The First Hawaiian Bank Paddling State Championships have been around since 2002, but — usually because of basketball, soccer or wrestling — I never covered it until yesterday (Friday).

I finally saw what I've been missing.

Of course, we were blessed with great weather: lots of sunshine but not unbearably hot. And there's always shave ice or cold Hawaiian Sun drinks nearby to keep you cool, along with shade under the tree.

But I can see how the event itself is a positive one. The competition is great — those canoes were really moving, especially when Ke‘ehi Lagoon was windless and placid. Almost every race (prelims, semis, finals; girls, boys, mixed) was closely contested right up until the finish.

But the camaraderie between teams was also evident, with smiles and handshakes and congratulations spread throughout the different schools' canopies lined up along the shore. After the Baldwin coach addressed his girls team after they finished third, he instructed them to "go congratulate (state champion) Pac-Five."

And then, he said, "After that, go eat ..."

At the concession stand there was opakapaka (kicking myself for not ordering it), sesame chicken and steak and corn (that looked good, too) plate lunches, plus teri burgers and other smaller items.

I saw one team light up the grill themselves, ready to pulehu some meat. Mmm ...

In between races, peaceful yet upbeat Hawaiian music played over the loud speakers. During the races, fans cheered from the shoreline, and there was no yelling at the refs, no trash talking from the bleachers.

What a great atmosphere for a state tournament.

And what makes it even more special, is we're the only ones that have it. You won't find high school canoe paddling state championships in Nebraska, or New York, not even California.

Pac-Five, a Division II team making its first state tournament appearance, won the girls title. Kalaheo, a DII school in several sports, won the mixed crew championship.

Nanakuli, which rarely makes state tournament appearances in team sports, finished third in the mixed crew finals. Seabury Hall, a DII program in most sports, finished third in the boys final, fifth in the mixed and sixth in the girls.

Clearly, there's no need for DII in paddling. Just about everybody — big school or small — has a chance to win.

It was a well-run event, thanks to state paddling coordinator Hartwell Lee Loy, Jr., host school Anuenue and host league OIA, along with many volunteers and of course, the title sponsor, First Hawaiian Bank.

It's a state tournament all of Hawai‘i can be proud of, something that is ours alone.

I'm glad I went.

Almost everybody loves to talk about college football prospects and analyze certain schools' recruiting classes, but as they say, hindsight is 20/20 and really the only true accurate way to evaluate a recruiting class is to look back after their careers are over to see how they turned out.

So, out of curiosity, I went into our archives to see who were the big names of 2005.

Here is UH's list of recruits from that year:

Kirk Alexander, Davone Bess, Mario Cox, Ulysses Dalton, Sol Elimimian, John Estes, John Fonoti, BJ Fruean, Inoke Funaki, Tomi Halai, Raphael Ieru, Marquez Jackson, Daniel Johnson, Aaron Kia, RJ Kiesel-Kauhane, Laupepa Letuli, Antwan Mahaley, Erik Pederson, Brashton Satele, Rocky Savaiigaea, Siave Seti, Jordan Slye, Blaze Soares, KayBrin Stevenson, Adrian Thomas, Mike Washington.

Here is a list of top local players who signed with Mainland schools in 2005:

B.J. Adolpho (New Mexico State), Al Afalava (Oregon State), Ikaika Aken-Moleta (San Diego State), Tyson Alualu (Cal), Max Fairclough (New Mexico State), La‘auli Fonoti (New Mexico State), Spencer Hafoka (BYU), Maveu Heimuli (New Mexico State), Trask Iosefa (San Diego State), Mika Kane (Cal), Kainoa LaCount (Oregon State), Shaun Lauvao (Arizona State), Kaluka Maiava (USC), David Niumatalolo (New Mexico State), Waika Spencer (San Diego State), Micah Strickland (Oregon State), Kevin Sullivan (Air Force), Malo Taumua (UNLV), Daniel Te‘o-Nesheim (Washington), Tyler Williams (Utah).

Judging by these lists, in retrospect, I would say UH did pretty well that year.

Certainly, Bess, Elimimian, Estes, Fonoti, Funaki, Ieru, Kia, Kiesel-Kauhane, Satele, Savaiigaea and Soares all stand out.

Among the Mainland-bound players, I think Afalava, Alualu, Hafoka, Maiava and Te‘o-Nesheim definitely established themselves at the college level.

But in general, I would have to say that UH got its share of the top players coming out that year.

So, while on the surface — using The Advertiser's Top 25 as a guide — it might appear that UH could not land any of the state's top 10 prospects this year, in five years that same list might be reshuffled considerably.

Who knows? Maybe Tu‘u Lolohea (No. 12) will turn out to be another Blaze Soares (or better).

The point is, there were a bunch of guys from that 2005 class who lived up to their billing in college, and some who didn't.

It probably will be the same with this year's class.

So while everybody gets excited about tomorrow's Signing Day, remember that the most accurate evaluation of this year's recruits will come in 2015.

It's a bit strange — Eddie Hamada passed away four weeks ago, yet it's only really hitting me right now.

I think yesterday's (Sunday's) memorial service finally did it, seeing all the different people from so many different places and backgrounds show up at St. Alban's Chapel to pay their respects.

There was former UH sports information director Eddie Inouye (Class of '56?). Ken Low (Derrick's father, McKinley Class of '74?). OIA basketball official Thomas Yoshida (Leilehua '81?). Former Nanakuli athletic director Hugh Ta‘aufasau (Saint Louis '61?). University High principal Peter Estomago and athletic director Jim Bukes. Farrington legend Skippa Diaz.

Former Saint Louis wrestling coach/AD Todd Los Banos. Former Pearl City basketball coach/AD Roy Ichinose. Aloha Stadium manager Scott Chan (Kaiser '76?). HHSAA executive director Keith Amemiya (Punahou '83). OIA executive director Dwight Toyama (Kaimuki '71?). Farrington football coach Randall Okimoto (Govs '92). Farrington basketball coach Allan Silva (Kailua '76?). Former Castle athletic director Richard Haru (McKinley '70?)

Obviously, this was not just an ‘Iolani gathering.

Of course, the ‘Iolani people came out, too. Some of my childhood idols from the 1983 basketball state championship team — Scott Laboy, Keith Spencer, Albert Tufono. From the 1980 Prep Bowl co-championship team (Junior Tufono, Ken Yonamine). My own high school friends and teammates (Barry Jim On, Kaleo Winchester, Dean Nakagawa, Dr. Grant Fusato, Mike Pila).

It was kind of overwhelming, and I feel for Mrs. Hamada, who admitted she didn't even know many of the people who showed up. But like one of the speakers said, "It's not easy being married to a legend."

It also makes us realize what a loss this is for the state of Hawai‘i, seeing how many people felt the impact of Mr. Hamada always being around.

Stan Sadowski, a running back on the 1968 ILH championship team, flew in from Provo, Utah, just as he did in the Fall of 2008 for that team's 40th anniversary party.

"It's hard to explain in words what somebody like Coach Hamada has done for me, to explain the positive impact he made on my life," Sadowski said. "He taught us boys how to become young men. He taught us how to deal with and control our fears, how to confront them. He made football a laboratory for how to deal with all the things you are hit with when you grow up."

At the end of the service, the congregation sang the school's alma mater, with the modernized "coed" version printed on the program. But Sadowski said he sang the original version, which included the line "Thy Sons arise ..." (instead of "We rise for thee ...")

‘Iolani was an all-boys school when he attended.

"That's how I felt today — I felt like Coach Hamada's son," Sadowski said.

That's how Mr. Hamada made a lot of people feel, like they were his own children, or his nephew, brother, cousin.

I didn't know him until just before my senior year, yet I knew who he was since I was five years old. So yes, for me he's someone who's always been around and someone I looked up to almost my entire life.

And now that he's gone, I do feel the emptiness, like something's missing from the world.

Something very good and precious ... something we may never see again.

"There'll never be anybody like him," Mayor Mufi Hannemann said. "I don't know anybody alive right now who is like him.

"He will be missed, far beyond the ‘Iolani community."

I miss him already.

If you are one of the hundreds — thousands? — of people who have contributed to the HHSAA's "SOS" campaign, you can feel good about yourself when reading all the public school game reports in today's newspaper.

Your generosity helped make those games happen.

The state's 45 public schools received their first SOS checks this past week, averaging out to about $13,000 per school (give or take a couple grand, depending on the size of the program).

Most of that money will be used for transportation bills, after the fall invoices for bus service pretty much drained each school's state allocation for the year.

For the past six months, we've chronicled the weekly SOS donations large and small, which are still coming in, by the way. But now, you can actually see that money going to work.

It's been a great winter season so far, with playoff and state tournament action heating up in the next few weeks.

Thanks to you and the SOS campaign, all the games have been played pretty much as before, with no obvious sign of the state budget cuts that left each school operating with less than 64 percent of their allocations compared to 2008-2009.

To me, this is a story worthy of national attention — the community truly coming together to fill a need for our youth.

That need is still there, so please don't stop contributing.

And if you want to see your money at work, just pick up a newspaper and look at the public school game reports ...

The Farrington girls basketball forfeit is now a done deal and the focus may have shifted to the upcoming playoffs, which start Tuesday.

But as evidenced by the 77 comments (as of Sunday night) about the decision, there is reason to perhaps think about how such a scenario might be prevented in the future.

OIA executive director Dwight Toyama said the issue will be brought up at today's (Monday) ADs/principal meeting, and I am glad about that.

On the one hand, it appears on the surface that — agree or disagree with the decision to forfeit — proper procedure was followed after the incident and the forfeit was allowed under current OIA bylaws. No. 1, as OIA girls basketball coordinator Stacie Nii said, since the incident happened after the game, any disciplinary action would be handled by the school.

So it was — in a way that has been highly documented and debated by others.

But according to one OIA athletic director I talked to last week, if it's not a safety issue and the players are not ineligible due to discipline or academic probation, the game is supposed to be played.

That makes sense — otherwise, any coach at any time can decide at the last minute to say, "Ah, we no like play ..." and then games would be canceled left and right, screwing up everybody's (the opponent, officials, volunteers, parents, fans and yes, media) plans, not to mention costing the league and host school some much-needed revenue and potentially affecting standings/playoff berths.

Can you imagine an opponent canceling last-minute on the day of a Kahuku football home game, a huge Friday night event around which much of the North Shore community revolves? Or what about a big game scheduled to be televised live statewide on OC-16?

In this particular case, the team that forfeited ended up in first place anyway, despite the one loss. So the forfeit basically had no significant consequence for them, other than riling up the opposition.

Personally, I don't think it should be that easy. But under the current OIA bylaws, it appears to be allowable.

To me, that needs to be changed.

It is understandable and even commendable when a coach chooses to discipline a player or even the entire team for inappropriate behavior, and if the coach wants the team or program to "take a stand" on a certain issue, then he/she certainly has that right and it's up to them, also.

But when such disciplinary action or stands are taken at the expense of other innocent, unrelated parties, I think those parties need to be protected somehow. A single coach from a single team should not be empowered to impose his or her actions/punishments on other teams, other schools, even an entire league.

That just doesn't seem right — it's not fair to the others who played by the rules and weren't even involved in the original incident. Why should they be forcibly dragged into another school's mess, helpless at the mercy of one opposing coach's decision?

In college sports, games are sealed by contracts, and if one team cancels or pulls out at the last minute, they pay for it in fines. That's only fair, because the host school has a reasonable expectation that once the contract is signed, the opponent will show up and the game will be played as scheduled.

According to one athletic director, the ILH also imposes a fine — though nominal — against a team that forfeits.

For some OIA officials, what transpired this past weekend was just "one of those unfortunate things" but because it is allowable under current league bylaws, it was accepted almost as a "Well, no can help ..." issue.

Hopefully, at today's AD's/principals meeting, they will realize a way where "Yes, we CAN help ..."

We can all respect one coach and one school's right to impose discipline/make decisions for their own program, but when that discipline/decision has a negative impact on other schools and the league in general, the other league members should have a right to protect themselves, too.

After all, there are ways to impose discipline/take a stand without punishing innocent others at the same time ...

I wrote here a couple months ago about postgame handshakes, and now the issue has shaken up OIA girls basketball.

We can agree or disagree with the action taken by Farrington coach Caroline Tatupu — that might be worth a separate topic altogether.

But the bottom line is, none of this becomes an issue if the girls involved Friday night had just shaken hands and left the court peacefully.

I was at that game, and honestly did not notice anything out of the ordinary during the 32 minutes of regulation play that would have led to a postgame incident. In fact, the game ended with Farrington inbounding the ball with about eight seconds left and just dribbling out the clock in the backcourt, with both teams relaxed and quietly walking to the bench afterward.

I didn't see what happened in the handshake line, but obviously a Castle girl was hit in the mouth, because she was bleeding. So we at least know that a Farrington punch was thrown, based on the evidence.

But Farrington's girls were claiming that the Castle girl swung first. There was no visible evidence of that, unless somebody has it on videotape.

The Castle girls did a good job of grabbing their teammate and restraining her (fundamental lesson in breaking up a fight: grab your friend/teammate, and not the opponent).

If they had grabbed the Farrington girl instead, all hell could have broke loose.

So now it became a case of she-said, she-said, and without video evidence it's difficult to know who to believe.

But the bottom line is, at least one punch was thrown, and — no matter who threw it — that's one too many.

It's one thing to play hard and compete and battle during the game, but when the final horn sounds, you're supposed to leave it on the court. If you won, take it gracefully. If you lost, take it with dignity.

The game might be over, but you're still wearing the jersey and representing the school, your community.

One of the key lessons in high school sports is how to handle winning and losing, and the postgame handshakes are supposed to reinforce that lesson.

The current high school kids may not remember, but in the early 1990s the OIA decided to abandon postgame handshakes altogether after a few football incidents resulted in brawls. That's also around the time each school put up a fence around their football field.

The OIA went to pregame handshakes instead, but that kind of took away from the aforementioned lessons about dealing with wins and losses.

The league brought the postgame handshakes back in the early 2000s, hopefully to stay.

Let's hope this latest incident doesn't cause the OIA to reconsider that policy ...

Charlton Tang may not have shown up on many "Players to Watch" lists before the ILH boys basketball season began, but he proved Tuesday night that he's definitely a player to watch the rest of the season.

The Kamehameha forward came up with 14 huge points to help the Warriors hold off ‘Iolani, 49-47, in a key early season showdown. While most of the attention was on Micah Christenson (22 points), it was Tang who always seemed to be at the right place at the right time whenever they needed a key basket.

Which was often.

Kamehameha took the lead for good two minutes into the second half, but the Raiders made several runs. But just when it seemed ‘Iolani might take the lead back, either Christenson or Tang would score to give the Warriors some breathing room.

"And that doesn't usually happen here, at ‘Iolani," Kamehameha coach Jesse Nakanishi said. "You know they're going to make those runs, and in the past we couldn't answer. But we were able to answer them tonight."

Tang opened the lead to 35-27 on a layup with 3:13 remaining in the third period, but the Raiders closed it to 35-32 on Kainoa Chu's layup about 90 seconds later. Tang then sank a 15-foot jumper with two minutes left to start a 7-1 run that put the Warriors up, 42-33, heading into the fourth.

‘Iolani made another run, closing to 43-41 after Chu's three-point play with 6:30 remaining in the game. But again Tang answered, this time with a layup 30 seconds later to push the lead back to four.

Christenson can do it all — score, rebound, block shots, make steals and assists — but even he needs help if Kamehameha is to retain its league championship. Tang looks like he can fill some of the void left by last year's senior posts, Blake Viena and Auwae DeRego.

If nothing else, he's definitely a "Player to Watch" the rest of the ILH season.

Just read about Mark McGwire finally admitting to using steroids during his record-breaking 70 home run season of 1998.

This stuff isn't so surprising anymore, and I guess by now most people had assumed McGwire was guilty even throughout his constant denials.

It's not so much a surprise to me either, except I am a little bit disappointed because his admission does take away from what I had considered to be one of my all-time great moments as a sports fan.

It was the summer of 1998, and McGwire and Sammy Sosa had begun a mad home run chase in June that had captured the attention of baseball fans everywhere. It was even credited with finally reviving Major League Baseball after the damaging effects of the 1994-95 players strike.

(I was bitter about that strike myself, but my full recovery happened in August 1996 when I attended a Twins game at the MetroDome)

I went to Chicago in late July 1998, hoping to catch a Cubs day game on getaway Wednesday. But my connection in St. Louis got canceled, and by the time I got to Wrigley Field it was the seventh inning and they weren't letting anybody in.

I went out to join the crowd on the sidewalk of Waveland Avenue, hoping to catch or at least see one of Sosa's bombs as it cleared the left field wall. Turns out he had hit one out in the third inning, but alas, no home run in his last at-bat.

About six weeks later, I was back in Boca Raton, Fla., waiting for the Cardinals to come to Miami. I watched McGwire hit No. 56 on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball, and thought, "Damn."

You see, St. Louis was to play the Florida Marlins on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, but I had to work Monday and Tuesday and couldn't go until Wednesday.

I wanted to see McGwire break Hack Wilson's 68-year-old National League record of 56 home runs, a record that stood longer than Roger Maris' 61. At the pace McGwire was at, I was sure he would hit one out before Wednesday.

But, he didn't.

So I went to Wednesday's game, sat in the left field middle deck and waited in excitement. He popped up to short in his first at-bat, then grounded out in his next two plate appearances.

There were about 40,000 people in the house, and I think all of us were beginning to think maybe this wasn't the night.

Then, in the seventh inning, McGwire launched a towering shot to straight center field that easily cleared the fence and landed about 20 rows up, in the blue tarp. A guy ran across the tarp trying to retrieve the ball but quickly fell through an opening, like a trap door.

No. 57. Goodbye, Hack Wilson. Hello, Roger Maris.

The place went nuts, I stood up, screamed "Yeah!!", jumped up and down, high-fived the guy next to me (a total stranger).

The house was totally rocking as McGwire rounded the bases. It was surreal, one of those rare moments in life when you realize you just witnessed history in the making.

I was elated to have seen what I came to see, so when McGwire came up to bat again in the ninth inning, I wasn't expecting anything.

But lo and behold, he then launched another bomb — this one to the same area except maybe 20 feet longer — and Pro Player Stadium (as it was called at the time) went absolutely crazy.

No. 58.

I jumped up again and screamed, and this time gave the stranger a "High-Ten."

I've been to 13 Major League parks, seen at least 40 games (including two NLDS and one NLCS) ... but that had to be my No. 1 baseball fan experience.

At the pro sports level, it ranked right up there with watching Michael Jordan rally the Bulls to a near-comeback against the Heat in the 1997 Eastern Conference Finals.

And now ... I don't know what to think.

McGwire was juiced up. He cheated.

He broke one of baseball's sacred records with the help of an illegal substance.

Now, I feel cheated.

Like I said, it's not so much a surprise, but it's still disappointing.

That was a memory I had hoped to tell my kids about someday, my grandkids ... Now, I wonder if it would be even worth mentioning.

And if I do mention it, I would have to begin by saying, "I saw Mark McGwire break a record, but turns out he cheated ..."

I have never understood the attraction of steroids, and this is the main reason.

I had a friend once say he would do "whatever it takes" to win, including taking steroids, but my answer was always, "What kind of win is that when you know you cheated?"

There are many reasons not to take steroids, but I think the main ones are personal pride, integrity and respect for the game.

What kind of athlete does that make you when you feel you cannot win playing fairly and by the rules?

In my record book, Mark McGwire's 70 home run season — including the two majestic shots I got to witness in person — no longer means as much.

To me, Hack Wilson's 56 means more.

Like others, I knew this day would come, probably sooner rather than later. Eddie Hamada's health was in decline, we didn't see him around as often and we knew he was getting to be forgetful and showing signs of dementia.

But that doesn't make his passing on Sunday morning any easier to digest. Like Mayor Hannemann said, "You always hope someone like him will live forever ..."

It's tough for me, because it seems like he has been around forever. From the time I entered kindergarten at age 5 — maybe even before — I knew who this man was and quickly started learning what he was all about.

And the more I learned, the better it got.

Like headmaster Val Iwashita said, sometimes it was just the little things, like opening the locker room for us before homeroom so we wouldn't have to lug our gym bag around all day.

And I kept learning more even after graduation ...

I thought I knew how much Mr. Hamada was respected and loved, until I went to his retirement party in 1992 and saw about 1,400 people show up at the Sheraton Hawai‘i Ballroom.

I thought I knew how much his popularity extended beyond ‘Iolani, until I saw that the OIA honored him with special recognition at its 1995 awards banquet. Think about it: A lifelong ILH guy being honored at the OIA banquet.

It had never happened before, and I don't think it's happened since.

I thought I knew how caring a person Mr. Hamada was, until a Nissan Hawai‘i High School Hall of Honor selection committee meeting in 2005. It was just announced to our 16-member panel that Nissan was moving its corporate operation out of Hawai‘i, leaving the Hall of Honor without a title sponsor and putting the program in limbo.

While the rest of us were getting over the shock and entering a stage of panic, Mr. Hamada was the first one to speak: He asked the Nissan official: "What can we do to help?"

That's when I saw first-hand what really made Mr. Hamada different, what made him special. He was one step ahead, he really did think of others before himself.

We can spend days recounting stories like this about him — and probably will — but for now I like what current Raiders football coach Wendell Look said:

"We are all blessed to have known him."

Mahalo, Mr. Hamada, for brightening all of our lives.

It truly was a blessing to know you.

Was very saddened two Saturdays ago to hear about the sudden passing of Kailua girls soccer coach Wil Kimura, who suffered a massive heart attack on Dec. 17. He was only 62.

I first met Wil right about the same time he started coaching the Surfriders in 1992. I was working at Sun Press Newspapers, and I remember writing a feature story about three pairs of sisters on the team, including his daughters Lisa and Lori (OMG, they're now 32 and 30 years old, married with kids!).

My first impression of Kimura proved to be a lasting one: Super nice, down-to-Earth guy who is coaching for all the right reasons.

Turns out like a lot of dads, he first got involved when his daughters started playing youth soccer and he coached them until they got to Kailua High, when he had an opportunity to coach the Surfriders.

But even after they graduated, Kimura found that he loved his coaching job too much to give it up. So he stayed on, through the 1990s, the 2000s, all the way until the day he died.

Kailua had success, regularly making the OIA playoffs and state tournament, and he had some great players along the way. Kimura was named OIA East Coach of the Year a few times, and was OIA White Conference Coach of the Year last season after the Surfriders won the league's Division II title.

But you could tell this was someone who wasn't coaching just to win championships or awards. I'm sure he enjoyed winning as much as the next guy, but what he enjoyed most was working with the kids and helping them get the most out of their high school experience.

He did it for 17 years, and probably would have done it for many more if not for the unfortunate twist of fate two weeks ago. I think I last got to speak to Wil a few years ago, after his team lost in the OIA playoffs at Kaiser. He was still the same super nice, upbeat, down-to-Earth guy I had met back in 1992, and he seemed to enjoy coaching just as much as he did when he first started.

It's always refreshing to talk to sincere coaches like him who obviously do it out of love.

Family and friends held a memorial service this afternoon (Sunday) for Wil, and two things stood out when I read the obituary in Tuesday's paper:

• The service was to be held at Kailua High School's soccer field

• In lieu of flowers, donations suggested to Kailua High School Athletic Department

I think Wil would have wanted it no other way.

Aloha Wil, and mahalo for all you did for Kailua in particular and the soccer community in general.

You will be missed ...