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Lindsay Ball honored for his contributions to wrestling

By Staff | Aug 26, 2010

Ball

LAHAINA — Lindsay Ball is a man committed to the inherent nature of humanity to work and move forward to a positive future for all.

As an educator and wrestling coach, he has set a personal pathway to nurture the goodness that exists in the world today — the definition of the Hawaiian philosophy of malama pono.

The area complex superintendent of schools for Lahaina, Hana, Lanai and Molokai (the so-called “Canoe District” of Maui County), Ball was recently inducted into the Nebraska Scholastic Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame in Columbus, Nebraska.

The recognition follows a career that includes a stint as the head wrestling coach at Maui High School from 1991 to ’97, where he coached four individual state champions, as well as at Lathrop, Missouri, and Blue Valley, Kansas, over a ten-year span highlighted by mentoring nine state champions.

A two-time Nebraska state high school wrestling champion, Ball joined cultural exchange teams that traveled to Germany, Mexico, Panama, Guatemala, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela.

He went on to wrestle as a four-year letterman at the University of Missouri.

Along with Mike Donahoo, Ball founded Maui Style Wrestling for Valley Isle youth in 1992 with one club.

This season, the organization had over 600 participants competing for the ten clubs from all corners of Maui County, including Hana, Lanai and Molokai.

Ball started the Kihei Maulers wrestling club in 1995 and has served as the onsite tournament coordinator for the Maui Invitational Wrestling Tournament — one of the premiere high school competitions in Hawaii — for the past 12 years and worked as the tournament director of the Hawaii AAU State Championships for the past five years.

Since becoming a school administrator 12 years ago, Ball has been a volunteer assistant for Lahainaluna High School wrestling and worked as a vice principal at Lahainaluna for one semester, vice principal at King Kamehameha III Elementary School for one-and-a-half years, principal at King Kamehameha III for seven years and complex superintendent for the past two years.

King Kamehameha III School Principal Steve Franz, who worked alongside Ball as vice principal and a teacher there for eight years, described his former boss as a problem solver by nature within a calm-yet-passionate persona.

“Lindsay creates a common vision and effort for what needs to be accomplished,” said Franz.

“He really wants to do the right thing, and he works very hard at that.”

According to the Nebraska Scholastic Wrestling Coaches Association, Ball was inducted into the organization’s Hall of Fame due to his “… wrestling merits in the Midwest and his sizable contributions to the sport as a coach and tournament director in Hawaii.”

Lahainaluna head wrestling coach Todd Hayase said, “Lindsay brings so much to the sport (of wrestling) here on Maui.

“I have the highest respect for his knowledge and for his contributions as a tournament director and as one of the founders of Maui Style. He does so much; it’s just incredible, and I am so glad he is here.”