![]() ![]() “It definitely didn’t go the way we planned.” “The plan was to coach our boys until they were freshmen in high school,” Okita said. In the years that followed, Okita and Yamashita coached their sons’ All Pono teams, alternating roles of head coach and assistant coach along the way. However, as All Pono began to add more teams and players to its roster, they decided to pitch in. All Pono started with two softball teams in 2005, and since then, it has grown to 13 softball teams, nine baseball teams and 10 soccer teams, all of which are headed by volunteer coaches like Okita and Yamashita.Īt first, Okita and Yamashita intended to be “baseball dads.” Both men had plenty of coaching experience under their belts, but they just wanted to sit on the bleachers and cheer on their sons. In 2007, the men signed up their then-5-year-old sons to play for the All Pono Organization, a nonprofit organization that emphasizes “pono” values through athletics and community service programs. ![]() They weren’t total strangers: Yamashita had coached Okita’s younger brother and both played on the same State AJA (Americans of Japanese Ancestry) team in 1995. It all started when Okita and Yamashita met up on a T-ball field nine years ago. Today, as coaches for the All Pono Organization, Little League and Baldwin High School, the two men clearly make a good team - and in more ways than one. They may have played on rival teams at their alma maters, but Okita and Yamashita are far from adversaries.
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