Coach Kane Goes The Distance for Windward Athletes

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Mark Kane has been through the whole range of emotions in a coaching career that stretches back to 1967 - from exhilarating wins to heart-wrenching defeats.

For the current Castle High and HPU women’s soccer coach and one-time Knights’ varsity football coach, one thing has remained a constant through it all: his method of relieving stress.

“You can always tell where a coach lives by his yard,” Kane joked.“It’s always the worst-kept because he’s too busy coaching.

“I have a big yard with a lot of brush and a lot of trees. I usually take my energy (after a game) and apply it there. It’s relaxing to work in your yard. It feels good to be out there in the mud.”

To be sure, Kane has covered a lot of ground through the years. In soccer circles, he is perhaps as well-known on the island as anyone, but he first made his mark in football, having parlayed a stellar prep career at Saint Louis School into a scholarship to Pacific College in Oregon, where he played for Frank Buckiewicz.

“Friends who knew me as a football guy used to say,‘hey, when did you learn that foreign (soccer) game?’ We were all football guys. Now their grandkids have become soccer players. It’s everybody’s game now.”

Kane’s first stint as head girls soccer coach came in 1980 when he led the Knights to their first Oahu Interscholastic Association title as well as the first girls state championship. He stayed on three more seasons before being tapped by former Knights football coach Don Mahi as his successor. Kane had been a football assistant since 1967,when he was a volunteer coach and still a college student himself.

“Don came to talk to me, and he said,‘It’s your turn,‘“Kane recalled. It was Mahi who first gave him his start in coaching.

“I’d taken a course in coaching philosophy in my senior year of college, and then I wrote him a letter, telling him I’d like to learn from him. He became my mentor. My coaches had always been good role models who gave good advice. When I played Pop Warner (for Palama-Settlement), my coaches told me that if I worked hard at it, I could get a scholarship and have school paid for. Sure enough, I went to Saint Louis, and then I received a scholarship.

“I decided I wanted to be one of those guys who gives back,” he added.“I can still remember the day I received a scholarship (from Pacific). It was one of the biggest days of my life, and it was the first time I’d ever gotten on a jet.”

Kane spent 13 seasons as Castle’s head football coach before returning to coaching girls soccer at both HPU and Castle in the mid ‘90s.

Kane attributes his longevity in coaching to his supportive family, which includes wife Alexis, son Alika, and daughters Keali’i and Malia. Soccer has had a steady presence in all of their lives.

“My wife and I were co-coaches when I first started at HPU, and all of our children and grandchildren play soccer,” said Kane, who has taught social studies at Castle since 1979.

As for coaching football, the sport that was his first love, Kane recalls well that long hours go with the job.

“I miss it at game time. I don’t miss the summer and spring (workouts). Those are thankless days. (Coaching football) is year-round. I’m kind of year-round now again (between coaching at both Castle and HPU), but my kids are grown up now. My wife and I still go to our grandchildren’s games,but we’re no longer on the front line.

Now we’re backups.”

For his own part, he has been richly rewarded for his services over the years.“The fun is still being part of athletics and helping kids to grow. It’s always nice to see the light go on in a kid’s head when they discover they can do something they thought they couldn’t do.

“It’s been a great career. I haven’t become wealthy, but I know a lot of people, and sometimes I get to hear a success story from a former player.”