Monday Morning MIL: Corniel steps down as two-time state champion coach at Maui High

The parallels between Ken Nakayama and Chase Corniel are inescapable. 

Both stepped away as two-time Division I state champion baseball coaches from Maui Interscholastic League schools — Nakayama led Moloka’i High School to back-to-back crowns in 1999 and 2000, while Corniel guided Maui High to state crowns in 2017 and 2024.

All of those state titles were remarkably against the odds, and the 2024 Sabers’ crown was shared with Baldwin when weather and the school calendar got in the way of finishing the game.

Both men are incredibly stoic and soft spoken and when they turned over the reins of their programs, they did so with the respect of their schools’ communities and a personal sense of accomplishment.

“I fulfilled my coaching goals,” Corniel told me Saturday, something similar to what Nakayama said to me nearly a quarter century ago. Corniel made the decision to step away earlier this month.

The most important similarity between these two baseball coaches is that they are both All-American fathers. 

Nakayama coached sons Apana and Kaimana to MIL Player of the Year awards. That may happen for Corniel some day — with 9-year-old Ezra and 6-year-old Noa — but the opportunity for Corniel to spend more time with his youngest children is clearly now.

Corniel, 44, is a counselor at Maui High, a class of 1998 alum of the Kahului school and has played meaningful roles on that campus for a couple decades, including vice principal.

Now, he’ll get to spend some time with Ezra, who was born with bilateral microtia atresia — a condition that involves an under-development of the ears and made him Deaf+ at birth. After two surgeries in Beverly Hills, Calif., Ezra now has hearing aid implants and is a rambunctious third grader at Kīhei Elementary School. 

He stole the post-game show with his dance moves after the state high school championship game was called by weather in May at Moanalua High School field.

Noa is nonverbal autistic and a kindergartener at Kīhei. 

Both love baseball because of their dad.

“It’s for my family,” Chase Corniel said. “First of all, I want to thank my wife. She has been my biggest support and also my sons, I do want to focus on them and their development through this important time in their lives.”

Regina Corniel, Chase’s wife and mom to Ezra and Noa, told me that Chase is deeply involved as a parent advocate with many agencies throughout Hawai’i that support autistic and Deaf communities. Those times of giving and guiding are something that Chase Corniel never mentions to me — and we’ve spoken hundreds of times.

He has been head coach at Maui High since 2013 with one season off, in 2018, to help with Ezra’s development. The Sabers won their first MIL title this year since 2008.

“It’s difficult, but at the same time I think this is an important time in my family’s lives, in my life as well, and I really want to focus on that,” Corniel said of his decision to leave the MHS baseball program.

The Corniel family also includes older children Mykah Corniel-Sagun, 24, and Krysta Sagun-Corniel, 25. It can get crazy busy for the family — Regina is closing in on two college degrees in business and is set to graduate with honors in the spring.

Corniel spread thanks all around to his players, assistant coaches, MHS administration, friends and family, but it is clear that he will be missed.

“Coach Corniel is a well-respected and dedicated coach,” Maui High athletic director Mike Ban said in a text message to HJI. “Under his leadership, we have seen a growth in our baseball program. Although we will miss him, we thank him and his family for his dedication and commitment in developing our young men.”

There is no sport in Maui County where the island excels at more than baseball — the 12 Division I state titles the league owns is testament to that. For example, the MIL has no D-I state titles in boys basketball nor football. 

Corniel has been a part of the MHS baseball program for nearly 30 years, off and on. It is hard to imagine him not being at the next Sabers’ game I attend.

“I feel like I have accomplished and exceeded all my coaching goals and it’s time to pass the torch,” he said.

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FOOTBALL: BALDWIN BREAKS 22-GAME LOSING STREAK

It wasn’t necessarily as pretty as Baldwin High School football coach Cody Nakamura would have liked, but Saturday’s 13-7 victory over Kaua’i High School at War Memorial Stadium was clearly a big step for the Bears. 

It was the Bears’ first victory since Oct. 23, 2021, when they beat King Kekaulike 22-0 — it broke a 22-game losing streak, the last 17 of which have come in the first two seasons with Nakamura as head coach.

“It feels good to finally get on the board with a win,” Nakamura said. “It wasn’t pretty, it was ugly, we had to scratch it out, but that’s normally how it goes. You know, you’re searching for that first win after two and a half seasons, two seasons with no wins, that’s usually how it goes. We got that first win and that feels good. We’ve got a long, long way to go.”

The Bears took a 13-0 lead on short touchdown runs by quarterback Jordan Carbonell and running back Tyler Antonio in the second quarter and then held on for the victory after Kaua’i climbed within six points on a touchdown with less than 3 minutes to play.

In other MIL preseason action over the weekend, Lahainaluna lost 27-14 to Valley Center, Calif., and Kamehameha Maui lost 49-0 to Saint Louis. Maui High’s game at Kea’au was cancelled due to weather concerns from Hurricane Hone.

MIL play begins this week as Maui High visits Kamehameha Maui on Friday, Moloka’i makes its MIL 11-player debut at Lahainaluna on Saturday and Baldwin faces King Kekaulike at War Memorial Stadium on Saturday.

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PADDLING: HAWAIIAN CANOE CLUB GIRLS CLAIM GOLD, SILVER AT WORLD SPRINTS

With a crew made up of three girls from King Kekaulike High School and three from Kamehameha Maui, Hawaiian Canoe Club’s girls 16 crew claimed a gold medal in the 1,000-meter and silver in the 500-meter races at the IVF International World Championships held in Hilo last week.

King Kekaulike’s Nanea Guarin, Opal Kenison and Hi’ipoi Starbuck combined with Kamehameha Maui’s Mekia Kekona-Eaton, Mikaela Benavides and Kaheawai Sepulveda to win the medals in each race.

The crew won the 1,000 meters on Friday and took second in the 500 meters on Saturday.

Starbuck and Guarin are freshmen, while the other four are juniors in high school.

The group qualified for the world championships at a regatta in March and then made up the nucleus of state titles earlier this month for the HCC girls 15 and 16 crews.

“Four of these girls have paddled for me since they were little kids,” veteran HCC keiki coach Paul Luuwai said Saturday. “Kenison and Guarin, they came in this year. This is their first year paddling, ever. To mesh quickly enough to win a world title, that’s really amazing.”

*Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative’s “Monday Morning MIL” columns appear weekly on Monday mornings with updates on local sports in the Maui Interscholastic League and elsewhere around Maui County. Please send column ideas — anything having to do with sports in Maui County — as well as results and photos to rob@hjinow.org.