Maui Rugby is served by volunteer coaches and referees.
Training to become a coach and/or referee is available through USA Rugby, as is certification.
Plenty of information on coaching rugby is also available at http://www.betterrugbycoaching.com
Coach/Administrator/Referee Jack Breen Player/Forwards Coach Siua Lolohea
Referee/Player/Backs Coach Manase Soakai Player/Defensive Coach Andrew Telu Malafu
Among those coaching in Lahaina are Finau Hafoka, Elone Toa, Moli Pousima top photograph with Coaches Hilmy Dole and Jack Breen and Jorge Ruiz. In Kahului Pita Totau and Siua Lolohea (bottom photo seated at either end) and Manase Soakai are coaching along with Jack Breen (seated cener), Viliami Finau (front) is presently on tour as a player.
Coach Jack Breen is USA Rugby certified at Levels, Coach I, II and III, and most recently completed the 2008 USA Coach Development Program designed to bring the most up to date practices in Introducing Ruby to USA Coaches. He is also a 2008 certified Double Goal Coach and completed the 2008 PREPARE course sponsored by the National Center for Sports Safety. Coach Jack is also certified by USA Rugby as a Level I Referee. He has been coaching rugby since 1975 and has coached at the club, university and high school levels as well as at the youth level. As a player Jack toured internationally as a member of selct and invitaitonal sides as well as captaining his university, law school, men's club, and state select sides. Jack also played NCAA Division 1 Soccer at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. Coach Jack focuses on rugby skills development, our educitonal support programs, and serves as the administrator for all of the rugby programs on Maui. Coach Jack has been licensed to practice law in Hawaii since 1989 and in other parts of the USA since 1979. He is a father of 21 years and husband of 28 years who was also active in coaching both boys and girls soccer on Maui from 1990 to 1997, with the Wailuku Nananana and the St. Anthony Unicorns.
Coach Hilmy Dole has taken the USA Rugby Referee Certificaiton Course and is taking the lead in developing our flag rugby programs this year. Coach Hilmy learned his rugby in Sri Lanka where he played at the school, club and representative levels at the tactgical decision making position of Number 10. Coach Hilmy is also a longtime husband and father with two daughters who are well known stars of the Maui sports scene, including the MIL Female Player of the Year in 2006. Coach Hilmy is a graduate of the University of Hawaii School of Tourism Industry Management and is a very successful businessman who is engaged in providing a wide range of accomodations for visitors to Maui.
Coach Kausiga Tukana is a USA Rugby certified Level I Referee. Coach Tukana works for the Department of Education at an intermediate school in Lahaina and brings the grace of his native Fiji, an international rugby power, to our programs. He focuses on teaching the laws and the sportsmanship traditions of rugby.
Coaches Pita Totau, Moli Pousima and Manase Soakai have all also obtained their USA Rugby Referee Level I Certification. Coach Pita is a correctional officer who is a graduate and former star of the rugby team of Tupo College, a school with one of the most well respected rugby traditions in the entire world. Coach Jorge Ruiz is a graduate of Chico State University, where he played for the USA Rugby Naitonal Collegiate Championship. He is also active in the tourism industry on Maui, seeing to it our visitors have some of the best food choices of any vacationa destination in the world. Coach Manase Soakai is the owner of a moving business and was a national calibre player in Tonga as a youngster. Coach Siua Lolohea owns a masonry business and was a teammate of Coach Totau and star player at Tupo College.
Coaches Finau Hafoka, Moli Pousima, Tani Savou, Saia Siakumi, Tafilangi Lavelua, Mark Haufekai, are current players who along with former players Elone Toa and Koli Hafoka lead the programs in Lahaina. They bring the great traditions of Tongan Rugby to our programs and are teaching their own family members who are some of our youngest players the sportsmanship ideals for which rugby is known throughout the world. Several of them are fathers others are brothers or uncles of our players. Many of them are also leaders in youth programs at various churches on the West Side of Maui and the troops of Boys Scouts sponsored by those churches in which many of our players are learning the fine qualities for which scouting is so highly regarded. This group of coaches are also major financial sponsors of our programs as is Hafoka Masonry and Landscaping, a local business in which some of them have ownership inerests.
Nichole Rockett, Dee Dee Rocket Ruiz, and Vaseti Lolohea focus on the development of our programs for girls and young women. Vaseti is married to Coach Siua and Dee Dee is married to Coach Jorge. Coaches Nichole and Dee Dee are the daughters of a renowned soccer coach on Maui and are former Division I soccer players and members of a legendary Lahainaluna soccer team.
Coach Kausiga Tukana in Lahaina with the boys and young men he instructs in the laws and traditions of rugby