Punahou’s tennis facility was built about the time the Jack Kramer Autograph wood racket was born and became all the rage. The Buffanblu’s legendary facility has gone through a dramatic renovation the past four years. The pertinent number is not the $3.5 million cost, but the 2,500 students it impacts annually.
The school celebrated its new retro look a month ago, soon after its teams added two more state championships to what is the richest tennis portfolio in American high school tennis. Punahou has won 84 percent of the state high school team championships since the sport debuted in 1958. The boys broke the national record for most consecutive titles four years ago and have now won 23 straight, and 45 overall. The girls have won 39, including the last 11.
The new generation of Buffanblu players now has an even more intimidating place to call home.
"The renovation was inspired by the vision to provide our students with a facility that reflects the proud, long-standing tradition of tennis at Punahou," says tennis director Bernard Gusman, who has been at the school since 1991.
A year after he got there, Gusman and former athletic director Tom Holden added a kindergarten program to the PE curriculum. All 150 kindergarteners participate in the spring, to help build hand-eye coordination, visual awareness and tracking skills — and the school’s amazing depth in the sport, which has been the foundation of its dominance.
The kindergarten program’s first "graduating class" in 2004 included state doubles champs Jessica Broadfoot and Adriann Gin, and Robbie Lim, the 2002 and 2003 singles champ whose brother (Mikey) and sister (Kristin) went on to win six more state titles. Of the 12 seniors in that class, 11 started in kindergarten, the other in first grade.
"We don’t really know the retention rate," Gusman says. "However, our goal is to build tennis players for life."
He will tell you the recipe for success is no secret. Beyond its ability to raise $1.75 million to renovate what was already a premier facility, Punahou develops its depth from the moment students step on campus.
He oversees all the teams — intermediate, JV and varsity — along with the PE classes, USTA Junior Team Tennis and after-school classes, which run six days a week. This summer, more than 350 kids are enrolled in group and private tennis lessons, which are open to the community. He is in charge of summer school classes, Friends of Punahou Tennis — open to alumni, parents, faculty staff and the community — and events.
Gusman hopes to have a three-night spring invitational next year, featuring top teams from Northern and Southern California taking on Hawaii "all-stars." There are three summer camps this year, the first two for kids not yet in high school and the third international, with 10 Chinese students already committed.
"Our hope for the future is to offer a tennis program in which students can develop skills and values that will serve them for life," says Gusman, who is looking at expanding from two to four intermediate teams and going from one JV team to two. "Punahou’s tennis facility is now among the finest K-12 facilities in the nation, allowing us the flexibility to maintain our current classes while exploring new programs and events that can serve a broader community."
The renovation began in 2009 with two new, expensive courts on Rocky Hill, located a short but steep hike up from the six-court main complex where a rifle range existed decades ago. Builders dealt with a 28-foot elevation change by creating a 14-foot retaining wall. There are bleachers and an idyllic view of downtown and the Pacific Ocean.
Those courts replaced the 30-year-old, three-court Nancy M. Spalding Memorial complex that was lost when the Omidyar K-1 Neighborhood was created.
Two years after the new courts were finished, lights were installed on all six lower courts and the building was replaced with one that was two stories, offering covered lanais, offices, bathrooms, showers, storage and a kitchen. There is space for Gusman’s staff of 20 coaches and pros, a full-time coordinator and student workers. There is also an "educational technology resource/conference room" for multimedia and meetings.
Punahou’s original facility was built in 1949 in honor of Capt. Henry Gaylord Dillingham, a 1935 graduate killed in action over Kawasaki, Japan, in 1945. He was one of four children of Punahou Trustee Walter F. Dillingham, an 1893 graduate, and Louise Gaylord.
The courts were dedicated the following year with exhibition matches by the Australian Davis Cup team. Less than 20 years later Jim Osborne, probably the finest tennis player to come out of Hawaii, took the immense talent he created on those courts to the U.S. Davis Cup team.
Osborne won the first two individual state titles, in 1962 and 1963. He was a two-time All-American at Utah before vaulting into the top 10 in the world during a short (1968-72) pro career. He coached at BYU for 15 years before retiring and is in the Hawaii Tennis Hall of Fame — along with mom Muriel —and, as of last Monday, the Punahou Athletic Hall of Fame.
There were others before him. Tennis was first sanctioned as a "minor sport" in 1930, with Punahou, McKinley and Mid-Pacific participating. There have been many, many great players since, at a school where half this year’s seniors played a varsity sport.
