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STAR-ADVERTISER / 2015
Hawaii Pacific head coach Darren Vorderbruegge stands on the sideline during the first half of a game against the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors at the Stan Sheriff Center. Vorderbruegge is leaving the Hawaii Pacific University men’s basketball program.
After 15 years as head coach, Darren Vorderbruegge is leaving the Hawaii Pacific University men’s basketball program.
“I am leaving Hawaii Pacific University and basketball for an exciting new journey,” Vorderbruegge said in a news release. “I have so many good memories of HPU and the staff and athletes I have been blessed to work with. I am certain that under the leadership of Dr. Snell, the athletic department is poised to thrive. And for Sharks Basketball — I am confident that associate head coach Jesse Nakanishi can lead the team to success.”
Vorderbruegge, widely known as “Coach V,” accumulated 180 victories as the seventh-winningest men’s coach in Hawaii college basketball history. In 2017, he was named the 2017 Clarence Gaines National Coach of the Year.
Vorderbruegge also served as HPU’s athletic director from 2006 through 2014.
Nakanishi, who has worked two stints at HPU, has been named the Sharks’ interim head coach. He also was director of operations at Seattle University for one year and the University of Hawaii for three. As Kamehameha-Kapalama’s head coach, Nakanishi led the Warriors to state titles in 2009 and 2011.
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