The Pinion Vol. 98 No. 1

T HE P INI

N

Vol. 98 / No. 1 October 2019

The student-run newspaper of McKinley High School

Representatives from each grade level challenged each other to earn the first class points of the school year. Seniors George Kim and Noah Omori earned first place and seniors received 100 points. Read more about the Welcome Back Assembly on page 4.

RS 20-0297 October 2019

Editors Alexandria Buchanan Ryan Vanairsdale

Reporters

Nyler Acasio Thai Bui Joesph Brown Nickolas Castillo Kelly Cheng Wynn Dang Jesse Faapale Rodney Fano Cheng Hong He Shileen Lafaele Julia Linn Mark Ontolan Cherisa Skinny Sairin Skinny Christina Tago An Vo

Adviser Cynthia Reves

Mission The Pinion staff strives to provide and maintain accurate, entertaining and informative news for the students, staff and alumni of McKinley High School. We strive to show diligence in creating all our content so we can make a positive contribution to the public.

Publication Information The Pinion is published by the Newswriting class and printed by Reprographics Learning Center.

The Pinion McKinley High School 1039 South King Street Honolulu, HI 96814

Email comments or questions to pinion@mckinleyhs.k12.hi.us

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THE PINION T

by The Pinion staff

he Pinion started its 99th year as a part of McKinley High School’s pride and tradition. The staff includes two returning students, who will serve as the editorial board, and sixteen new staffers.

Senior Alexandria Buchanan is an editor. This is her fourth year on The Pinion staff. She finds it fun to lay out the newspaper and likes seeing the finished paper. She joined Newswriting in middle school.

“I like to see the final product… it’s a pride thing, I guess,” Buchanan said.

Another returning staff member is sophomore Ryan Vanairsdale, who will also serve as an editor. This is his second year with The Pinion. He chose Newswriting a second year because it was interesting. He said the most difficult part of Newswriting is getting interviews.

“Being able to write stuff and publish what you write about is why I chose it again,” Vanairsdale said.

Freshman Nickolas Castillo chose Newswriting because it seemed interesting and he likes writing in general. He expressed concerns about people being uninterested in what he writes about.

Freshman Julia Linn said she likes writing in general. Linn chose Newswriting because she likes to write about different things. She hopes to expand her skills and learn more about our school.

Freshman Joesph Brown has an interest in writing about sports.

Part of this is because he played baseball and basketball when he was younger. He read the newspaper when he was young and always wondered what it would be like to be a reporter.

NEWS

STARTS 99TH YEAR Freshman Thai Bui wants to know more people and learn more about Newswriting. His Newswriting goals are to improve writing and get to know more about Newswriting and how The Pinion is produced.

Freshman Kelly Cheng chose Newswriting to improve her journalism capabilities. Her main goal for this class is to do her best to write articles that will enhance her English skills. To do this, she needs to practice the core foundations while having fun in producing a quality product.

Freshman An Vo chose Newswriting because he wants to put his thoughts on paper. He worries that he will not be able to get enough information to write an article. Vo says he will try his best to write quality articles.

Junior Rodney Fano likes the creativity and learning involved in writing. He joined Newswriting because he wants to pay more attention to what goes on in our school.

Freshman Wynn Dang said he likes to write about anything. He joined Newswriting to learn more about writing and to improve the way he writes.

Junior Sairin Skinny decided to join Newswriting because she wants to learn how to write better. Skinny said writing is interesting. She likes writing, so Skinny is not worried about anything in class.

Freshman Cheng Hong He’s goals are getting good grades and being on time to all classes. She joined Newswriting because she wants to improve her writing skills.

NEWS

She is worried about not getting her work in on time.

Freshman Cherisa Skinny is taking Newswriting to become a better writer and because she enjoys writing.

She was born in Chuuk and came to Hawaii with her aunty when she was three months old.

Freshman Shileen Lafaele also joined The Pinion. She says that she’s nervous about getting interviews.

Freshman Mark Ontolan is worried about missing deadlines and not knowing what to do in the class. Ontolan came to Hawaii from the Philippines in sixth grade.

Freshman Nyler Acasio said to him, writing isn’t that difficult. He wants to write sports articles because he plays sports and writing about them would help his interest in writing. Since Acasio plays basketball, he hopes to be able to write about it.

Freshman Christina Tago said she is concerned over how her articles turn out to be.

That is what the editors are for, though, to help the reporters improve their work.

“From your first draft to your last, from your first article to your last article of the year, there are always improvements and I think that’s really cool to see,” Buchanan said.

LEFT: Editors Alexandria Buchanan, Ryan Vanairsdale RIGHT: Reporters Thai Bui, An Vo, Shileen Lafaele, Sairin Skinny, Christina Tago, Cherisa Skinny, Jesse Faapale, Mark Ontolan, Rodney Fano, Kelly Cheng, Nyler Acasio, Nickolas Castillo, Joesph Brown, Wynn Dang, Cheng Hong He, Julia Linn

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WELCOME BACK,

TIGERS

by The Pinion staff

T

he students and staff participated in the Welcome Back Assembly on Aug. 9 with speeches, games, and songs. The main purpose of this event was to introduce freshmen to the McKinley traditions followed at assemblies and welcome everyone back to the campus and make sure that everyone has an exciting start to the school year.

While students and staff scrambled to get a seat, the McKinley Band played various songs to hype up the crowd. Rona Lei Duldulao is a sophomore flutist who performed at the assembly.

“I like playing in the band because we have our own space … I get to play with pride. Playing in a band is fun,” Duldulao said.

To begin, the audience stood as a JROTC quartet marched in with the American flag. The band played “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Hawaii Pono’i” while everyone showed respect to the flag.

Ron Okamura, McKinley’s principal, welcomed all the students and teachers to the new school year. He told the upperclassmen to take care of the freshmen because they were once in their shoes. He had a particular message for the seniors.

“Your job, your responsibility, is to take care of our freshmen because they will represent all of us later over the years,” he said.

He ended his speech on a positive note, welcoming back current students.

“Let’s have a good year. Welcome back, guys!” Okamura said.

Next, a video of students welcoming everyone back was projected on a THE PINION / 4

screen.

Then the cheerleaders performed.

A fashion show advertised McKinley merchandise such as hats, Tshirts, mugs, and other products that can be purchased in room A-001, the student activities center.

After the fashion show, selected students played a game to earn classlevel points. The activity consisted of two people from each team, five boxes which were separated from each other to form the sides of a hexagon-like figure, and balloons that stayed near the floor.

The two players collaborated to carry balloons into their designated basket using only their legs, one leg strapped onto their partner’s leg. The boxes located in the designated areas represented the teams, which were the teachers and all of the grade levels -- while the balloons symbolized resolutions for the new year.

“It was fun because during the assembly there was a challenge between all the grades and teachers which made it seem so nerve-racking,” freshman Celica Pham said.

After the game, the student council announced a new system known as “Tiger Time.” It requires students to be on time for classes, which will allow their class to gain points for the class point competition. More information will be given once the foundation of this system has been fully stabilized.

Iain Tucker, a senior, shared his experiences about being a member of a club.

Being in a club is a way to meet new friends and people and to get involved with the community. The club with the most amount of points

is titled “Club of the Year.”

“Last year, I got the chance to be the president of the Photography Club. And I was pretty nervous, though I ended up taking that risk,” Tucker said.

He also shared his opinion on why everyone else should do the same.

“Take that risk; you won’t regret it,” Tucker said.

The student council made sure students knew about extra-curricular activities and events for this quarter.

They told everyone about the “Lighting of the M,” when a giant M and tiger paw are set on fire which represents the blazing passion for school and tradition during Homecoming on the first week of October.

April Nakamura, student activities coordinator, also spoke during the assembly. She referenced the TMT protest on Mauna Kea to share the importance of humility, aloha, and respect.

“Humility, it means being humble, and what it means is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less,” Nakamura said. “Always have aloha … these lessons we can all take with us every single day. To be humble, to have respect and aloha with each other.”

Finally, the assembly ended with the band playing “Eye of the Tiger” and “Crazy Train” as the audience exited the gym to start the new school year.

“The part of the assembly I liked the most was when the school sang Black and Gold and Alma Mater together,” junior Stephanie Linn said.

“Although we all come from different backgrounds, we can all show our school spirit as one.”

NEWS

FEATURES

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OKAMURA PREPARED FOR CHALLENGES

by An Vo, staff reporter

R

on Okamura, the principal of McKinley High School, looks forward to seeing improvements within the school. He told The Pinion staff about his goals for the school and what he looks forward to this year.

Okamura’s philosophy at any school he has worked at is that it would be the best in the nation.

“I truly believe whatever school I’m at, that’s the best school in the nation,” he said.

Okamura said he looks forward to seeing the school strive for success in attendance, test scores, graduation, etc. He also expects multiple challenges this year.

“Increasing our graduation rate, looking at our attendance, having students come to class every day, teachers teaching quality lessons so you folks are learning,” he said. “To be the very best you can be.

That’s a challenge, but it’s also a goal.”

Okamura said he has seen a lot of changes in the school since he came here twelve years ago. The big-

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gest change he has seen has been in the neighborhood.

“The whole area has grown. With that comes with [the diversity of] our students,” he said. “I like diversity because it gives us a different perspective on how everybody lives.”

With growth comes excellence. McKinley was one of three national finalists in the Great Schools competition.

“We are one of the top three schools in the nation that helps support our students not only to go to college, prepare for college, but also to graduate from college,” he said.

Okamura said the Great Schools competition wasn’t based on the quantity of graduated students, but on the amount of students who enrolled and continued in college.

“It was taken into consideration how McKinley supports those two [factors],” he said.

NEWS

NEWS

Safety, vision and mission - areas of focus When the school went through accreditation last year, one area of focus found was safety.

“This school is a very wide campus,” Okamura said.

“People walk in all the time and we’re not really sure who belongs here and who doesn’t.”

Okamura said the committee recommended everyone wearing identification cards as a mandatory requirement. If students don’t want to wear IDs, then the school might have to resort to school uniforms to ensure the safety of the school.

“I don’t want to wear uniforms because that’s an elementary to middle school thing -- you guys are old enough to do this,” he said.

Okamura said everyone has a part in campus security and it’s their responsibility to have common sense.

“If you see something that’s going wrong, you have to let the people (adults) know,” he said. “[If] people are doing something wrong, report them.”

Okamura talked about the school’s vision and mission, another area of focus from the accreditation team. He said the current vision was to transform students into productive citizens by the time of graduation, and it hasn’t been changed for ten years.

“We are in the process of revisiting the vision and either coming up with a new one or keeping it the same,” he said.

Discouraging the vaping epidemic Okamura said the growing epidemic of vaping has been discussed every meeting he has with the school.

He said vaping is dangerous and should be avoided to preserve a healthy lifestyle. Vaping has been a trend because of its ability to substitute for cigarettes.

Although the ingredients of vape may seem harmless, Okamura said it’s still unhealthy.

“Vaping has been around not that long, so

[researchers] really don’t have that data (negative sideeffects),” he said.

Okamura said students have to be responsible for their actions, whether or not they decide to the right/ wrong thing.

“We can tell you guys all the bad things ... it’s up to you folks to change your attitude,” he said.

W-Building renovations completed Okamura said renovations on buildings around campus began around 25 years ago. W-Building renovation has just been completed.

“W-Building was the last one in the list to be renovated,” he said.

Okamura said the staff couldn’t find enough class-

rooms for displaced classes from W-Building, so they decided to finish half of the building per year.

“We were worried because this was such an old building because of termites and a lot of the windows weren’t working and were falling out,” he said. “[It’s] not only nicer but safer as well, too.”

Heat abatement The school is very warm. Okamura said it’s because the school doesn’t have enough electrical power to run and funds to purchase air conditioners for the buildings.

“If we can get that power situation taken care of, then we can start looking into putting ACs in the buildings,” he said.

“The number one factor besides the power is [the] cost.”

Okamura had considered using solar-powered ACs to save money during the day using clean energy. However. He was puzzled as to where to place the panels. He said the panels would ruin the roof of the buildings.

Photo by Iain Tucker and Clarise Camacho Photography 3 Students

NEWS NEWS

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FAMILIAR

FACES ON STAFF “I’m very glad that they decided to come back. They went away to get different experiences and then they came back because they knew that this was probably the best place for them.”

- Principal Ron Okamura

by Thai Bui, staff reporter

S

cott Takata left McKinley last year and has returned to teach yearbook and the arts and communication’s class for 2019-2020. You can find him in T2.

“I enjoy helping kids and just enjoy teaching,” he said.

He said he is looking forward to all the exciting things that come with advising the yearbook, all the school events, and the arts and communication’s class. Both classes are new for him.

“I was told that (teaching) comes naturally to me. Not that I’m good, I still have a lot to learn, but it just comes naturally to me,” he said.

In addition to McKinley, Takata has taught at Aina Haina Elementary, Kalani High School, UH Manoa, Leeward Community College, Kapiolani Community College, and Chaminade University. He has taught chorus, piano and guitar. He has been teach-

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ing for 32 years.

“They are all good teachers,” said Ron Okamura, McKinley’s principal, when asked about the new teachers.

Takata is married and grew up in Kaneohe.

He also likes to travel. Some places he has been include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orlando, Houston, San Diego, Minnesota, Boston, Washington D.C., Beijing, Xian, Shanghai and Micronesia.

His favorite food is chicken. He likes all types of chicken, but his favorite are Korean style or barbecue.

His favorite drink is coffee.

He said he likes movies, anything but horror. His favorite movie is “The Last Samurai” which is a drama and action movie starring Tom Cruise.

He enjoys watching baseball and his favorite team is the San Francisco Giants. He likes baseball because he grew up playing the sport. He likes the San Francisco Giants because he

has family that live in the city and it’s his favorite city.

He likes to exercise and play golf in his free time. He enjoys the challenge of playing golf. He usually plays at the municipal courses on the weekends.

“I work indoors all day, so I like to go outdoors,” he said.

FEATURES

by Kelly Cheng, staff reporter

S

usan Pacada left McKinley High School but has come back this year to help students who need special education. “I’m very happy for her to be back here,” said Principal Ron Oka-

mura.

Pacada said she is looking forward to getting to know the students that are freshmen and meeting the upperclassmen again.

“There are students that were here before, and I kind of know them from before, so just to acquaint myself with them, and hopefully establish something exciting,” she said.

Pacada said she has a special job. Many of her students are not able to speak up for themselves or have trouble communicating their needs and wants.

“I became a teacher because I wanted to advocate for the students that were not able to advocate for themselves,” she said.

Outside of school, Pacada likes to spend quality time with her family. She has two younger boys and two older children.

by Joesph Brown, staff reporter

L

ance Fukuhara was born and raised in Honolulu and graduated from the University of Hawaii Manoa. He has taught multiple subjects at McKinley and currently teaches business.

Fukuhara said he is looking forward to getting to know all the new students and meeting the new teachers and staff members.

He said he became a teacher because he loves helping the old and new students at McKinley High School.

In his free time, he likes to go to the beach and surf. He also likes to travel. He has surfed all around the world and likes “anywhere that is not crowded.”

by Nickolas Castillo, staff reporter

D

amien Cooper is an English and special education teacher that left McKinley, but then came back.

She started teaching because she has worked with kids before in the past and since teaching is a “family career.”

This year she is looking forward to seeing her senior students graduate and go to college. Whenever she has free time, she likes to read, go swimming or go travelling.

“I’m very happy to have her back here because she really loves working here and working with the students that she has, so I’m very happy to have her back,” Principal Ron Okamura said.

FEATURES

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TEACHERS

JOIN MHS OHANA

by An Vo, staff reporter One of the new teachers, S. Ku’ulei Arakaki, works as a special education teacher.

Arakaki is a part of the CareerBased Intervention (CBI) program.

She works with students who need extra help and ensures their success.

Arakaki said she is looking forward to getting to know the students here.

She can be seen preparing activities for students in room P-5.

Before she came to McKinley, she worked as a teacher at Lincoln Elementary School.

“I worked with the whole school,” she said. “I really enjoyed getting to know them (students) and how they learn, individually.”

Arakaki said she decided to become an educator because she was intrigued by how students are influenced by their teachers.

“I was interested in how students are being taught, but also how they learn,” she said. “I like seeing the students grow halfway through the school year and the end of the school year.”

Arakaki said she understands what her students are going through. She has relatives who were students in special education classes from elementary to high school.

“Working with them (family) is why I can relate to the students,” she said.

Arakaki recalled a family member who is now a successful chef.

“I helped him all the time after school,” she said. “At one point he didn’t want to go to school, and I was

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always working with him. When he was at school, everyone thought he couldn’t do anything.”

Arakaki said she wants her students to feel that they’re not alone.

“I understand how the students feel when they think that we (teachers) give up on them, but we really shouldn’t let them feel like that,” she said.

Principal Ron Okamura said Arakaki was very excited to be in the school.

“She’s eager to do everything to work well in our special education department and is so happy to be here,” he said.

Whenever Arakaki has spare time, she enjoys playing near the ocean.

“I go to the beach a lot,” she said.

“I catch waves, bodyboard, swim, paddle, and used to surf. If I’m with my family, just leisure -- relaxing at the beach, swimming. If I’m by myself, I bodyboard.”

Arakaki also enjoys making arts and crafts with her children.

“I do a lot of crafts at home with my kids,” she said. “We make stuff.”

Finally, Arakaki likes to watch UH sports games. She tries her best to watch them play as much as possible.

“I’m a big UH football fan and volleyball fan,” she said.

FEATURES

by Cheng Hong He, staff reporter

by Wynn Dang, staff reporter Jeremy Johns is a new teacher at McKinley High School.

Johns was teaching at Waianae High School. He lives in town and drove all the way to Waianae.

He could not teach automotive in Waianae so the chance arose at McKinley, so now he teaches here.

Johns said what he is looking forward to winter break. That’s when he gets to spend time with his friends and family on the mainland.

Why he became a teacher is he likes to work with hands-on classes. He likes working with young adults and coaching on life or sports.

What he likes to do in his free time is spend time with his sons and also work out at the gym.

Principal Ron Okamura said Johns is very excited to work and be here because he wants to learn new things along the way with the students.

Kristi Auyong is a new teacher at McKinley High School. She teaches art.

“She is very excited to be here,” Principal Ron Okamura said.

In Auyong’s classroom, students’ artwork is displayed and there are art posters around the room.

There are also a few sinks and a ton of paintbrushes and palettes.

“I’m looking forward to teaching students about different types of art and different art history,” she said.

Auyong said she became an art teacher because she wants to make a positive impact in students’ lives.

“I just like working with kids,” she said.

In her free time, Auyong likes to read comics, sleep and go to the beach.

by Nyler Acasio, staff reporter Justin Collado started his first fulltime teaching year at McKinley High School. After finishing his student teaching last year at McKinley, Collado is ready to take on real teaching

FEATURES

duties. Collado teaches Trigonometry and Business Management. He said he is looking forward to growing as a teacher to become the best he can.

“It’s my first year teaching [full time] so I’m looking forward to a lot of growth,” he said.

Collado was born and raised on Maui. He loves to visit his family there whenever he gets the chance.

He graduated from UH Manoa on Oahu with a teaching degree. He said one reason he stayed on Oahu instead of teaching on Maui was there are more teaching opportunities here.

While at UH, he studied Hawaiian.

His grandmother grew up speaking Hawaiian, which she learned from her mom, but during World War II when everyone wanted to be American, his grandmother thought it wasn’t important for her children to learn

Hawaiian.

His grandmother told him the story about how back then they said there was no sense in learning Hawaiian.

Collado said she told them, “It’s useless.”

He said no other university in the world offers Hawaiian so he took it for four years straight (except his last semester at UH), and it turned out to be his favorite class.

Collado recommends all students take a lot of elective classes in college to ensure they have a fun time.

“That’s what I highly recommend everyone do once they get to college, take a bunch of electives for fun,”he said.

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‘THE PERFECT DATE’

NOT LIKE OTHER ROMANCE MOVIES

by Nyler Acasio, staff reporter “The Perfect Date” is a wonderful movie. The movie is a Netflix original, available exclusively on Netflix. “The Perfect Date” is an American movie that fits into the genres of teen, romantic and comedy. It also adds suspense in the mix.

The movie stars award-winning actor Noah Centineo, who plays the protagonist, Brooks Rattigan.

Rattingan is a senior with dreams of getting into Yale while also trying to win over the most popular girl in school. He sets up an app to pay for Yale with his friend Murph where he offers to go on dates with girls for money.

He got the idea to make this app where he was paid to go on a date with a girl named Celia (played by notable actress Laura Marano) and noticed on his date with her he had a knack for taking on different personalities, which then he uses on his paid dates, where girls ask what kind of personality they want.

You can imagine the pitfalls of dating for money and pretending to be someone you are not, while trying to get the girl you really want.

I’m not usually a fan of romance movies, but this is an exception. It keeps viewers in suspense and I think that’s what makes a movie great. The ending is great but not the way you thought of it. The movie tricks you into already believing you know what’s coming, but you’re wrong and to me that’s astonishing. “The Perfect Date” is one of the greatest movies I have seen in a long time.

Acasio’s Criteria Suspense- 4 Story- 4.5 Actors- 4.5

OVERALL RATING

Ending- 5 Plot Twists- 4.5

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EDITORIALS

‘SPIDER-MAN: FAR

FROM HOME’

SPINS A WEB OF STORIES

by Thai Bui, staff reporter

SPOILER ALERT!

OVERALL RATING

EDITORIALS

“Spider-Man: Far From Home” is a phenomenal movie. It was released in July. The movie has lots of plot twists, great humor, great battle scenes, good cinematography, great storytelling and great character development.

The story introduces the protagonist, Peter Parker, or Spider-Man. He is fixated on the question of who will be the next Iron Man, his mentor who died. He hopes to take his mind off this question by going on his class vacation to Europe, only for the question to follow him there. He is forced to fight monsters called the Elementals who are from another world.

He fights the Elementals to keep his friends safe, but he has to make sure to not reveal his identity or else his friends will be in even more danger.

Parker eventually accepts that he has to take the responsibility of Iron Man, after he was trying to run away from it and trying to hand over the responsibility to other people through the movie. This was obviously a great sign of amazing character development through the story.

The movie uses lots of computer-generated imagery for the Elementals and the final battle scene between the villain and Spider-Man, as well as extremely well done cinematography. The humor was great. You can see Spider-Man cracking jokes every moment he can and some other characters making jokes, too.

You should definitely watch this movie as it is worth every penny and the two hours and ten minutes of your time.

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SAD BUT SWEET

‘HAPPIER’ BY MARSHMELLO

by Nickolas Castillo, staff reporter “Happier” by Marshmello ft.

Bastille is a good song. Some of the lyrics are sad, but the meaning behind them is sweet. A sad line from the song is “I want to see you smile, but know that means I’ll have to leave.” The lyrics describe the story of a relationship ending. A line that explains this is “Cause with all that has happened I think that we both know the way that the story ends.” This means that whatever went down caused the relationship to end. The person singing wants to hold on to who he was with, but deep down inside he realizes he has

to let go in order for his significant other to be “happier.”

I listen to the song every day.

That’s how much I love it. The music and rhythm go well together, making it relaxing to hear. I don’t think about romantic relationships when I listen to it, though. I think about an event that happened to me when I was in sixth grade. Listening to the song reminds me that sometimes you have to leave certain people alone in order for them to be “happier,” no matter how much you still want them in your life. You should listen to the song.

OVERALL RATING

ph

Castillo’s Criteria Lyrics - 5 Meaning - 5 Story - 4 Music - 4 Rhythm - 4

Submit work to McKinley’s Literary Magazine http://bit.ly/W234lit

by Magnolia Basoc

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by Magnolia Basoc

EDITORIALS

MORIKUNI GUIDES ATHLETES

photo by Dezmen Maluyo, Photography 1 Student

by Nyler Acasio and Thai Bui, staff reporters

B

ob Morikuni only cries at sports movies.

That shows how much he loves sports.

Since 2012, he’s worked as McKinley High School’s athletic director, but he didn’t start that way. Morikuni was the boys basketball coach for McKinley and assistant athletic director first.

“When I coached basketball, I was fortunate enough that (former athletic director Neal Takamori) asked me to be an assistant athletic director… Through this process I got to learn what he did, learn from him … and I was fortunate to get the job when he retired,” Morikuni said.

As a youth, Morikuni was an average athlete. He played baseball from second grade through college. ‌“I‌‌wasn’t‌‌one‌‌of‌‌the‌‌best,‌‌but‌‌just‌‌the‌‌fun‌‌of‌ ‌playing‌ ‌sports.‌ ‌I‌ ‌had‌ ‌good‌ ‌coaches‌ ‌that‌ ‌really‌ ‌taught‌ ‌me‌ ‌a‌ ‌lot‌ ‌of‌ ‌life‌ ‌lessons‌ ‌of ‌participating,”‌‌Morikuni‌‌said.‌‌ ‌Morikuni‌ ‌said‌ ‌he‌ ‌looks‌ ‌forward‌ ‌to‌ ‌the‌ ‌same‌ ‌things‌ ‌every‌ ‌year: ‌the‌ ‌excitement,‌ ‌the‌ ‌new‌ ‌season,‌ ‌and‌ ‌the‌ ‌new‌ ‌teams. He does have some issues, such as students not able to play for academic reasons. Students must maintain a 2.0 GPA while also passing all classes to participate in any sports.

“If‌ ‌student-athletes ‌don’t‌ ‌meet‌ ‌the‌ ‌academic‌‌requirements, i‌ t’s‌‌frustrating,”‌‌he‌‌said.

Also, this year, not enough players joined for McKinley to have a JV football team.

Morikuni has two daughters, ages 9 and 12, and doesn’t have much free time. He loves to collect sports-themed objects.

“I like to collect a lot of little stuff that I leave in my office. I can’t leave it at home. It would take up too much space,” he said.

Even with his tight schedule, he still finds ways to relax. His‌ ‌favorite‌ ‌sports‌ ‌to‌ ‌watch‌ ‌are‌ football, baseball‌ ‌and‌ ‌basketball‌.‌ ‌His‌ ‌favorite‌ ‌football‌ ‌team‌ ‌is‌ ‌the‌ ‌Dallas‌ ‌Cowboys.‌ He watches movies with his family on Netflix.

He likes watching Marvel-themed movies such as Iron Man and Thor. ‌He‌‌likes‌‌Iron‌‌Man‌ ‌because‌ ‌it‌ ‌would‌ ‌be‌ ‌nice‌ ‌to‌ ‌be‌ ‌that‌ ‌smart‌ ‌and‌ ‌have‌ ‌nice‌ ‌toys‌ ‌and‌ ‌that‌ ‌iron‌ ‌suit.‌ A few defining moments in his life were graduating from Iolani School, getting married, having kids and coaching.

“At those points in my life, it’s like time to grow up, time to be mature,” he said.

Photo by Dezmen Maluyo, Photography 1 student

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