The Ultimate Hawaii Team

For several former UH athletes, the discipline and camaraderie of athletics are carrying over into successful National Guard careers

Wednesday - February 15, 2006
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Finding a rewarding career after saying goodbye to competitive athletics can often be difficult. Accustomed to the camaraderie of teammates, the thrill of competition and the chance to perform under pressure, it can be challenging to find something that will keep the juices flowing. Some find it in coaching, others in the world of business or broadcasting.

For several former University of Hawaii athletes, nothing counters the boredom of post-athletic life like the Air National Guard.

“I don’t know if you could ever replace the feeling you have playing college ball,” says 1st Lt. B.J. Itoman, a former Wahine guard who today is flying C-130s and is training to fly C-17s, the huge, new Air Force transport planes that were delivered to Hickam Air Force Base last week.

“But in my career and in flying, you face different challenges every day. It still keeps your life exciting.”

Though not as well known as its Army Reserve counterpart, the Air Guard has been as active in the fight as anyone. Since 1994, from Bosnia to Iraq, the nation’s eighth largest guard unit has seen Hawaii’s sons and daughters each year volunteer to serve in a variety of areas. From the big job of enforcing the no fly zones in Bosnia to smaller chores like helping UH dig itself out of the mud, it’s a career that doesn’t get bogged down by routine. And that’s part of the appeal.

“It’s just a good lifestyle,” says Itoman. “You get to do a lot of different missions. You get to travel the world and your still working in a crew environment and I’ve alway been used to working with a team. When you fly on a crew your part of a team.”

Itomen stepped off the court in 1999 and hasn’t looked back. In fact it had been quite some time since she’d even picked up a basketball until asked to do so for the cover shoot. Not because she tired of the sport - not likely - but simply because she has moved on to other challenges.

“When I played basketball, I gave it my all,” she says. “It’s not that I’m burned out, but it’s nice to move on and to focus on something else and grow in another field. Maybe someday I will go back to basketball, but for now I’m enjoying this.”

Her fellow Air Guard members agree. Like B.J., they have found something in military service that makes up for what they left behind in athletics. They’re not the only ones. Look around any military base and you’ll find ample evidence of the kinship between athletics and the services. Basketball courts and softball diamonds are filled with former high school and college athletes who have decided to use what they learned on the field and turn it into successful military careers. It makes sense.

Both require hard work, discipline and the willingness to perform a chosen or assigned job within the framework of a team.

“I think the parallel is the discipline,” says Lt. Col. Dal Wong (volleyball. 1973-76). “You know getting up early for practice, running thousands of stairs. You need that mental toughness to do that kind of thing and then have to come back and do it again in the afternoon.”

Although some would-be recruits may shudder at the thought of an angry drill instructor racking them out of bed at 5 a.m., Hawaii Air National Guard commander Maj. Gen. Darryll Wong (UH volleyball and basketball, 1970-71) said there are many similarities between coaches and military leaders. The lessons he learned from his coaches are things that he relies on today.

“I had a lot of good coaches,” says the general who had a 20-year coaching career of his own at Maryknoll and Punahou. “Tony Sellitto was my coach at Maryknoll. What I learned from him was that a good coach pushes each athlete to achieve the best that they can do. I was 5 feet,1 inch tall and 100 pounds when I got to high school. If I had gone to any other school I would have ended up playing chess. But he had a belief that my (twin) brother (Derrick) and I could play basketball. It was funny - he told my mother ‘I am going to make all-stars out of your sons.’ Of course my mother laughed at him. Just instilling that confidence has carried me since then.”

Whereas Gen. Wong is edging closer to the end of his guard career, 2nd Lt. Britton Komine is just getting started. The former UH football wide receiver-played his last season in 2004 and joined the guard after graduating with a degree in psychology.

“I’ve always been around military life,” he says. “I wanted to be a pilot for a long time and I really got serious about it when I got to college.”

No doubt the influences around him helped push him in that decision. Komine says UH Coach June Jones often talked about military leaders and campaigns in an effort to motivate his team prior to games.

And, of course, there is always Mom.

“She’s an Air Guard recruiter,” explains Komine.

And although he answers the question about her length of service by saying “she is good enough for retirement,” he is not

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