Q: What sports interested you growing up?

A: My first sports love was baseball I loved baseball because you could play it all year around. As far as basketball, I was tall so it was just something I did when I was younger.

Q: Where did you go to school?

A: I did my undergrad at University of Colorado and then I transferred to UW. I wanted to do physical therapy, but the weather just wasn’t for me, so after a year I went back home to the islands and had a three year gap where I just worked and took time off until I went back to the University of Colorado.

Q: What was college like for you?

A: I walked in ’97 but I didn’t get my degree until ’03, I mean I was working and it was hard to go to school full time. I had a volunteer position at Colorado and you realize real fast that the commitment to the program is huge. I knew coaching was what I wanted to do, so I just put taking my very last class off for a few years. In the end, I finally took my bio mechanicals class and got my degree in kinesiology.

Q: Did you have any involvement in the team at University of Colorado?

A: As part of the Colorado staff I had the opportunity to be a part of a team with Chauncey Billups as the point guard. That year we beat Bobby Knight in the NCAA tourney, and lost to Dean Smith, that’s such an amazing experience and the atmosphere was just unforgettable.

Q: What is your biggest challenge in taking over the Women’s program?

A: For me coming in to a program that has been down for the last eight years is exciting. It’s all about getting the team to compete, it’s the first thing I wanted and needed to change about the culture here. When I first sat down with the team, the desire to win was evident in all the kids and the desire to be coached was evident. These kids felt like they lacked structure, and structure is what I am all about. I am all about having a plan, making a road map to where we want to go and having a real vision of how we will get there.

Q: What is the hardest thing you think you will encounter here?

A: The hardest thing is getting rid of that loser’s mentality. Letting these kids know that the standard will be raised and that they are going to be accountable now, there is no unaccountability. You’re responsible for all of your decisions and actions on and off the court and then holding the kids accountable to that new standard.

Q: Was there a fear of the unknown?

A: Not knowing these kids was a big unknown, finding out how bad these kids want to win, how hard do they really want to work. Do they know what hard work is? Just understanding and getting to know them was a big unknown. I had never recruited any of these kids; I had never seen them play live. All I have seen was film on these kids because when I got hired it was finals week, so I couldn’t work them out. I just watched game film to assess their talent, that was a huge unknown; just not knowing what I really had.

Q: What was the first day of practice like for you?

A: First day of workouts I do what I normally do, I push the team hard. I’ve never seen that many kids crying and throwing up the first day of workouts. That’s either from A, they didn’t take the off season serious, or B they didn’t care and they didn’t want to push themselves. But that was my way to weed out the kids who didn’t want to sacrifice for each other. It means a lot to me because the ones who worked through it are the ones who want to be here and that spoke volumes of the kind of people these kids are to me. From the first day to now, it’s been a complete one eighty; every one of these kids is brought in and committed. You can ask anyone of the kids on this team and they will tell you that this is the best shape they’ve been in in their life.

Q: What’s the philosophy you’re installing in this team?

A: Every day we compete, I mean everything we do in practice we compete at. We have a winner of every practice and we keep track of the winners and the losers and post that for everyone to see in the locker room. It pushes the kids to compete in practice and all forms of competition are healthy for this team.

Q: What are you doing, besides workouts, to get the players ready for the season?

A: Well we just wrapped up individual meetings and I feel like it’s easy for me to define each player’s role clearly to them, but that challenge goes on them now because they need to see if they can accept their role.

Q: What do you tell your players as you go into this new chapter of CWU women’s basketball?

A: I tell them you can’t control the amount of shots you’re going to make, you can’t control the officials, you just can’t control a lot of things, but the one thing you can control is your effort, and if you give your maximum effort at all times, good things will happen.

Q: Is there a certain idea or words that you live by?

A: Well not necessarily an idea or a set of words, I just understand that I’ve worked for a lot of different coaches and I’ve taken bits and pieces from each one. I read a lot of books and those help me mold my philosophy. I’ve seen a lot, done a lot. As far as living by a certain idea, I just knew, being a kid from Hawaii, I’ve always told myself I wanted to see all 50 states, and I have three left to see to achieve that. I mean, I just don’t think you’ve lived until you’ve seen everything this country has to offer and how other people live and interact with you. It’s just an amazing thing to experience.

Q: How do you balance life and coaching?

A: You have to find a balance between your personal life and your work, and it’s hard because the career is dependent on how many games you can win, so you need to be committed to recruiting and building the life blood of the program. You have to understand that you have to find balance between work and life and too many coaches don’t find that balance and become consumed by the work. I’ve learned the hard way you have to find a way to balance and put a commitment to your life as well. Life can’t always take a back seat to your career and that’s something you hopefully learn along the way.