Coach Ho Retiring From Cougar Baseball, But More Is Ahead

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Kaiser High’s perpetual baseball coach Peter Ho. Photo by Nathalie Walker, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

No one had to tell Peter Ho he would make a difference with kids when he decided to go into coaching. The Kaiser High head baseball coach never forgot his own struggles as a student athlete.

Asked what prompted him to go into coaching, he immediately recalls that his own coach at Kaiser, Clayton Fujie, gave him some needed guidance.

“He opened my eyes,” said Ho. “I was in the wrong direction.I had just transferred from Saint Louis School to Kaiser and wasn’t taking school or baseball too seriously. He was a teacher at the school, and he told me that I had talent and that I should-n’t cut myself short.”

Ho eventually landed at the University of Hawaii on a baseball scholarship and is a longtime teacher at McKinley High School. He recently wrapped up a highly successful run as Kaiser’s baseball coach, announcing he would retire after seven seasons. He also spent seven seasons as McKinley’s coach before taking a break from prep coaching to work with his son Colby Ho, who is today playing college baseball on the West Coast.

Ho’s most memorable team was perhaps his 2007 edition, which advanced all the way to the semifinals of the state baseball tournament before losing to OIA champion Pearl City. The Cougars regrouped to defeat Kamehameha-Hawaii in the third-place game the following day and finished 11-6 overall.

“That was a team we never thought would go that far, and they made it further than anyone,” Ho recalled. “It was a year when things went our way. It was in the cards.”

Kaiser went 9-3 this year in the OIA Red East (9-5 overall), but met a bittersweet end as rain canceled a last at-bat

in their playoff game against Mililani, an 8-6 loss that eliminated them from contention for a state tournament berth. A rainy day seems an inappropriate backdrop for the ending of what was a rewarding career in coaching for Ho.

“It was tough to never get our last at-bats,“he admitted. “Anything could happen with this group. They were so enjoyable to coach, I wanted to go on from there for them.”

Ho is known to be fiercely loyal to his assistant coaching staff and hopes that one of them will succeed him. They are Vince Bedoya, Sean Takamori, Todd Hamasaki, Mark Rasmussen, Peter Ito, Kyle Takenaka and Matt Muranaka.

“If I didn’t have a great staff, I wouldn’t have lasted. They made it enjoyable. When we started, most of them had girlfriends. Now they have wives and kids.”

Ho was also popular among his colleagues, according to Kalani coach Shannon Hirai.

“The coaches are all really close in the (OIA) East - we share a lot of information throughout the season, and Peter would always give it to you straight,” said Hirai.“He was somebody you could exchange ideas with.When we played them, we always knew they were going to be well-coached. They have good guys (assistant coaches) on their staff; they do a great job.”

Asked what he would do with the time once spent running the Kaiser program, Ho revealed that he will next coach his daughter,Cassie,and her teammates in softball.

“I’m gonna enjoy myself and coach 11-year-olds,” he said. “I’ll still be coaching. I don’t know how it will be.”

When asked how Cassie feels about being coached by her dad, he added, “I don’t think she’s too happy about it - just kidding!”

Kaiser High’s perpetual baseball coach Peter Ho. Photo by Nathalie Walker, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).