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Bubbly Coach A Good Fit For HPU Women’s Soccer Team

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Michele Nagamine

During her successful run as the Kamehameha girls soccer coach, Michele Nagamine would always find time to return each winter to coach for Leahi Soccer Club when her season with the Warriors had run its course.

Even with the resume of a Hall of Fame coach, she’s never had any trouble staying grounded. If anything, Nagamine can always count on the kids in Leahi to help her in that regard.

“One of the biggest challenges I’ve ever had was coaching a U7 (7 and under) team,” said Nagamine, a Kaneohe native who recently was named head women’s soccer coach at Hawaii Pacific University.“They’re not afraid of me. They don’t care who I am. They ask things like, ‘When are we going to scrimmage?’ and ‘Why are we doing this?’ Children will always keep your ego in check.

“The hierarchy of coaching is now Intermediate (level), High School, College and U7,“she added with a laugh.

As with most of the teams she’s coached, her U7 team was a success, perhaps in no small measure because of her infectious personality. Indeed, if ever a coach was ideally suited to recruiting, it would be Nagamine, who directs sports marketing and sales at Outrigger Hotels & Resorts in her non-soccer hours.

With that in mind, she’s put the word out that the local soccer community is very much on her radar as she hits the recruiting trail for HPU.“I plan on filling my team primarily with local kids,” said Nagamine, whose Kamehameha teams won five state titles. “As a Hawaii school, it’s important that we look at the kids here.

“I plan to be very aggressive in recruiting. HPU is a perfect match for local kids who are looking for a smaller environment, a more intimate class setting.”

It’s an age where technology has extended itself to recruiting, so much so the NCAA moved to eliminate text messaging between recruits and coaches last year. Nagamine prefers the hands-on approach. Visits to the home or school of a prospective recruit will tell her whether a student-athlete is a good fit for HPU, whose girls team is based at its Kaneohe campus.“If they’re not a match (for the program), they won’t be successful,” she said.

“I think its important to be able to communicate to the kids in the way they communicate with each other. I text-message all of my kids because I know they’ll get the message that way, but I’m also old-fashioned.With all of the text messaging and the e-mails, we lose a little of that personal touch.You can’t fake your enthusiasm for something. I like to meet new people.”

That her mind is on recruiting is quite a switch for Nagamine, who said she was caught by surprise when HPU athletic director Darren Vorderbruegge came calling. She’d long-since decided that coaching at the college level wasn’t for her.

“Coaching in a situation where I was judged by my won-lost record wasn’t appealing to me,“she said.“Darren must have sensed this because he told me right away,‘You don’t have to decide right now.’ I enjoy my full-time job, and the fact that (HPU) is a part-time job played a big factor.

“I talked to my superiors at work, David Carey and Mildred Courtney, and they helped make my decision for me,” she added.“They saw it as a great opportunity for me to further my coaching.”

Nagamine’s assistant coaches will include Scott Keopuhiwa, Joelle Sugai, Missy Moore and graduate assistant Kristen Masunaga. Keopuhiwa coached Pearl City to an OIA title in 2001, while Sugai (UH-Manoa), Moore (Loyola Marymount/Hawaii) and Masunaga (Iolani/Colorado College) all had impressive playing careers.

“Coaching and playing, they’ve all had lot of success,“she said,“and it hasn’t been that long since I played. I remember what it was like to be a Division I athlete, and I hope to bring those experiences back.One thing I like to tell the girls is,‘We’ll never make you do anything we haven’t already done.’”

During her own playing days, Nagamine honed her skills with Leahi and eventually landed a scholarship to Santa Clara, where she played in the Final Four as a senior. She’s naturally very loyal to both programs. “I want to put back into the club what I took from it. I played with Leahi since I was 13, and I would never have played in college if not for them.”

For role models, Nagamine’s search was short. “My father was an athlete in high school and college, and he’s very black and white (in his ways). He instilled in me my work ethic and my humility and desire and passion. My mom was the balancing end. She has a zest for life that rubbed off on me.”