Aulea Honoring Coach At 42nd Swim Meet

The Kailua District Park pool will be swarming with young athletes Sept. 28 and 29 when Aulea Swim Club hosts its 42nd annual Al Minn Aulea Invitational Swim Meet.

The races start at 8:30 a.m. each day, fielding more than 50 events over the weekend span, monitored by dozens of officials and meet volunteers.

“It’s an invitational meet, so only the fastest swimmers can enter,” said club parent Dave Kennedy, “but for our team, it’s an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ event.”

The sanctioned meet is named after one of Hawaii’s most decorated and accomplished sports coaches, who still lives nearby. Now in his late 80s, Minn formed the club and named it Aulea (“swimming together harmoniously”) in 1957 and was its coach until he retired in 2003. In between, he played and coached football, basketball, track, baseball and swimming at the high school and college level here and in Oregon, and was an inaugural inductee into the Hawaii Swimming Hall of Fame. Minn also had roles as athletic director, principal (Jarrett Intermediate, Roosevelt and Kailua High schools) and mentor of Olympic swimmers.

Entry deadline for the sanctioned competition is Sept. 23. For details, call Dean Schmaltz at 375-7970 or email swim meet director Larry Williams at lw@hawaii.rr.com.