{"id":117380,"date":"2020-05-04T10:47:29","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T20:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=117380"},"modified":"2020-05-04T10:47:29","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T20:47:29","slug":"aiona-next-vulcan-basketball-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/04\/aiona-next-vulcan-basketball-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Aiona shoots, scores position as next Vulcan basketball coach"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"Kaniela
(Photo credit: Menlo College Athletics)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo<\/a> welcomes its next men\u2019s basketball coach, Kaniela Aiona<\/strong>, back home to Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island. Announced by Vulcan Athletic Director Patrick Guillen<\/strong>, Aiona is set to begin his duties on June 1.<\/p>\n

“Mahalo to President David Lassner<\/strong>, Chancellor Bonnie Irwin<\/strong>, Athletic Director Patrick Guillen and the search committee members for believing in me,” Aiona said. “I will work tirelessly to fulfill our shared vision for the UH<\/abbr> Hilo men\u2019s basketball program. I am humbled by this opportunity to serve the Hilo and Big Island ʻohana<\/span>. We will be committed to developing outstanding young men who strive for excellence on and off the court.”<\/p>\n

For Aiona, it is a return to his earliest basketball roots. A Big Island native, Aiona is the sixth head coach in the long storied history of the program.<\/p>\n

“UH<\/abbr> Hilo basketball has influenced my foundation,” stated Aiona. “Some of my fondest memories include attending Vulcan Camp as a child, interacting with Vulcan players and coaches, roaming the Civic all day and watching the Big Island Invitational Tournaments of the 1990s.”<\/p>\n

Aiona has spent the past five seasons as the head coach at Menlo College in Atherton, Calif., turning the Oaks program around. He took over a team that went 3-23 in \u201814–15, improving to a 20-11 record in just three seasons (\u201817–18). Aiona’s squad went 19-11 this past year and finished second in the Golden State Athletic Conference. It qualified for the 2019–20 NAIA<\/abbr> national tournament that was canceled because of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Aiona’s Menlo teams have had a 3.0+ GPA<\/abbr> in each of his five seasons, and he has had 10 NAIA<\/abbr> Scholar Athletes since 2017, more than any other school in the country.<\/p>\n

“Aiona places a high-priority in student-athlete experience built on high academic achievement, athletic excellence and teaching a team culture of gratitude, service and aloha,” said Guillen. “I know our community will be just as excited as I am in bringing Kaniela and his ʻohana<\/span> back home to the Big Island to work together and lead our men’s basketball team back to national prominence.”<\/p>\n

For the full story, visit the UH<\/abbr> Hilo Athletics website.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"kaniela
Aiona coached the Oaks for five years before returning to UH<\/abbr> Hilo (Photo credit: Menlo College Athletics)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kaniela Aiona returns to his UH<\/abbr> Hilo basketball roots, beginning his duties as the next Vulcan men\u2019s basketball coach on June 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1362],"tags":[58,82,14,151],"class_list":["post-117380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-athletics","tag-basketball","tag-uh-hilo","tag-hilo-athletics","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117380"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117390,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117380\/revisions\/117390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}