Unfortunately, the area high school teams lost some very good coaches this past school year.
No, they didn’t die, they just retired or were asked to leave their respective programs. Some of those coaches will be sorely missed.
Fortunately, there are other coaches who have stepped down who won’t be missed in the least.
One of the individuals who I was very sad to see go was Burroughs High boys’ soccer Coach Mike Kodama, who stepped down after leading the Indians’ program for 22 years.
He was the coach with the longest tenure in the city — in any sport.
Not only was Kodama a talented coach, but he was one of the best persons to deal with.
When it came to his team’s statistics, Kodama had it down to a science. The coach documented every statistic imaginable for the Indian team and its players. Along with the regular stats like goals, assists, saves and shots on goal, Kodama had his stat keepers go as far as to record how many minutes each athlete has played, along with when he leaves or enters the contest.
Kodama also kept us up to date with the latest league standings, often e-mailing results a few times a week.
On addition, Kodama routinely called in the results of his matches and always returned phone calls.
In top of that, he was just a great guy to deal with all around.
Another coach who ALWAYS provided information about his teams was Burroughs’ Mike Krose, who stepped down after leading the school’s girls’ and boys’ golf programs.
Like Kodama, Krose took a great deal of time and effort getting information to the paper. Not only did he fax every single golf match result his teams took part in, but he went the extra mile by getting records and correct spellings of his teams and players, as well as all the same information about opposing teams.
Krose’s absence was apparent this spring during the boys’ golf season. We received very little information about the Burroughs — as well as Burbank — teams and often had to get league results and scores from other coaches in the Pacific League.
Although Kodama and Krose have stepped aside, at least there is still another coach around who does all he can to promote his teams’ accomplishments.
