A Sit-down With Aiea’s Coach Tau
By Jack Danilewicz
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Over the past two seasons, the Aiea boys basketball team has practically been able to sign its own figure to the OIA White Conference checkbook, winning back-to-back Division II titles in largely dominating fashion. With heavy losses to graduation from last year’s team, which also finished as the DII runner-up at the state tournament, Aiea head coach Wyatt Tau and Na Ali’i will have a far different look when they begin practice next week.
Tau took some time away from his schedule, which also includes coaching football at Campbell, to answer some questions from MidWeek on the eve of the 2008-09 prep basketball season.
What is your earliest basketball-related memory? When I was living in a townhouse village in Ewa Beach and I was in the fifth grade. There is a basketball half-court in the village park, and me and my friends used to play basketball all day until it was dark. Then we’d all go home and eat dinner and come back and play some more basketball in the dark. My parents still live in the village where I grew up.
Who has had the biggest impact on you in your life? There are a lot of people. So to make things easy on me, I’ll just say there are a lot of people. I don’t want to mention names before I forget to put somebody’s name on here.
When did you know that you wanted to be a coach? In 1996,when I was helping my good friend Gary Ortiz at the Boys & Girls Club of Ewa Beach.
Who are your mentors in coaching? Sonny Gonzaga and Gary Ortiz from Hale Pono Boys & Girls Club and Amosa Amosa from Campbell High, who was the head varsity basketball coach at Aiea High School before I took over.
Although the official starting date for basketball has been moved to Dec. 1, you still have your conditioning program at Aiea to maintain while also coaching football at Campbell. How do you manage it all? It’s easy. The best thing about it is that Aiea High finishes class at 2 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Wednesday and Friday, they finish at 12:43 p.m., so I do basketball conditioning from 2:30 to 4 p.m. After that, I go over to Campbell for football practice from 4:30 to 6 p.m.
You lost an extraordinary group of seniors who had been a part of two OIA title teams.Who are some up-and-coming players in the program whom your fan base will soon be aware of? That would be junior point guard Kory Naole and senior forward Zach Hannemann.Also on the rise are shooting guard
Dalton Alcantra and center Latupou Faumuina.
Although your teams have put up big offensive numbers the last two seasons,it all seems to start with your defense.Who on the Aiea team is your toughest defender entering the 2008-09 season? I have two tough defenders in Kory Naole and Zack Hannemann. Dalton Alcantra, Latupou Faumuina and Steven O’Meally will also be big for us. These guys are the only returnees from last year.
What area of your team are you most encouraged by as you look ahead to this season? I like the character of our team.
Who on the Aiea roster will surprise people in 2008-09? I believe my whole team will surprise people. I don’t think anybody is going to pick us to make it to the playoffs due to the players that we had graduate.
In some states, every team makes the state tournament. Do you like the current format, or would you like to see an arrangement such as in Indiana, Kentucky or other states where everyone is included in a single-elimination tournament? I like the format that we have now. Some teams just don’t belong in the playoffs.
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