Iolani Alumni

Of the 70 Hawaii high school seniors named as semifinalists in the 2009 National Merit Scholarship Program, 36 were from Iolani, a new record for the school. Punahou, by comparison, had the second highest total with 23 semifinalists.

More than 1.5 million high school juniors in nearly 21,000 high schools entered the 2009 program by taking the 2007 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

Semifinalists were named based on their scores and the total number is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

The previous record for the total number of National Semifinalist in a single year was 33 - held by the classes of 1990, 1991 and 2006. Last year’s graduating Class of 2008 had 32.

See the names of 2009 National Merit Semifinalists »

More for you to read from the people that you went to school with… Some professional, some not, yet all entertaining in their own way. Enjoy!

Iolani Alumni - Blogs:
• Prep Talk - Wes Nakama ‘86
• Quarterlife Cafe - Kim Fassler ‘02
• Pulpconnection - Greg Yamane ‘90
• Katsuyoshi.org - Clayton Katsuyoshi ‘92
• Life in Vietnam - Greg Nakajo ‘94
• The Diary of an Enginerd - Ryan Kanno ‘96
• RemyOmar - Remy Hiramoto ‘88
• Straying From the Norm - Michael Ni ‘01

Additions:
• How to Change the World - Guy Kawasaki ‘72
• So Necessary… - Jason Genegabus ‘95
• Bytemarks - Burt Lum ‘73
• Olympic Dream - Taylor Takata ‘00
• The Notebook - Peter Boylan ‘97

If you know of any others, please post them in the comments and I’ll add them to the list. Mahalo!

Add an Iolani Alumni Blog »

Of the 68 Hawaii high school seniors that have been named as semifinalists in the 2008 National Merit Scholarship Program, 32 were from Iolani School. The next closest school was Punahou with 17. (This number is even more impressive when you consider that the average class size for Iolani is nearly half than that of Punahou.)

More than 1.4 million high school juniors in nearly 21,000 high schools entered the 2008 program by taking the 2006 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Semifinalists were named based on their scores and the total number is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

The school record for the total number of National Semifinalist in a single year is 33 - held by the classes of 1990, 1991 and 2006. The Class of 2006 may have surpassed that record, but one of the qualifiers left the school prior to graduation and another was a foreign student who had not yet earned his citizenship which could have put the total at 34 or 35.

See the names of the semifinalists »

McKinley coaches Bob Morikuni ‘90 and Brandon Flores ‘90 have done it again…

After finishing the boys season as the 2007 Division II State Champions, the two coaches, along with assistant Abel Werner, took their winning ways to the girls program where they picked up the 2007 OIA White Division Championship with a 63-52 victory over the Campbell Sabers on Friday night.

With the win, McKinley is 14-1 overall and will be the OIA’s top seed in the state tournament which begins on Tuesday.

UPDATE: The Tigers were awarded the #2-seed overall in the 2007 Hawaii State Division II Girls Basketball Tournament and will face the winner of Waimea and St. Andrew’s on Wednesday, May 16th at 8:00pm at Farrington Gymnasium. See the complete bracket »

The Iolani Girls Water Polo team advanced to the semifinals of the 2007 Hawaii Girls Water Polo State Tournament with a 17-7 opening round win against Kamehameha-Hawaii.

They will face #4-seed Lahainaluna today at 5.00pm at the Veterans’ Memorial Aquatic Center at Central Oahu Regional Park. Should they pick up the win, they will advance to the finals which will be played at 2:00pm on Saturday.

See the complete bracket »

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In the 2007 Hawaii State Tennis Tournament on Maui, several players for Iolani are still alive and playing in quarterfinal action today. On the boys side, the doubles team of Marcus Pearman and Kyle Shiroma (#3 seed) and David Imanaka and Braxton Sato (#6 seed) will be competing in the quarterfinals this morning at 10:30am. For the girls, the #5-seed Sara Yoshinaga will be competing in singles play along with the #3-seeded doubles team of Nikki Castel and Jaime Young. Semifinal action will be played later this afternoon with the champions to be determined on Saturday morning.

More information on the 2007 Hawaii State Tennis Championships »

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Head coach Bob Morikuni ‘90 and assistant Brandon Flores ‘90 will be playing for another championship tonight when their McKinley Lady Tigers take on the Campbell Sabers for the OIA White Division Championship. After leading the McKinley boys team to the 2007 Hawaii State Division II Championship, the two coaches moved immediately into the girls season where they led the Tigers to a 11-1 regular season record and, with their semifinal win over Waialua on Wednesday night, have already secured a state tournament berth.

The OIA White Division Championship game will be televised live on OC16 tonight at 5:30pm.

For their strong performances as the team’s top two shooters and the only senior leaders on a young, inexperienced squad, Ryan Dung and Case Miyahira were named to the 2007 ILH Basketball All-Star First team.

The Raiders finished the ILH season in second to the Punahou Buff-n-Blu and qualified the 2007 State Tournament where they lost in the quarterfinals to Kamehameha-Hawaii.

On the second team for the Raiders was sophomore swingman Liloa Nobriga. Taylor Mounts, Pablo Warner and Kela Marciel were named Honorable Mention selections.

See the complete list of ILH All-Stars »

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In the OIA, Bob Morikuni ‘90 was named the White (East) Division Coach of the Year as the head coach of the 2007 Division II State Champion McKinley Tigers.

Bob Morikuni ‘90… Remember the name. It may be the answer to a trivia question one day asking who the first head coach was to win a Division II State Basketball Championship in Hawaii.

After finishing in the middle of the pack in the regular season of the OIA White Division, the McKinley Tigers made a strong run in the OIA tournament only to fall in the finals to the Aiea Na Ali’i. That loss, though, would be the last of their 2006-07 season as the Tigers made their way through the inaugural Division II State Basketball Tournament, defeating St. Josephs in the first round, Seabury in the second round and rival Farrington in the semifinals to reach the championship game against the Kohala Cowboys.

In the final game, McKinley was able to handle the full court pressure and after a 12-10 first quarter, turned the game into a blowout outscoring the Cowboys 20-0 in the second. The game really didn’t get much closer and the Tigers were able to close the game out for a 55-28 win.

The Tigers were led by Jonathan Lee and Nainoa Lessary who scored 14 and 12 points respectively. McKinley big man, Earvin Sione, also had a big impact with an impressive overall performance scoring 9 points with 11 rebounds and 7 blocks.

Iolani JV volleyball coach and alumnus Brandon Flores ‘90 is an assistant coach on the McKinley staff along with Duane Omori and Abel Werner.

More about the 2007 McKinley Tigers Basketball Team »

As the 3rd ranked team in the Eastern Division of the OIA White Conference, the McKinley Tigers were just a game over .500 at 7-5 and hoping to play well enough to finish in the top 3 and qualify for the inaugural Division II State Tournament. Through the first two rounds, the Tigers knocked off the Western Division’s #2 seed, Waipahu, 57-47 and then took down the East #1 seed Kaiser Cougers (previously 12-1) 57-56. The underdog Tigers, with a state tournament berth secured, now find themselves in the finals against the #1 team in the West, the Aiea Na Alii.

The McKinley Tigers are coached by Bob Morikuni ‘90 (head coach - far left) and assistants Brandon Flores ‘90 (second from left), Duane Omori (far right) and Abel Werner (second from right). This year will mark the second state tournament appearance for the Tigers since Morikuni has become the head coach. In 2004, his first year at the helm, Bob took an undersized Tiger team into the Division I State Tournament and was among the select few in consideration for state “Coach of the Year”. That team was led by star quarterback and current assistant coach Abel Werner.

The OIA Division II Championship game, McKinley vs. Aiea, will be televised live on OC16 on Friday, February 16th at 5:30pm.

(Note: In Division I, the Kalaheo Mustangs will face the Kaimuki Bulldogs at 7:00pm for the OIA Championship. Kalaheo is coached by basketball standout and Iolani alumnus Chico Furtado ‘76.)