The original Pipeline, Hawaii’s famed big-wave surf break, has little in common with the small surf common to Santa Monica. But a new Hawaiian pipeline has emerged at UCLA, with student-athletes barreling through in waves from the Punahou School in Honolulu.
Seven current Bruin athletes are Punahou School graduates from assorted sports ““ football, men’s and women’s volleyball, softball, women’s soccer and women’s water polo.
“It goes back to men’s volleyball in the 70’s and it goes to water polo back in the 90’s and that’s spread out a little bit to football,” said associate athletic director of academic admissions services Mike Sondheimer.
“They’ve always had a great tradition in Hawaii of producing athletes in olympic sports more than anything else.”
While the football team hosts the most current Bruins from the Punahou school ““ senior safety Dalton Hilliard and freshman kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn ““ it’s the olympic sports that the school is most known for.
Sondheimer said it has been rare for the school to produce solid football players. The best Punahou football player, he said, is none other then Manti Te’o, Notre Dame’s Heisman contender.
According to Sondheimer, the tradition of a strong Punahou presence at UCLA began when former UCLA men’s volleyball coach Al Scates would take his teams to Hawaii to compete in tournaments.
But while Punahou has birthed UCLA legends in olympic sports ““ like men’s volleyball player Kevin Wong, who served as an analyst and announcer at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, and women’s water polo coach Brandon Brooks, who won two NCAA championships as a men’s water polo player ““ recently, the Bruins have found recruits for football as well.
For Hilliard, the decision to commit to UCLA after attending the Punahou school was easy.
“The funny thing is that my mom, whenever I was getting recruited by UCLA, said that UCLA was Punahou on steroids,” Hilliard said with a laugh.
“It’s almost the same exact type of school. Almost the same colors even. Of course they’re on different scales, but I would definitely compare the two schools to being the big brother and the little brother.”
And while UCLA and Punahou share many similarities, where Punahou differs from other athletically renowned high schools is that it is a college prep school with grades K-12.
“Punahou is able to grab hold of these kids and get in their minds early, which is great because it’s one heck of a school academically,” Hilliard said. “I remember in my senior class we had three or four kids that got perfect scores on the SAT.”
“The school has people that are usually very, very good academically and and very, very good in athletics. These athletes start competing in middle school ““ going through the system starts earlier in Punahou.”
Punahou also cultivates athletes through its facilities.
Women’s volleyball volunteer assistant coach Stein Metzger, who attended Punahou and UCLA, said, “The campus itself is 75 acres. There are full-sized tracks, football fields ““ we got it all. It’s a beautiful campus and the athletic program there is second to none, especially in Hawaii, but I have to think it’s up there in the nation.”
In 2008 and 2009, the Punahou athletics program was named the best in the country by Sports Illustrated.
“It’s one of the best high schools in the nation. It offers K through 12 and it’s almost like a family. By the time you get to high school, it’s like no other school,” Hilliard said.
“It’s a college prep high school so we get a college type schedule so you have to learn time management. We get to get workouts in whenever we want while the facilities are amazing. And the alumni and networking are out of this world. So I’m proud to be Buff and Blue.”
Email Chris at cnguyen@media.ucla.edu