From the every man to superman, the Big Island Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2019 runs the gamut.
Longtime Pahoa coach Frank Degele and Dennis Sagawa, a Hilo coach and dentist, fit the traditional requirements of an inductee, and they’ll be joined by the new wave: BJ Penn, arguably the Big Island’s best-known athlete, and Reed Sunahara, arguably the greatest male athlete the island has produced.
The inclusion of Penn and Sunahara is the the product of the hall’s decision to tweak the induction criteria, which previously required 20 years of service in the community.
“There are so many good athletes that are out there, and we got a lot of feedback from the community that we needed to consider them,” said Jerry Chang, the hall president. “We just felt that should open (the criteria) up.”
The foursome will be enshrined Feb. 3 with the unveiling of their photos on the BISHOF wall at Prince Kuhio Plaza with an awards dinner to follow at ‘Imiloa.
“I think we have the perfect mix,” Chang said of class.
Penn, a UFC Hall of Famer, is in a class by himself in the Big Isle mixed martial arts scene. A former UFC champion in two different weight classes, the 40-year-old Penn (16-12-2) is preparing to fight at UFC 232 on Saturday night in Inglewood, Calif., against Ryan Hall.
After a volleyball playing career that took him to UCLA, Sunahara serves as the women’s coach at West Virginia.
The 55-year old was a multisport star at Hilo High before helping the Bruins win three national titles as a two-time All-American in the early 1980s.
With their longstanding contributions to the community, Degele and Sagawa fall in line with what the late Jack Matsui had in mind when he founded the hall in the 199os.
While there are bigger names in the class, few are as well-known in Pahoa as Degele. Whether his teams have been experienced and talented or not, the 71-year-old Degele has coached at the high school with a can-do attitude and reassuring smile for 47 years and running, the first 33 years in baseball and the past 14 in softball.
“I was happy,” Degele said, “after all these years of coaching my wife told me I should be in.”
Sagawa has been an assistant coach at the high school and youth levels, mostly in baseball and football but also basketball, in East Hawaii for 38 years, and he even served as the team dentist for the Hilo Stars winter league baseball team in the mid-1990s.
Sagawa, 64, was an assistant Waiakea baseball coach for the past five seasons, serving under former coach Rory Inouye for the last four.
In his nominating letter to the committee, Inouye wrote: “‘People with good intentions make promises, but people with good character keep them’ is a quote that comes to mind when I think of Dr. Dennis ‘Doc’ Sagawa.”
Known as “Wise Owl” at Waiakea, “He coaches for the joy of seeing Hilo thrive,” Inouye wrote.
After inducting its last class in 2015, Chang said the plan going forward is to enshrine a class of four every two years, and he said the nominating process has been streamlined and specified, relying less on an essay.
While the nominating process has been opened up, athletes such as Kolten Wong, 28, and Max Unger, 32, will have to wait for now. All nominees must be at least 35 years old.
