LIHU‘E — Nearly 70 youngsters were treated to a basketball clinic Saturday headed by former University of Hawai‘i Hilo basketball coach Jimmy Yagi.
Joining the participants, who ranged from Grade 3 through 8, were select members of the Kaua‘i High School girls Junior Varsity team.
“The clinic is basically for anyone who wants to learn,” said Aaron Uyeda of the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation who coordinated the visit from coach Yagi. “Kaua‘i coach Sandi Nadatani approached me as asked if she could send some of her JV players, and I told her, ‘Sure, if they are willing to learn.’”
Yagi was joined by: Bill O’Rear, former basketball standout and current sports editor for the Hawai‘i Tribune Herald, and Daphne Honma, a former high school coach for Honoka‘a High School and a collegiate basketball coach.
During Yagi’s tenure at the University of Hawai‘i Hilo, he ran a successful basketball program, getting the Vulcans on the map when several of his teams, including one O’Rear played on, reached the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics finals. Following his retirement, Yagi was inducted into the UH-Hilo’s Vulcan Hall of Honor.
“Do you realize we’ve been doing this for 21 years?” Yagi said. “We started coming from Hurricane ‘Iniki and I’m impressed that we still have a lot of youngsters coming out to learn. I guess basketball is alive and well on Kaua‘i.”
The basketball clinic almost didn’t happen, Uyeda said.
“Just a couple of weeks ago, Coach Yagi was in the hospital with double pneumonia,” Uyeda said. “We thought he wasn’t going to be able to make the trip, but he kept asking about it.”
O’Rear said Yagi loves Kaua‘i and the youngsters who turn out for the camp hosted by Kaua‘i County’s Department of Parks and Recreation.
“He kept asking about the clinic,” O’Rear said. “He wasn’t going to miss this.”
The clinic was broken into two sessions, the morning being devoted to the basketball players and the second session tuned toward basketball coaches who were invited to attend.
“I had something planned for the morning, but I’m going to see if I can at least make the coaches’ session,” said Bobby Kamakele, coach of the Kaulupono, a community basketball team, Friday night at the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation game at Kapa‘a High School. “Normally, coach Yagi and his crew come to these games. I think this is one of the few he’s missed.”
Ross Shimabukuro, the Kaua‘i High School athletic director, who was checking on the clinic during a break from the KIF swim meet at the Kaua‘i High School pool, said his basketball coach, Ipo Yoshioka, was excited about Yagi’s arrival and was already planning to ask him a bunch of questions.
The clinic offered players, including several getting ready for the launch of the county’s Youth Basketball League starting Monday, fundamentals of the game of basketball, including ball-handling drills, dribbling, passing and team-building concepts.
Uyeda noted that many of the drills being presented is something youngsters can do by themselves at home.
“I just teach fundamentals,” Yagi said while watching the throng of youngsters work with O’Rear, Honma and other community coach volunteers. “The more skills you know well, the more confidence you have on the court. Basketball is a game of confidence — the more confidence you have, the better you play.”
Uyeda said Yagi’s visit is made possible through the help of Hawaiian Airlines who has been taking care of Yagi from his first visit 21 years ago; Louie Abrams, who finds coach a place to stay; and a host of other community organizations who make it possible for the youngsters to have a free clinic.
