High school graduation no question can be one of the happiest days of a person’s life; I certainly consider it to be one of mine.

I cannot imagine what it feels like to win a league or state championship, but I felt like my classmates and I won something huge on that June Saturday many years ago. It was a day and night of pure joy and emotion, and you could not wipe the smiles off our faces.

The elation can carry over to the next day, the next week, the whole summer really as you attend one graduation party after another and share classic memories with people whom you may not see again for years but will remain lifelong friends.

But along with all that joy comes the reality that for most grads, the end of high school also means the end of competitive sports. Usually high school summers mean conditioning, playing in summer leagues, attending camps and clinics, mentally preparing for the school sports year ahead.

For those few fortunate enough to have a college sports career to look forward to, they can continue that routine after graduation, even needing to step it up a big notch to prepare for the next level.

But for the majority, graduation is a billboard-sized sign that your sports life really is changing and that a new chapter is beginning.

For me, that meant getting a new summer job and saving money for my first semester of college. It also meant hitting the beach and surfing three or four times a week, not worrying about the next basketball season.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like we stopped playing ball cold turkey. We still went to Wilson Park, and to the UH outdoor courts on Sundays.

But it was all purely for fun, with no real goals to set or formal workouts to go through.

The reality hit some faster than others.

“Ho, usually we’d be getting ready for football this time of year …” I remember one of my friends saying in late-July, as a graduation party sped past the midnight hour.

Yup, for most of us high school was the peak of our sports career, and with graduation athletics suddenly became a much smaller focal point of our lives.

There’s college intramurals, parks and rec basketball and softball, pickup games, and yes, taking up golf to look forward to.

But the days of offseason training/conditioning/drills, the excitement/devastation of seeing the roster posted after the final cut, the intense, formal practices, the pride in slipping on the jersey with your school’s name on it, the thrill of playing in front of all your family and friends, the obedience of listening to a coach and carrying out instructions, the rush of playing against a school rival …

All that becomes a thing of the past. At least it was good while it lasted.

Anyway, a heartfelt Congratulations to all 2008 Grads! To all senior athletes, mahalo for the memories!

(And don’t worry, there’s still a lot of great experiences to look forward to!)

As far as being a model for future public school facility projects, it would have been hard to find a more ideal starting point than Roosevelt’s Ticky Vasconcellos Stadium.

A lot of things had to happen for it to become reality, and a lot of the right people had to be involved. But if it could be done once, I’m sure it could be done again.

It often takes a “perfect storm” for something like this to fall into place so nicely, and that’s what this was. It was the ideal project to push because it did not involve just one school, but four large urban ones: Roosevelt, McKinley, Farrington and Kaimuki.

That’s why it was targeted. Also, because the stadium sits in a rain belt and suffered from poor drainage.

The kick-start was the NFL’s “Grassroots” program, whose grants usually are limited to NFL cities. Anytime you can get a $200,000 head start, it’s a blessing.

Then there was the fundraising effort by Bert T. Kobayashi and the Roosevelt alumni, which includes some movers and shakers in this town like Kobayashi, Marie Milks, Carol Fukunaga, Larry Price, Danny Kaleikini. It just so happened the fundraising effort coincided with the school’s 75th Anniversary, so there was a timely reason to hold a big dinner.

It also helped that State Sen. Brian Taniguchi has been a longtime supporter of Roosevelt — being alumni himself along with his two kids — and of athletics in general. It also really helped that he chaired the Senates Ways and Means committee when the request for legislative support was made and voted on.

It helped that HHSAA executive director Keith Amemiya happens to live in Roosevelt’s district, and he and wife Bonny offered to donate a $20,000 scoreboard.

It helped that the weather cooperated for the most part — remember the 40 straight days of rain we had in the winter of 2006?

The design firm, Fukunaga and Associates, lead contractor Kaikor and the 14 sub-contractors did a great job finishing the project pretty much on schedule, on budget and in time for Saturday’s graduation.

The project even got a last-minute bonus when Ryan Shigetani of Hawaii 3R’s rounded up dozens of volunteers to paint the bleachers, a job that otherwise would have cost up to $60,000.

The result is a high school stadium as beautiful all-around as I’ve seen in all my travels.

Now, not every public school can get a $200,000 grant from the NFL, or have a huge 75th Annivarsary dinner spearheaded by such prominent alumni, or get a $20,000 donation from the Amemiyas.

But every school has alumni, and every public school plays a significant role in the community it is located in. So I don’t see why the alumni and community cannot get involved at every school.

I donate money (not a lot) to my high school and college every year, and try to support fund-raising efforts at both. It makes me feel good, that I am helping those who followed me just as I was helped by those that I followed. It also makes me feel good because instead of just complaining about increased costs, I feel in some small way I am directly helping to do something about it.

The public schools really need help with their facilities, and as Amemiya said, they cannot realistically get all the help they need just from the legislature. It takes help from corporations, from private donors large and small, from alumni and the community.

Sometimes, it might take a perfect storm.

But as we have seen with Roosevelt, the results can be fantastic.

Now that the school sports year has come to a close, it’s time for athletes of all teams to begin preparation for next season, if they haven’t already. Afer all, the offseason and individual workouts often are where championships and roster spots are won.

I’m long past the days of school competition, but like many people I’ve set a goal to get back into decent shape this summer. I started a few weeks ago with some very light workouts at Mo‘ili‘ili Field, dusted off the surfboard and finally got back in the water for a few sessions after almost two years, and started shooting baskets at Alewa Park in preparation for our upcoming Media League.

Then last Wednesday, I stepped it up a big notch by attempting the Koko Crater Trail for the first time. I’ve always wanted to try it, because a friend had been telling me for a couple years that it’s her main workout spot and a co-worker also mentioned exercising there often. They both live in Hawai‘i Kai, so I guess I considered it kind of a Hawai‘i Kai thing to do and never got around to it.

But then another friend told me she did it with a bunch of co-workers last week, and yet another friend did it separately that same day, so I decided it was about time for me to experience for myself what seemed to be a very popular fitness spot.

I’m glad I did.

It’s not real fancy or intriguing — just a straight line of railroad tracks (maybe 1,000 ties) going almost all the way up to the peak, then a short but steep dirt trail leading to the summit. It starts out with a steady incline of about 500 ties, then there’s a bridge of about 40 or 50 ties over a ravine maybe 10 or 15 feet deep.

The first time across the bridge can be spooky, because your eyes tend to focus in between the ties to the drop below. There’s also a couple missing ties and others that are badly termite-eaten.

After the bridge, the incline gets steeper, and then the last 50 or so ties are at a really steep angle.

I’m still out of shape, so the first time up I took little over an hour and had to stop many times to catch my breath. But stopping also gives you a chance to look back at the view of Hanauma Bay, Hawai‘i Kai and all the way to Diamond Head and beyond. Once at the summit, the view is spectacular, going out to Sandy Beach, Hawai‘i Kai Golf Course and Kalama Valley.

Going down can still be treacherous at times but obviously less strenuous and faster with less stops for rest. I know people who run down, which I still find amazing because the steps are not even and the footing can be slippery.

Anyway, I went back Saturday and it was a little easier this time, though still very challenging and strenuous. Took me 57 minutes to get from the bottom to top. The bridge was easier, since I focused more on the ties and not the gaps in between.

I can feel myself slowly getting back into shape, so I plan on going back this week to see if I can shave a couple more minutes off the time. It’s a good place to challenge yourself and measure progress, and to get motivated about fitness.

Which brings me to another interesting thing about the place. There was a box at the base of the trail Saturday, with a petition inside asking people to sign in support of keeping the trail open. Apparently the City Parks and Rec department closed the trail very briefly in February and still is looking into possible closure in the future, citing maintenance and safety issues with the shooting range nearby.

I signed the petition, which supposedly will be brought to a Neighborhood Board meeting tonight (Tuesday).

In two visits to Koko Crter trail, I’ve become a fan and see it as a valuable spot for the community. There’s people of all ages and fitness levels using it, including a 58-year-old guy who reportedly can get from bottom to top in 16 minutes. Then there’s slow pokes like me.

But I even see it as a good place for high school athletes to get in shape and develop their leg strength and stamina and mental toughness. It is a physical and mental challenge to get to the top, especially if you set time goals, and there are benefits for both aspects once you get to the top or complete the hike back down.

I’ve never lived in Hawai‘i Kai so I don’t know how popular the trail is with high school athletes there, but if I were one of them I definitely would take advantage of the proximity.

If you are a football or volleyball player, I can see it as a great spot to get yourself into prime condition for practices starting in a couple months.

For this weekend warrior athlete and out-of-shape adult, it’s a great fitness venue that I hope to frequent in the next several weeks in the hope of trimming pounds off the body and minutes off the time.

I hope they keep it open.

OK, I finally got my hands on the Sports Illustrated issue with the article featuring Punahou as the nation’s No. 1 athletic program out of more than 38,000 high schools in the United States of America.

BTW, I was puzzled as to how the rest of the country had the issue on their newsstands Wednesday but even at 7:30 p.m. Thursday it was nowhere to be found at Borders Ward Centre or Barnes & Noble Ala Moana. The copy I have is on loan, from the bunch FedExed to Punahou from SI’s offices in New York.

I don’t subscribe, and my dad canceled his subsciption in March after more than 50 years (no time for us to read it as much nowdays).

Anyway, I wanted to wait until reading the article and seeing the actual layout in the hard copy (instead of just reading the on-line version) before commenting on it as a blog topic.

Overall, I think SI did a pretty good job educating the country on what Punahou is all about. The two-page introductory photo spread was fantastic, and reporter Austin Murphy seemed to grasp both the big picture and the minute details and put them together for a concise, well-written story.

I also give SI credit for legitimizing Punahou’s achievements, because I’m sure there are readers in New York or Texas or Florida who might question how hard it is to win a state championship in Hawai‘i. Some in those states or Michigan or Ohio or Pennsylvania might equate a Hawai‘i state championship as being the champ in Guam, or Rhode Island or Alaska.

Which brings me to why I think Punahou is worthy of the ranking, and why my only big regret with the story is I wish the reporter and photographer also got to spend some time at Kamehameha, ‘Iolani or even Mililani. As impressive as Punahou is academically, athletically and campus-wise, I don’t think those three schools are too far behind.

HHSAA executive director Keith Amemiya suggested as much with his comments in Tuesday’s Advertiser article, but at least one person has told me they thought his comments had no merit.

But honestly, I would have to agree with Amemiya that Punahou would not be No. 1 if Kamehameha, ‘Iolani, Saint Louis, Mid-Pacific or even Mililani, Baldwin or Waiakea were not giving the Buffanblu serious competition in nearly every sport across the board. Punahou has to strive and maximize its performances, otherwise they’ll lose.

The article portrays Punahou as the ultimate destination for prospective athletes and students, which might be true, but it ignores the fact that Kamehameha is statistically harder to get into, or that ‘Iolani’s selectivity in admissions is more than comparable.

If Punahou is indeed the “Harvard of Hawai‘i” that a lot of parents want to send their kid to, as Kapolei football coach Darren Hernandez is quoted as saying in the article, then what does that make ‘Iolani, which annually produces twice as many National Merit semifinalists with half the enrollment?

This is no knock on Punahou, because there is no question it is an outstanding school with a fantastic athletic program. I think it deserves the No. 1 ranking, but other schools in Hawai‘i are not very far behind.

Punahou is No. 1 largely because it has to compete in girls volleyball against Kamehameha, which was ranked No. 3 in the nation last season. It has to compete in boys basketball with ‘Iolani, which won seven of the past eight ILH chmpionships. It has to compete in football with Saint Louis, which has won 21 of the past 24 league titles.

It has to compete against athletes like Derrick Low, Brian Ching, Jonathan Spiker.

When your competition is that good, it forces you to raise your bar, train harder and play your best.

So, I agree that the No. 1 ranking is deserving, and I also think Hawai‘i’s overall competition level helped Punahou get there.

Especially in this day and age of intense recruiting wars and technology making communication and data more accessible, it still amazes me how some college prospect gems almost fall through the cracks.

Kama Bailey hardly got any Division I offers for most of the football season, which might have been understandable given Damien’s DII status, but I thought for sure the floodgates would open after he racked up 317 yards and five touchdowns against Punahou. Then he had another spectacular performance against mostly DI competition in the HUB All-Star game.

But his best offer turned out to be Idaho. Nothing against the Vandals or the town of Moscow, and a free education is a free education. But I think they got a steal and other schools might end up wishing they offered Kama. And even if he doesn’t end up starting or making All-WAC, he’s a great student and humble kid whom any program should want to have.

And now there is Jamie Smith.

UH offered her early, so props to Jim Bolla for realizing she was the real deal. But Smith understandably wanted to take at least one Mainland recruiting trip to see if she wouldn’t rather go away.

The problem was, the offers amazingly were not pouring in. This despite her proving she could compete against top competition, both with Team Aloha during their championship run at Santa Barbara in Fall 2006 and also against top California opponents in the ‘Iolani Classic last December.

She went on to have a fantastic regular season, then showed her toughness by scoring 17 and 20 points against Sacred Hearts and Kamehameha, respectively, in the ILH tournament despite a broken nose. She also had a great state tournament.

Still, the offers were slow to come, and I don’t get why. Like Bailey, Smith is great student and humble person, the type any program would be proud to have. She showed an ability to adapt and improve her game in the offseason, working hard to develop her ball-handling and 3-point shooting.

Finally, in the last couple months, the visits and offers materialized. One of the last turned out to be the best, soon after Kathy Olivieri took over at UNLV.

Some might think Smith should have taken the bird in hand with UH’s offer, and like I mentioned earlier a free education is a free education. I give Bolla credit again for being patient during the early signing period, but I don’t know how strong the push was after that to keep her home.

But obviously, Smith was curious about the Mainland and there can be a lot of peer pressure to go away when you know over 80 percent of your classmates are headed for the continent. She admitted that she “wasn’t super excited” about the other schools she visited, which I guess includes UH.

Being partial to UH myself, I selfishly wish she could have stayed home to help build the Rainbows program and I see lot of reasons why that could have been a good decision. But the bottom line is what will make her happy, and UNLV is where she wants to be, so I’m happy that she found a place she can be excited about.

I think UNLV, like Idaho, got themselves a steal and other schools will end up wishing they had Smith.

In my six years on the HHSAA Foundation Hall of Honor selection committee, this past weekend’s sessions clearly were the toughest yet as far as coming up with the final 12.

I’ve probably said that before, maybe even last year, but this was the first time I had been involved in so many rounds of voting in order to whittle down the original pool of 55 to the final dozen. We usually get 70 or 80 nominations, so one might think it would be easier to come up with 12 inductees with 15-25 less to choose from.

Not.

This year’s final 12, as usual, are all outstanding student-athletes. But there was only one unanimous choice, and only a couple others who were overwhelming selections. So the votes were spread out, and we really had to analyze who were the most deserving. It wasn’t like other years where there might have been several obvious choices like Derrick Low or Jonathan Spiker.

Different candidates had different credentials. Some were one-sport athletes who were very very good in that one sport. Others were multi-sport athletes who were very talented in each but not quite dominant or All-State first team level in any.

There were some who blossomed late and had an outstanding senior year, and others who were very solid but not spectacular over a four-year career.

There were some who were great athletes on mediocre Division I teams, and others who were spectacular but on a Division II level of competition.

There were some who might not have had glamourous individual statistics, but who played key roles in elevating a program or school into the state’s elite.

In other words, there were many many factors to be weighed and considered and the choices were not easy, which is why it took so long and so many rounds of voting to come up with the final 12.

And the bottom line, as always, is that we ended up with 12 outstanding student-athletes that we and all of Hawai‘i can be proud of.

I will write up individual bios on all 12 inductees for publication in the June 8 Advertiser, and hopefully after reading each one you will see why all 12 are worthy of this prestigious award.

In addition to throwing 44 strikeouts in three days, Kamehameha pitcher Amber Waracka also hit some runs in front of the microphone, delivering one great quote after another.

“I’m so happy, I feel like I should be a motivational speaker,” she said, in reference to her being cut from the intermediate softball team five years ago. “In seventh grade, I was crying my eyes out (after being cut), and now to end my senior year on top feels so good.”

Whether she was half-kidding about being a motivational speaker, I don’t know, but it actually sounds like a good idea. What an inspiration to all the other kids out there who might have experienced the same heartbreak of not making a team.

I was one of those, having been cut in the seventh and eighth grades and again for a summer league team after ninth grade. At that age — 12, 13, 15 — being cut can be devastating and yes, make you want to cry. Somebody is literally telling you, “Sorry, but you’re not good enough for us.”

It can crush your confidence (see April 18 post) and damage your self-esteem. Even make you want to quit and give up the sport.

Or, it can motivate you to pick yourself up off the floor, dust yourself off, and get right back up on that pony. It can provide the drive to improve, the desire to succeed. It can make you a stronger, better person.

But the key is how you respond. Obviously, Waracka eventually got over the disappointment of being cut and improved to the point where she not only made the varsity, but became an ILH all-star first team selection as a junior.

And now, her three-shutout, 44-strikeout performance will go down in state tournament history as one of the greatest ever.

I recovered from my three-cut heartbreak and made a comeback I am proud of, although it was nowhere near on the scale of Waracka’s. But I used the lessons learned from that experience in college essays and even on a job application, and I still refer back to it now and then whenever I suffer disappointment and need inspiration to bounce back.

It helps me, but I’m sure Waracka’s is a much better story to share and can inspire many more people, especially the youth of Hawai‘i.

I hope she does share it with kids someday, as a motivational speaker.

That’s a variation of the old baseball saying, that good pitching will usually beat good hitting.

But going into Saturday’s Division I softball state championship game, I have no idea what will happen because I’m still trying to grasp the incredible feats I’ve seen from Mililani and Kamehameha’s Amber Waracka the past two nights.

Mililani is on a hitting tear like I’ve never seen before in baseball or softball. Two games, 36 runs on 46 hits, 10 doubles, two home runs, scoring in 12 out of 13 innings. And the hits literally came from up and down the lineup, with all nine starters getting at least one.

Also, the Trojans don’t just hit; they can run, too. And they’re not shy about taking the extra base, even if the risk sometimes results in an out.

Then again, Mililani has yet to face a pitcher like Waracka in this tournament. I don’t think there has been a pitcher quite like Waracka in the state tournament for a very long time, especially in terms of statistics. Thirty-five strikeouts in two games? Eighteen strikeouts in seven innings?

I don’t know if anyone keeps records on that stuff, but Waracka’s numbers have got to be close.

She said she felt more comfortable Friday night compared to Thursday, her first state tournament start.

“Last night I was nervous, crazy,” Waracka said. “I had a different mindset tonight, to get us to the championship game.”

As far as an intriguing matchup of contrasting styles, not to mention another potentially great pitchers’ duel between Waracka and Makani Duhaylonsod (a terrific big-game pitcher), you can’t ask for much better.

Should be a great game, a great way to end another memorable sports year.

Still trying to absorb what I just saw at Rainbow Wahine Stadium, which had to be one of the greatest pitching duels in softball state tournament history.

Shoot, if not for two Moanalua errors in the top of the 10th inning, we might still be at the stadium watching Amber Waracka and Sarah Robinson match strikeout for strikeout. In all my years of watching baseball and softball, I have never seen two pitchers combine for 32 strikeouts and only one walk.

Quite a display.

From the very beginning, you could sense we would be in for a great night of pitching. Both struck out the side in the first inning, and you could see the hitters flailing. Through the first two innings, Waracka had five Ks, Robinson four. After three innings, they had six each.

Robinson struck out the side again in the fifth, giving her 10 ks. Waracka fanned two batters in both the fifth and sixth innings, giving her 11.

Robinson got two more in the eighth, putting her at 13. Waracka had two Ks each in the eighth and ninth, giving her 16.

Even that late in the game, both pitchers had surprising velocity and the fastballs were popping into the catcher’s mitt loudly. Robinson’s control was so sharp, she ran a three-ball count only four times out of 34 batters, three times in the fourth. Waracka ran a three-ball count only three times, one of them resulting in the third-inning walk.

Waracka fooled a few batters with a great change-up; Robinson mostly just threw it past the Warriors.

As in many cases in extra-inning pitching duels, ultimately the game was decided by errors. Both teams complemented the awesome pitching with solid, errorless defense for nine innings. But usually it’s only a matter of time before somebody makes an error, and Moanalua made theirs first.

When Amber Morisako hit a one-out single to left, the fielder did not field it cleanly, but there still was minimal harm done. But when her cutoff throw sailed over the second baseman’s head, that allowed Morisako to advance to second.

“That was the momentum we needed,” Waracka said. “I had so much trust in my teammates that we could get the run in, and they were awesome.”

Dara Pagaduan, a four-year veteran, got pinch runner Leiana Naki-Kaonohi to third base with a fly ball to right, and Melissa Awa brought her home with a hard-hit grounder to second that was mishandled. It was a tough error, because the second baseman had to quickly move to her left to get to the ball, and the ball came in kind of hot.

And anyway, as much as the errors, it was Moanalua’s lack of base runners (6, out of 34 plate appearances) that ultimately cost it the game. It was a team loss, and shouldn’t be blamed on any one or two persons.

It was a tough loss, but a great game to watch from a fan’s viewpoint. As Waracka said, every pitch was huge the entire game.

Considering the magnitude of the game and the amazing display of pitching, high school softball doesn’t get much better than that.

Waipahu made an interesting decision in Wednesday’s softball state quarterfinal against Moanalua, with the score tied at 1-1 with two outs in the top of the seventh inning and Moanalua’s best hitter, Sarah Robinson, at the plate.

The Marauders decided to intentionally walk her, loading the bases and putting the go-ahead run at third base. The next batter, Britni Ronolo, then hit the first pitch up the middle for a ground single to score Michelle Acosta and give Na Menehune a 2-1 lead which held in the bottom half.

I’m not sure if the first pitch to Robinson was an intentional ball, and then they decided to walk her, or if they meant to walk her from the beginning.

But this is one of those calls that if it works, then you look like a genius and if it doesn’t, well, the second-guessing begins.

On the one hand, Robinson no doubt is a dangerous hitter and she hit the ball solid in her previous three at-bats: a line drive out to center, a single to left field and a groundout to short. Ronolo was 0 for 3, with a soft liner to short, a fielder’s choice grounder to third and another liner to short.

On the other hand, putting the go-ahead run on third base is dangerous, too, because now the run can score on a wild pitch or passed ball or even an infield hit or squeeze bunt.

Some coches will say of a slugger, “I’m not going to let that person beat us; if someone gets a hit, it’ll be another batter.”

By intentionally walking Robinson to load the bases for Ronolo, Waipahu basically conceded that it didn’t like its chances of getting Robinson out. Otherwise, they would have pitched to her and see what happens, right?

I’m not faulting the decision either way, because if Ronolo were to have made the third out, then it would have proved to be a good move.

I just found it very interesting that a hitter would be shown that much respect to load the bases and push the go-ahead run to third base …