Hundreds turn out for farewell to Kalaheo’s Lee Cashman

Talkstory central for the Hawaii high school sports fanatic

By Paul Honda
Editor
HondaReport.com
Sunday, January 18, 2004

KAILUA—For once, Lee Cashman, the calmest athletic director in O’ahu Interscholastic Association history, was in a spot.

Hailed at a farewell luau Sunday after 35 years of service, Cashman and wife Yvonne stood in front of a makeshift stage at Kalaheo High School gymnasium. A litany of awards, including honors from the mayor’s office and Gov. Linda Lingle, rained upon one of the OIA’s unofficial dean of administrators.

But when Assistant Athletic Director Lewis Fuddy and teacher Kay Johnson presented Cashman with a special, wooden plaque for his service, he became just another fellow who didn’t know better than to serve with all his might for three-and-a-half decades. Unconsciously, Cashman kept a constant squeeze on the palm leaves draped across the front of the stage.

It was a rare moment of a nervousness—before a crowd of about 400 colleagues, coaches, family and friends—for a man known for composure, humility and tremendous success.

A multitude of men and women spoke during the evening program, speaking eloquently and concisely—with the exception of tender and highly emotional testimonials by a former player and one of his children.

• Principal Dr. James Schlosser broke it down with numbers. Cashman, athletic director for 31 years after serving as a girls’ basketball coach for four seasons, spent approximately 10,000 nights working for Kalaheo’s student-athletes. Schlosser also noted that just about 14,853 student-athletes played during Cashman’s tenure. “Now he gets to enjoy 60 percent of his salary for doing nothing,” Schlosser quipped. “Plus benefits and free admission to all Kalaheo games. Vince Lombardi once said, ‘There are talkers and there are doers. Mr. Cashman is a doer.’”

• OIA Executive Secretary Dwight Toyama found an acronym suited to Cashman’s plethora of qualities. “K is for the kindest man we’ve been associated with,” the longtime administrator said. “A is for accomplished and all his accolades. L is for his loyalty to Kalaheo, and also to the league. A is for affable. H is for humble. E is for expertise, and he has always shared it with us. And O is for organized.”

• Legendary coach James Alegre also took the podium. The former Radford basketball guru credited his former co-worker for accepting—and excelling—in the art of management. “He was our president for a few terms. He is our basketball coordinator. He organizes the (OIA) East track meets. He even was the OIA banquet coordinator, and 600 people turn out for that,” Alegre said. “He’s also been the state coordinator for track and field, which includes finding sites. He should be proud. He started this program from scratch. He’s always been a hard worker, and he’s always been calm.”

• Longtime Nanakuli Athletic Director Hugh Taufa’asau relished memories of playing basketball with Cashman at Maryknoll. They parted ways when Taufa’asau transferred to Saint Louis in high school, where they had a friendly rivalry on the hardwood. That friendship extended into college and into their profession. “He’s always been there if I call and need advice,” he said.

• The man who inadvertently bumped Cashman out of coaching is Merv Lopes, who went from Kailua to Kalaheo, and eventually to national prominence at Chaminade University—then known as Chaminade College. “Looking at all those things,” he said, glancing at the banners blanketing the makai wall of the gym, “speaks to how Lee gets people to work together. He gave me my first opportunity to coach at Kalaheo.”

Lopes, who joked about the way he “put his foot in his mouth” and eventually lost his job at Kalaheo, credited Cashman with allowing him to be himself. “Lee never talked to me once about ‘don’t do that,’ or ‘why did you do this?’ Lee has the ability to keep things under control.” Lopes also reminisced about his three-year stint with Kalaheo’s student-athletes.

“In those days, we had no gym. We had to go to King (Intermediate). We had 5:30 a.m. practice because we couldn’t practice at night. The players were always there, ready to be picked up before practice. That’s the kind of young men that are in this community. You just don’t find that any more.”

Lopes, now retired from a long career as a counselor in the DOE and living in Waikoloa on the Big Island, gave Cashman kudos for his hiring decisions. “He hired the greatest coach we ever had,” Lopes said of Cashman’s decision to bring in Pete Smith. “I love you, Lee, and I wish you good luck.”

• Johnson, the longtime teacher, was always impressed with Cashman’s values. “He always balanced work with his family,” she said. “Thank God he lives only a few blocks away.”

• Teri Navarro, a former player, easily remembered her teammates and her coach (Cashman) from the Lady Mustangs’ successful run in the mid-‘70s. She admitted, however, that she couldn’t exactly remember what year she played on a title team. Cashman guided the girls to titles in the ’77-78 and ’78-79 seasons. Navarro didn’t come from a steady family situation, and being exposed to basketball opened worlds for her. “Being on the basketball team was my favorite part of high school. Some people leave footprints in your life, and no one impacted my life like Lee Cashman,” she said.

On and off the court, she said, Cashman looked out for his team. “He fed us so much, I think, so that we’d have some meat on our bones, and the Kahuku girls wouldn’t push us around so much,” she said, just half-kidding. “He would watch over us, and he even scolded me about the kind of guy I was dating. He opened up his family to me. I got to see a happy, loving family, and the way he loved them. It gave me hope for having a happy life of my own.”

The final speaker was Colleen Cashman-Valdez, Lee’s daughter. Dabbing her tears after hearing Navarro’s tribute to her father, Cashman-Valdez alternated between poignancy and one-liners about her pregnancy. “I’m proud to be here and see hundreds of people who love my dad as much as me,” adding that her father will be a busy babysitter soon. His first grandchild is due in one month. She thanked a plethora of Kalaheo supporters, including organizers and co-emcees Cathy Ferreira and Nakashima.

She also had a special mahalo for Ken Hamada, a police officer who has teamed with Kevin Samson to keep watch at Kalaheo athletic events for many years. “The last two years, Mr. Hamada picked up my dad and took him to volleyball and basketball games. He brought him home each time so mom didn’t have to worry about him driving home so tired late at night,” she said.

Cashman stepped up, with Yvonne at his side, and patiently accepted his awards in stride. He had a dear friend in mind. “Keep Pete in your prayers,” he said of the recently retired boys’ basketball coach. Smith is rehabilitating from the effects of a stroke. Smith was in line to become the next athletic director, and Cashman expects him back eventually.

“This school needs him,” Cashman said, pointing at the championship banners. “And he needs the school.”

When he looked out among the crowd to his colleagues, he smiled. “I’ve spent a lot of miserable hours with my fellow ADs,” he quipped. “Our public schools are in solid hands with Dwight.”

And he recalled the coaching career that he once missed dearly. He stepped down to allow Lopes to take the reins at Kalaheo. “Nobody knows this, but the plan was for me to serve five years under Merv and learn from him,” Cashman said. “I learned from him to not be embarrassed to do what I have to do, to lead and support the kids.”

Finally, Cashman gazed at Kalaheo’s longtime staff of basketball coaches. “Loyalty,” he said, fighting off tears. “These guys are Kalaheo.”

The night of celebration—and two standing ovations—ended with a series of group pictures with Cashman. By pau hana time, he was drenched with perspiration—an apt way for a dedicated coach and athletic director to go out. “My kids came back tonight. They played for me back there,” he said, pointing at the banners that Cashman-coached teams won. “There’ve been two generations here. Some of our coaches have children of former players here now.

“This is my highlight,” he said. “My wife got to see everyone, and they recognized her. You can’t do this without a good wife. People can’t be an AD without that support.”

Looking back

In all, Kalaheo won 41 league titles and six state crowns during Cashman’s era. Twice, he guided the Mustangs to basketball crowns.

Cashman’s beginnings were a life lesson in giving unconditionally. The third of six children, his parents passed away when he was just 3, and he went to live with an uncle and aunt, the Akis.

After spending his early elementary school years at Kamehameha, Cashman wound up at Maryknoll on a sports scholarship. He was required to play several sports: basketball, baseball and tennis.

After a standout athletic career, he was offered a tennis scholarship to play at a college on the East Coast. He opted to stay home and attend the University of Hawaii at Manoa. During that time—1966 was near the start of the Vietnam War—Cashman enlisted in the National Guard. He also attended technical school to study meteorology.

“It’s amazing all the things you find out about him even though you know him all these years,” Nakashima said.

He majored in math and physical education. He also earned a fifth-year certificate in Education. He worked in a hotel full-time and coached at Maryknoll.

He married his high school sweetheart, Yvonne, in 1968. They had three children, and their 35th anniversary is on Tuesday.

His teaching career began at Kalaheo Intermediate, and when Kalaheo High School opened its doors in 1973, Cashman was hired as its first athletic director.

Thirty-one years later, the legacy of Kalaheo athletics can be worded with two syllables: Cashman.