 Hi, I'm Rusty Komori and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach for the Punahou Boys varsity tennis team for 22 years and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. My book Beyond the Lines is about leadership, creating a superior culture of excellence and finding greatness, which is what this show is all about. My special guest today is someone that I've known and respected for many years. He's the former Punahou School golf director and current head coach for Hawaii Pacific University's men's and women's golf teams. He is Ed Kageyama and today we are going beyond the greens. Hey, Ed, how's it going? Rusty, thank you for having me. Things are going great. Oh, you're such a legendary golf expert in Hawaii and I totally believe that HPU is so lucky to have you as their head coach now. Well, I hope that plays out that way. You know, that's that's the plan, at least. You know, I'm very actually very fortunate for the opportunity. And, you know, college coaching has always been something that I aspire to do. I didn't know if I would ever get the opportunity to do it. So this is actually, you know, it's an exciting time for me. You know, push my boundaries a little bit, get out of my comfort zone. And so it's a good time. And let's start from the beginning. Can you tell me about your early years through your college years? Sure. Born and raised on Oahu, grew up on the East Honolulu side. And, you know, I went through, I went to Punahou from kindergarten all the way through the 12th grade, played little league and learned to play golf with my dad. And never really took any lessons on golf. It's just kind of recreational, having fun with my dad, played baseball all the way through high school. And that was really my sport that I focused on, but I played golf more recreationally with my dad. And then, you know, going to, I went to University of Washington after Punahou and spent some time in Seattle, really loved Seattle. And we had a, my family actually had a really strong connection to University of Washington as my dad was the recruit during the Don James Eros and so going to, going to Seattle was nothing and it was a lot of fun. And I really enjoyed my time while in Seattle. Ed, let's talk about your family. Can you tell me a little bit about your wife and your kids? Sure. My, my, my wife, she calls herself country girl with mags. And she says, she's from Hilo. Yeah. She's a country girl and I got three kids, a son, Ethan, who's 21, daughter Avery, who's 19. And then my third daughter is Kendall, who's 15. And so my son's at the college at Loyola Marama in LA and actually studying abroad right now in London. And then my middle daughter, Avery is at George Fox University and then my youngest Kendall is at Mid-Pak. Let's, you know, let's talk about your daughter. Avery for a little bit. I heard she's ranked number four in NCA golf division three. Is that correct? She, she plays on the George Fox team, which is ranked number four in the nation right now. It's a great program. She's really in a younger time, a really good coach. You know, that was the thing when we're looking at schools that she wanted somewhere where it's really strong program and that the coach was, was a really good coach that was a really good coach. That would be very nurturing supportive and would have a really good, she would have a really good experience in playing college golf. So, yeah, she's loving it there. It's, it's a little cold right now in Portland or just south of Portland in the Willamette Valley. But, you know, she's really looking forward to getting, getting going in the spring season. Nice. Now, Ed, I got to ask you, I have no idea about this, but what was, what was the first job that you've ever had in your life? Well, there's a couple that I kind of consider one, one is my first, first job, real job where I actually had to fill out an application and go to an interview was Domino's. My friend and I decided we wanted to go get summer jobs. And so we, we were Domino's delivery guys. I think that was junior year summer and we did that for two summers. And, you know, that's a lot of fun. Got to see a lot of what's going on. Our territory was Ward Avenue to Diamond Head to Waikiki and up into Mono. So it was a really big territory. And so it was fun. We had a really good time. Made a little bit of money, which is good for us kids. But, you know, it was good. It learned a lot and met some really nice people. And so it was a really good time. My second, my other job, which I want to bring up to you because it's a mutual friend of ours. Yeah. That I worked for Vernon Luke. Oh, yeah. Who's an avid tennis player. Yep. And he had a few businesses and my friend and I would go out and we would clean his business, some of the businesses and do some maintenance work. And just, just whatever he needed done, we would go do. So that's, that was also a lot of fun too. Just a quick thing on Vernon, you know, he and I, when we play doubles together, we've never lost or undefeated. So, but he would always have me as his doubles partner. Yeah. Yeah. So, Ed, what other jobs have you had in the golf industry? I had a bunch. I started off as an apprentice golf assistant professional at Turtle Bay. And the apprenticeship is, is generally about three years. And you do everything that's required of you at the golf club. And then you go through your PGA education on working toward PGA membership. And so I started there in 91. I got my membership in 94. And so I did my apprenticeship that there at Turtle Bay as an assistant golf professional, which was in, I think one of the best crews golf crews that I've ever worked with in my entire career. And a lot of us are still in the golf industry. And then from there, I was a head pro at Hawaii Prince recently after they opened the golf course there. Then I went actually joined up with Billy Casper golf, which is a management company. Oh, yeah. And I was with them for about 20 years. And from that point, I did a lot of training. I was a general manager at multiple facilities. I did receivership work for lenders and for the state. So I could allow, I did the receivership there. I did the receivership at Kanapali. I did some construction at Coral Creek. So we did the construction open at Coral Creek. Same thing at Pula K on Kauai. But Kokuiolono on Kauai also. And then I got to really build a territory and some work in business development throughout Asia. Wow. And that was, that was a lot of fun. And it took me all over Asia. Golf took me all over Asia. And it was a great experience. That's why I believe you are one of our state's top golf experts. Ed. You are one of our state's top golf experts. Ed. And you know, when you were at Punahou as Punahou schools golf director and head coach of the boys and girls varsity one teams. You won 17 state championships. I want to ask you what did you focus on with the players on your team? Yeah, first, first of all, yes, there are 17 state titles, but I won't say I want them. There is true. Team effort and it takes a lot of effort amongst the kids. And, you know, they're all great kids and they work really hard. And so we have to answer your question. I think it's, it's really setting a tone for the program, giving them goals and objectives to work for. And not just goals for the year or the season, but really giving them sort of a visual feedback. About what the program is about, what the expectations are, the program. And so they're always working for a bigger goal. Not just tomorrow, but really down the line, you know, two, three, four, five, 10 years down the line. And I instill in them that even though they're playing for us for a very short period of time, but they're setting the table for future golfers to come together. And so the way that they play the way to conduct themselves and the professionalism, you know, is really important because the younger kids will look up to them. And as a 17, 18 year old, being a mentor is a new concept to a lot of them. But I teach them, I want to instill in them that there is some responsibility that they hold. Because there are younger kids looking up to them and watching the way they conduct themselves in the golf course, the way to handle themselves, how hard they work at things. And so having them sort of have that back out of mind that they're working for the future, the future of the program, that I think that lends itself to being successful. You know, your players and your assistant coaches, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, your players and your assistant coaches, you know, they're all a reflection of you and you're a reflection of them. What did you focus on with your assistant coaches, you know, so that you guys are all, you know, preaching the same message and trying to achieve that high culture of excellence? You know, I looked at the opportunity to work with the coaches is also similar to with the kids that I'm trying to build a skill maybe that they're, they want to refine a little bit more or give them an opportunity to lead where they haven't had the opportunity prior to. One of my players in the past became, you know, came back to coach for the program while she's in college. And, you know, I looked at that, I really encouraged her to coach because I think it would build a lot of confidence in her and give her, give her some opportunities to lead a group of people where maybe she didn't have that opportunity in the past and then as that, as she would do that, that will build a skill set maybe that she didn't have before didn't have the opportunity to develop before. And so I look at the assistant coaches and the head coaches of the other teams as really an opportunity for them to learn more, experience more and then to build skill sets that maybe they don't have or they want to refine. And you and you and I both know that it's super difficult to win one state championship, let alone multiple championships. So I want to ask you, you know, looking back at the 17 state championships, what, what allowed your teams to achieve success but also to sustain success year after year? You know, I think part of it is to take the individual, not focus on the individual aspects of the play but more as a group and a group goals. And then as soon as each individual can take sort of have the individual themselves take a step back and put the team goals in front of them individually. That's that I think that's where you start seeing success as an organization or a group or a team that when the team goals can become priority for everybody and everyone's on the same page, then everyone's working toward the same goal. You know, having maybe a bunch of individuals working toward their own individual goals that you lose the cohesiveness. They're probably different plans and agendas and goals. And a lot of times they don't mesh together. And so in order to really achieve team goals, organizational goals that everyone's got to be on the same page, everyone's got to put their individual selves sort of in the same seat of the team. And, you know, that's what we try to that's what I preach and that's what I really try to instill in the kids because, you know, beyond beyond high school golf, that's that's a skill that will carry them through the rest of their lives. And I like hearing that and, you know, golf is an individual sport just like tennis and wrestling and track. How would you, how would you make your teams feel like a real team that everything we talked about and everything instruction and strategy and those types of things always centered around the team. And as soon as we had some experience where there was maybe some individual aspirations taking, taking sort of a forefront that it was addressed and addressed in a positive way, but that team goals and objectives of the team are first. And then if, if everyone could put the team first and have those goals and objectives six achieved, then all the individual goals will happen automatically. There's just that's the way it works. And so having everyone focus on a sort of team first and a team of goals and objectives, it actually will take care of everything individually for themselves also at the same time. I love hearing that. But it won't work, but it won't work the other way. Yeah. If someone puts focus on the individual goals, that doesn't mean the team goals will be achieved. I love hearing that. Ed, we're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we're going to continue going beyond the greens. You're watching beyond the lines on think tech Hawaii with my special guest, Ed Kageyama. We will be back in a quick minute. My name is Mitch Ewan. I'm from the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute. And I'm the host of Hawaii, the state of clean energy. We're on every Wednesday at four o'clock. And we hope that we have interesting guests who talk to us about various energy things that are happening in Hawaii all the way from PV, the windmills, the hydrogen, most of my heart, electric buses and electric vehicles. So please dial in every Wednesday at four o'clock on Hawaii, the state of clean energy. Aloha. Welcome back to Beyond the Lines on think tech Hawaii. My special guest today is the former Punahou School golf director who won 17 state golf championships. And he's the current head coach for HPU's men's and women's golf teams. He is Ed Kageyama. And today we are going beyond the greens. And I want to ask you if you have a story about, you know, coming from behind and being resilient with your teams. Sure. A few years ago at a state tournament, the guys were playing at Turtle Bay. And the first day, the body language just wasn't good. They, you know, they weren't playing very well. Heads were down. And, you know, you could just tell that they weren't happy with the way they played. They're actually becoming much more negative and pessimistic. And, you know, obviously, and so we were, we were second with many strokes behind the leading team. And so at the meal, our team dinner after the round, we sat down with them. We talked about positivity and just being positive. And then how, you know, how body language and attitudes have a lot to do with outcomes when we're playing sports and golf. And that when you have sort of these more positive outlook and things that you actually start getting lucky bounces. And a lot of times those bounces will just happen, but it's just more a mindset on either being a positive or negative mindset is how we will view what things happen to us. So as if you have a more negative mindset, you tend to become more of a victim, a victim mentality of a victim of the situation that has happened to me. And then it becomes a downward cycle, a downward spiral that at some point in time, you hit bottom where you got to break the cycle. And so the whole focus on the second day was being positive and just being positive about everything. And every coach, she used the term gratitude and having gratitude about just being on the golf course being is a beautiful day and just a gratitude of the opportunity that it starts creating more of this positive mindset. And, you know, and so that, you know, we talked about being positive on the golf course. And then, you know, these lucky bounces will just happen. And during the tournament, a couple of guys missed a couple of shots, but they rolled through the trees and onto the green. One of them actually hit a shot that hit the flag stick on a par five hit the green and two on a par on an 18th hole. And what normally would have probably bounced over the green and left them in a very bad spot. It actually hit the flag stick and dropped about a foot from the hole. And so it's just these things that, you know, when you have more positive, more positive outlook and positive mindset that, you know, these things just happen. And that's why it's important that I always stress to all my players that just being positive, these things happen and you get the good breaks. And we ended up winning the state title coming from behind and it's just very lucky, very fortunate that a series of events happened and then we had enough in the end and we ended up coming from behind and winning. I totally agree with you. You know, negativity helps you lose and positivity helps you win. Now let's talk about your, your HPU golf teams. I mean, this is your first year as head coach. Tell me, tell me about your HPU golf team and you know, what are your goals for the team this year? The, you know, first of all, the kids that are here playing, you know, they're all really good kids. They're all really motivated, good student-athletes. They get a juggle between college life, studying for exams, doing other homework and then also working at their golf. And so they, you know, they're all dedicated. They're all working really hard and it's a really good, fun group of kids to be around. And so I am really enjoying it. I do have goals that, you know, I want to be winning or contending in the Pac-West. You know, I want to make some NCAA appearances and there is a process to that. And you know, what the exciting part about it is being able to put the pieces together to, you know, achieve those goals and work, you know, every day work, you know, take one step closer to achieving those goals. And so hopefully we can get there in a few years. But the recruiting process is a lot of fun and it's something new that I have to learn about and it's great seeing a lot of you, your kids who want to come to Hawaii, want to come to HPU and play some golf. And so it's, you know, it's actually a fun time right now. Well, you're a great leader Ed and I think it's just going to be a great situation on both ends. And I want to ask you too, you run the BMW golf tournament here in Hawaii and can you tell me more about that? So the BMW worldwide puts on the largest amateur golf tournament in the world. And so that it culminates in a, the world championships and that rotates around the world. And so there is a US final, which is at Pinehurst every year in the fall. And so we have the Hawaii regional qualifier here in May. So every spring we have the qualifier here and then the winners from that tournament will go on into Pinehurst and compete in Pinehurst. And then if you're fortunate enough to go on to win at Pinehurst then you go into the world final. And for Hawaii contingency, we've actually had some very good success on national qual, national winners going on to the world final and some going to Dubai who I got to go with them to Dubai, South Africa, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Argentina. And so it's, my goal is to create this experiential once in a lifetime opportunity for people who can make it that far. And we've been very successful in that and it's a very fun job for me. And I heard that Hall of Fame NBA basketball player Ray Allen was very honored to play golf with you. I don't know if he was honored, but we were honored. Yeah, I got a call from through some Nike friends who, Ray Allen was in town. He did some clinics for basketball. He and his friend Kevin Olly who they both played in the NBA together were in town and they had some free time and so they wanted to play some golf. So my son is a big basketball fan and has a great opportunity to take my son and share the experience with my son. And Ray Allen, he's actually a really good, he's got long arms, long levers and actually can hit the ball really far. And so it was a lot of fun. And so my son knew all about Ray Allen even though it's sort of my generation of player but he knew all about Ray Allen. He knew all about the shot that Ray Allen made to win the game and we go on to force the game seven final I think is what it was. I remember that. Yeah, it was a special opportunity, special experience for my son and I. And I want to talk with you about a part in my book about a mindset and looking forward to challenges. How would you get your teams in the right mindset to really look forward to adversities and challenges that inevitably it's going to happen in the season? Yeah, that's an interesting question. That's a good question. And part of it is really about goal setting and that if we can set goals, lofty, not necessarily lofty goals but goals further down the line then you can paint a big picture for everyone on the team. And if everyone can understand sort of the big picture of what we're trying to do as these small hurdles in life and in our golf round come up we can always stick to sort of a big picture plan. We can kind of go over those bumps in our round and maybe in the round or one round maybe not be as good but as long as we keep moving forward and everyone keeps that mindset of sort of the big picture what we have planned on the big picture then the small little hurdles that we come through we can just get past them as soon as we can to come and go and then we move on. Another part in my book Beyond the Lines, we talk about environment and how would you get your teams to deal with the crowds or wet and windy conditions or how would you have your players be in the right mindset to deal with the environment? It's part of that gratitude thing where we're looking forward to the opportunity to be there and that's simply it. We're not trying to go out and shoot a score or try to win or anything like that. There's not specific goals like that but just that we have gratitude to being out there. It's a great opportunity that not everyone gets this opportunity to do this and so we should be relishing in the opportunity and environment to go do this and specifically talking to sort of maybe people being nervous in front of crowds or something that being nervous in that environment is actually something that actually is very positive and I stress that to the kids that if you're not nervous about it then it's probably not special and so being nervous about it is a sign that it's a special place a special opportunity, a special environment and to bathe yourself in this feeling of being nervous which is really just it's a positive environment and not to fight being nervous or trying not to be nervous because then you're trying to suppress some of these feelings and it becomes more of a negative type of experience but let the nervousness and everything just wash all over you and just bathe in the opportunity and then you can turn into a positive and then you can really have this positive outlook when you go out and perform and for them you know when they're nervous I mean it shows me that they care about what they're doing I mean I would be nervous if they weren't nervous right, right that's exactly it it's a great opportunity and you should be excited about it so Ed I want to ask you one more thing why are you a successful leader and coach? you know a couple things that I think that I'm a team builder I believe that in order to sort of achieve goals you need to build things and so it's finding people that fit certain roles objectives and finding people with sort of a like mindset and so you put all these pieces together and then you create this culture of success although I won't define success as winning necessarily it's more of achieving goals and if we can achieve goals then we're successful and so I'm a firm believer in that that you know me all the people on the team I'm the least important person I don't swim club I don't make a putt my role is really I drive the car get everyone to the golf course and give them the opportunity to go play golf and so it's up to everyone on the team to really you know do their job and go out and support each other and play for each other and then that's when you start sort of achieving the goals that you set forth Ed I really appreciate you taking time to be on the show today I mean and sharing those super great insights about you know why you guys are so good through so many years and I know that your teams at HPU will have that kind of success with you as well well hope so thank you very much and thank you for the opportunity and hopefully I'll be back here one day talking about HPU golf after we win the national title totally thanks for your time Ed thanks Rusty thank you and thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii and a special thank you to my clothing sponsor Eolani Incorporated please visit RustyKamori.com and my book is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble I hope that Ed and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs Aloha