Punahou adds Ahuna to athletic staff

Reydan “Tita” Ahuna is working for the Punahou athletic department, associate athletic director Kale Ane confirmed Wednesday.

Ahuna, the highly successful athlete and coach at various schools and levels, is an athletic associate for the department.

“She is working with education for coaches at every level of the school,” Ane said. “She is getting input from successful coaches outside the school and learning about their processes and finding out what works and what may benefit our coaches. Things like how to deal with the pressure coming from parents, how to do scheduling. She will also have some sports information director-type duties.”

Ahuna earned 13 varsity letters at Kamehameha, winning state girls volleyball championships in 1982 and ’83. She was also a captain of the University of Hawaii’s last women’s NCAA Division I volleyball title in 1987.

As a coach, Ahuna won state titles with the Kamehameha boys volleyball team in 1991 and ’93, and then went on to direct Hawaii Pacific to two NCAA Division II titles in 1998 and 2000.

“It’s a delight to have Tita with us,” said Tom Holden, a former Punahou athletic director who retired in 2009 but is back as a Buffanblu athletic administrator as a self-described temporary jack-of-all-trades. “It’s been a great add for Punahou, with her background as an athlete, a coach and an administrator as a vice principal at Kalakaua Middle School. There is a depth of knowledge that she has that we are tapping into.”