There may well be other high school coaches who pull double duty in football and water polo, but Kamehameha’s Dan Lyons hasn’t met one yet.
Wearing two hats usually isn’t an issue, but that will change when Lyons, he says, will be unnoticeably absent from the sidelines during the Warriors’ preseason football finale.
“My assistants probably won’t even know that I’m gone,” he jokes.
Instead of Keaau, Lyons will be in Hong Kong coaching a team that represents Kamehameha’s past and present at the Asian Pacific Water Polo Tournament. The competition figures to be stout, but the team leaves Hilo on Sunday, and when it lands in China, Lyons will have already counted multiple big victories in the win column for Kamehameha.
“I think we’ll be competitive, but this is more about the journey,” he said. “This is about helping them to see what the world is about, and using water polo has a medium to do that.
“We want to learn how other people live. We want to meet as many people as we can and learn as much as we can about their culture.”
Kamehameha’s team is made up of five alumnae – including two of Lyons’ daughters, Kanoe and Sydney – and eight current players, none of whom has traveled internationally before.
Lyons is proudest that the process of getting to Hong Kong involved heavy doses of commitment and self-reliance from his players. He wasn’t around during many summertime practices, which were run by Pua Wong (2015 graduate) and Sydney Lyons (2006), and the goal is to self-fund the trip as much as possible. Fund-raising likely will stretch until October.
“They’ve got some job experience because they had to teach swim lessons,” Dan Lyons said.
Kamehameha will be in the pool Aug. 21-23 playing teams that represent, among others, Korea and Chinese Taipei.
“These could potentially be national teams,” Lyons said.
The level of competition and the experience of their teammates should help Kamehameha’s current players sharpen their skills as they try and make a run at an eighth consecutive BIIF championship next spring.
The other alumnae returning to play for Lyons are Katelynn Kubo, the reigning BIIF Player of the Year, and Chloe Martins-Keliihoomalu (2014). Kanoe Lyons (2006) is a former two-time BIIF Player of the Year who has experience playing in the Team USA developmental program.
The itinerary away from the pool includes a community service project and a cultural exchange – anything dealing with Chinese history is inbounds.
“We won’t be doing Hong Kong Disneyland,” Lyons said.
He hopes this becomes an annual trip. The goal next year is to go to New Zealand.
But first, the concrete jungle that is Hong Kong, with a population of more than 7 million, beckons.
“We’ve got to figure out using public transportation with 21 people,” Lyons said. “Should be interesting.”
