For Tyler Terai, every day is game day. Punahou School has over 140 sports teams consisting of 21 different sports. Coordinating a league with 24 schools and over 13,000 students can be extremely challenging.

Punahou is widely regarded as one of the best all-around athletic programs in the nation and was honored by Sports Illustrated as the best athletic program in the nation, in back-to-back years in 2008 and 2009.

The average day for Associate Athletic Director Tyler Terai starts at around 8:30 and can go past 9 pm.

Usually, the morning and early afternoon consist of meetings with the other athletic directors, where they review schedules and plans for the upcoming weeks. Mr. Terai also works countless hours with other schools and athletic directors to avoid blackout dates. 

These blackout dates are when a school may be hosting a non-athletic event and can’t host a sporting event for that day. With over 24 different schools all sending in varying “blackout dates,” the creation of the sports’ different schedules can take weeks to build and be near impossible. 

As the day continues, Athletic Directors split up and head to different sporting events. Mr. Terai mostly covers football and girls’ volleyball in the fall. He also co-coordinates ILH soccer for the entire league and is a co-coordinator and tournament director for HHSAA girls soccer state tournaments. 

These events are extremely popular within the Punahou community and making sure everything goes smoothly and safely is a top priority for him.

When asked about the hardest part of his job Mr. Terai responded,

“The sheer volume of athletics at Punahou. We are the biggest athletic department in the country, and finding the balance of having a lot of teams and managing the spacing can be difficult at times.”

 Mr. Terai also wanted to highlight his colleagues and when asked about the rest of the department he said, 

“I’m appreciative to have such passionate colleagues in the athletics department who consistently go above and beyond, investing countless hours to ensure that our student-athletes not only excel in their sports but also grow as individuals.  It really shows that our department truly cares about our student’s development and success.”

Another challenge Mr. Terai faces every year is the overlap between sports. For example, in the fall and winter football and basketball overlap, causing many scheduling headaches and dilemmas. 

However, not all aspects of his job are stressful or difficult, and when asked about his favorite part of the job, Mr. Terai responded by saying, 

“Watching our athletes compete and seeing their hard work pay off on the field. Seeing these kids excel in the academics and sports worlds is a meaningful highlight of my job.”

Tyler Terai is also an assistant coach for the boys’ varsity basketball team which just last year made it to the State Championship. He says that growing up playing basketball and now being able to work in athletics has been an awesome experience for him. When asked about the difficulty of maintaining a balance between work and coaching he stated, 

“It can be tough at times but I love being around the basketball team. Of course, work comes first and I am going to be a coach second. Getting most of my work done during the day is important to me so that I can be up there with the guys for practice.” 

When asked about what an AD does around campus Paul Sevea 25’ said “They mostly watch the volleyball games and make sure fights don’t happen.” 

Aiden Ford 25’ added, “The amount of games that we have here at Punahou is insane and the coordination of all the athletic events must take forever.”

Tyler Terai has worked at Punahou for 7 years and has enjoyed every bit of it.