to rely on each other, you have to be a team to win.”
It’s about the team, the communication, the willing to both serve and protect, as required.
When you hear it from Peter Pua, you feel the love of the sport.
Cat Spina is a human energy center. A native Canadian who grew up near Montreal swimming in lakes, she had been showing up at Richardson Beach Sunday mornings at 9 when a couple others were usually there and they all liked to swim in the ocean.
One in the group, Mike Dishman, mentioned he once swam all the way from Honoli’i Beach to Richardson, discovering on the way he was swimming against the tides and currents. Spina jumped into action, organizing support crews, alerting the Coast Guard ahead of time and on the day they selected, along with Dishman, Sam Martin and Andrew Costillo, Spina’s group completed the 5-miles swim that may well become an annual affair,
Well done, group, you believed you could do it, you make us proud of the Big Island spirit.
Kim Kimi is a well-know paddler. Her Puna 50s women’s team won the Big Island championship for the third time over the summer, but it wasn’t just winning that distinguished her.
It was that whale she saw on her first trip out in a canoe as a novice, just to see if she might want to do this.
“There were three whales, and I don’t know how big they were (relative to other whales), but one of them came right toward me, went right under the canoe,” she said. “As it closed in on us, I could see its eye, like it was staring at me or something. … all I could see or feel was that eye, I will never forget it.”
Shaken, excited, mystified, she took a few days to process the incident, doubled her life insurance and jumped in. That was 15 years ago.
Billy Barnett is generally considered the Big Island’s top ultra-distance runner, usually winning or finishing in the top three in such events as the Hilo-to-Volcano run, pretty much a day-long involvement of about 32 miles, all uphill. He has competed in “over 30” ultra marathons, “about eight” 50-mile runs and three 100-milers, the most recent one two months ago in Arizona.
That’s 100 miles. Strategy? Keep going.
Barnett placed 16th out of more than 300 who started, but again, it isn’t about winning.
“I’m not interested much in results from the events, I care about the experiences I get that I can’t get from doing anything else,” he said. “The experiences stick with you, you take them into your life, the results come and go.”
Lots of runners get training advice from coaches, nutritionists, other runners, but Barnett, while listening to anyone, goes his own way.
“Just go do it,” he said. “Don’t go buy a bunch of expensive stuff, don’t follow someone else’s plan. If you want to release some stress, get active, just go do it, figure it out for yourself, it will work.”
Britney Yada is another member of this expanding team. Space limits including the full squad but these five represent a solid core of unanimity among these Big Island athletes.
A Waiakea High School graduate, Yada has been fighting to earn her way into the LPGA Tour and she came up just short at the last-gasp Q School qualifier a few weeks back in Florida.
She will renew the quest next month on the Cactus Tour in Arizona, a collection of 54-hole, no-cut events to sharpen skills and smooth the mental edges for aspiring LPGA qualifiers. In March, she’ll start the Symetra Tour, confidently.
Back home for the holidays, a reporter consoled her about the near miss. She responded with a Big Island answer.
“It’s all good,” Yada said. “This will only make me better.”
And that’s it, five of our neighbors, different disciplines, different genders, different occupations, some married, some single, with one unifying quality that shines like the sun.
They have all made their lives more fulfilling by merging their athleticism into the core of their being, and all of them are fully committed. They all believe in themselves, their athletic pursuits and their happiness.
It’s a reflection of the kind of people that surround us. Maybe you can join them with your own pursuits in 2018.
Tips, from whistle blowers or anyone else? Questions? Comments? Email Bart at barttribuneherald@gmail.com