Monday Morning MIL: There’s a new Coach Lee for Maui High School football

Life has been moving fast for Pohai Lee since New Year’s Eve when he emailed a job application to be the next head football coach at Maui High School. On Saturday, he was making the rounds in the Izumi “Shine” Matsui Athletic Center on the Kahului school’s campus as the Sabers’ new head coach.

“I haven’t been in this gym for a while,” said Lee, who brings an impressive resume to the Maui High football helm. “It’s been a whirlwind. To tell you the truth, it wasn’t even on my radar until a friend of mine (Kevin Kawamura) from Maui High, a Maui High graduate, convinced me to throw my hat in the ring around New Year’s Eve, which was the final day to apply.”

On New Year’s Day, Maui High athletic director Mike Ban set up an interview with Lee and the five-member selection committee for Jan. 8. A day later, Lee had another interview with new Maui High principal Ty Ogasawara and the job was offered on the same call. 

When all the logistics were worked out, Lee agreed to take the Sabers’ job. He will leave his current job as a physical education teacher at Kalani High School on O’ahu for a similar position at Maui High prior to the 2025-26 school year. Lee takes over for Aylett Wallwork, who held the position for the last three seasons.

Lee was the head coach for Maui High’s crosstown rival Baldwin High School from 2015 to 2021 — he guided the Bears to three Maui Interscholastic League Division I titles, in 2015, 2016 and 2019 (there was no MIL season in 2020 due to the pandemic). Lee’s MIL record as the head coach for the Bears was 29-19.

The new Coach Lee in Kahului will be chasing the historic run of the legendary Curtis Lee, a former Kansas State star player who retired as Sabers head coach in 2004 as the winningest current coach in the state. Pohai Lee is the 10th head coach to take the Maui High helm since Curtis Lee retired with nine overall MIL titles in 21 seasons.

Pohai Lee is the son of Tommy Lee and the nephew of Cal Lee and Ron Lee, all of whom had legendary careers coaching high school football on O’ahu, most notably Cal Lee’s remarkable head coaching run at Saint Louis School. The first three calls Pohai Lee made after taking the Maui High job were to his father and uncles, all of whom are likely to be involved in some manner for Maui High, Pohai Lee said.

But all Pohai Lee has heard from Maui High folks since accepting the job on Wednesday has been about Curtis Lee.

“I tell you, he was a legend here,” Pohai Lee said of Curtis Lee. “When I got here in 2002, funny story, I went to the bank and they saw my last name Lee. The teller asked if I was related to him. So, right then I knew, ‘yeah, it’s a different Lee that is kind of the legend here.’ ”

Since his hiring was announced on social media on Thursday, Pohai Lee has also heard from a few of his former colleagues at Baldwin, where he started as an offensive coordinator from 2002-06. He has also coached offense — from wide receivers to quarterbacks to coordinator — at the University of Montana, Western Oregon University, Thomas More University in Kentucky and Montana Western University. 

In high school, he has coached at Woodburn (Ore.) High School, Saint Louis, and McKinley besides his time at Baldwin. He served as athletic director at Damien Memorial School in Honolulu for the 2006-07 school year and for the last 2 1/2 years he has been a P.E. teacher at Kalani.

“We’re excited, the experience that Coach Pohai brings I think will really benefit our team and hopefully help with some of the culture stuff and just get boys out there that want to play,” Ogasawara said, adding that an important part of his interview with Lee was Lee’s willingness to bring back Maui High football graduates to help coach the sport. “We cannot be happier to bring some of our kids back with the experience to join Coach Pohai and lead our team.”

Lee spoke with Jimmy Morimoto, a former Baldwin head coach and current assistant athletic director for football operations at the University of Montana, on Thursday. Morimoto told Lee that they now have a friendly rivalry, similar to the Montana Grizzlies and Montana State Bobcats.

“I said ‘the question I have for you is are we still friends?’” Pohai Lee recalled. “He said, ‘Let’s just say it will be more like the Griz and Cats now.’ We’re all fine, we go back a long ways. I don’t know about my other Baldwin buddies, but when we get to that point we’ll find out.”

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BOYS SOCCER: Baldwin beats King Kekaulike 2-1, closes in on MIL title

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The Baldwin High School boys soccer team beat King Kekaulike 2-1 on Wednesday to take a big step towards the Bears’ third straight Maui Interscholastic League Division I championship. 

The Bears are now 8-1-0 in MIL play, good for 24 points in the standings, with three matches to play. King Kekaulike is 7-2-0, 21 points, also with three to play. Baldwin now owns the head-to-head tiebreaker with its second victory in three matches over King Kekaulike.

Both teams have already clinched berths at the state tournament, which starts Feb. 3 with the first round at regional sites and continues Feb. 6-8.

Baldwin freshman Jai Carbonell stepped in to goal after starting senior goalkeeper Alex Amasiu broke a finger in practice on Monday — Carbonell played a stellar match with several acrobatic saves. He usually plays forward and scored the only goal in the second meeting between the Bears and Na Ali’i on Dec. 20. He had never played goalie in an actual match in his life prior to Wednesday.

“I’ve done it just for fun, but this is the first time competitively that I’ve played goalie,” Carbonell said. “I was a little bit nervous, but once we got in the lead and I made a couple good saves then I was chill about it.”

Amasiu has been the starter in goal since the third match of the season when original starter Jesse Lau broke his finger. Amasiu played in the field against Na Ali’i on Wednesday with his finger casted. Lau is expected to be back soon.

Tsubasa Thompson put the Bears ahead 1-0 with a rocket shot from 35 yards out in the 29th minute. Maika Warner’s goal made it 2-0 in favor of Baldwin in the 64th minute before King Kekaulike closed within 2-1 on a late goal by Zion Mock. 

HJI’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.