AS we roll into 1999, it's time to look back as well as forward. Saints, Soule top
list of best
sports storiesYou know what they say: You can't know where you're going unless you know where you've been.
This is not a column to list the best sports stories of 1998. The staff will provide you with that shortly.
All I want to do is highlight some of the stories that meant the most to me this year. These were stories I covered or had a hand in covering. Comments are always welcome.
In no particular order, this was my year in sports:
-- Athletes from St. Louis School, the state's most dominating prep football program, damage rooms, hire adult female strippers, and drink heavily at a Las Vegas hotel as their head coach, Cal Lee, left the premises at 2 a.m. to visit the Strip. The story received national exposure in September.
-- A living American sports treasure, Waikiki resident Aileen Riggin Soule, turned 92 in May. The country's oldest living Olympic gold medalist, she won the springboard diving competition in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium. Teammates included Duke Kahanamoku and rower Jack Kelly, father of the late Princess Grace Kelly.
-- Joe Igber, a 5-foot-7, 190-pound Barry Sanders lookalike, shattered six state high school rushing and scoring records while registering a 4.0 grade point average in his first quarter at Iolani. His college decision will be made after campus trips to Stanford, Northwestern, Washington, Wisconsin and Cal-Berkeley.
-- The Hawaii High School Athletic Association reversed itself on three controversial issues:
1: Selling out the date of the girls' state soccer tournament at Aloha Stadium in February to a Mariah Carey concert;
2: Cancelling the first girls' state wrestling tournament, which was scheduled for the same month;
3: Maintaining a closed-door policy on executive board meetings. Meetings are due to be opened in the new year.
Pressure from parents and media played no small role in these reversals.
-- One of the closest finishes, and possibly the fastest sprint finish, in the history of the sport occurred at the 26th Honolulu Marathon on Dec. 13 when Mbarak Hussein of Kenya beat countryman Eric Kimaiyo in the last 400 meters to win the 26.2-mile race by a fraction of a second.
-- The HHSAA in June made a surprising selection for its new executive director. Keith Amemiya, a 32-year-old attorney, expressed a strong interest in sports but his resume showed no athletic administrative experience or significant business background.
-- Former University of Hawaii kicker Jason Elam tied Tom Dempsey's NFL record for longest field goal with a 63-yarder against Jacksonville.
--The University of Hawaii's nationally ranked women's volleyball team scored a nationally coveted bluechipper, signing Kamehameha's 6-foot-2 outside hitter Lily Kahumoku.
-- Punahou senior Eri Macdonald was ranked as high as No. 2 nationally at 800 meters early in the outdoor track season. She went on to win an unprecedented fourth straight state cross country championship last month on Kauai.
-- Kahuku became the first public high school football program in Hawaii to gain a national ranking. The Red Raiders enjoyed the No. 18 spot in USA Today until losing to St. Louis in the Oahu Prep Bowl. St. Louis finished nationally ranked.
-- The Prep Bowl got its first TV exposure and about 8,000 paid $12.95 to gain access via pay-per-view on Oceanic Cable. Just over 20,000 attended the game.
My wishes for 1999 include continued excellent health for Aileen Riggin Soule, a breakout NFL year for Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala with the Steelers, and a renewed emphasis on local recruiting for UH football.
Happy New Year!
Pat Bigold has covered sports for daily newspapers
in Hawaii and Massachusetts since 1978.