A sterling, 40-year career in education will come to an end next June, as Lindsay Ball will retire as superintendent of the canoe district Hana-Lahainaluna-Lanai-Molokai Complex Area.

Ball has spent his entire adult life thus far in education as well as a dedicated wrestling coach at both the club and high school levels. He has been a teacher, coach and an administrator through those years at Lahainaluna, Maui High, King Kamehameha III Elementary School and Kihei Elementary before assuming the superintendent position 12 years ago.

It is a testament to his 12-year tenure as the canoe district superintendent (which encompasses three islands and the remote Hana community) that these areas experienced quality education throughout those years amid the changing times and struggling public school bureaucracy.

Lindsay Ball was a collegiate wrestler at Missouri before coming to Maui. He was instrumental in the start-up of Maui Style Wrestling, started the Kihei Maulers and coached the sport at Maui High.

His experiences in athletics meshed perfectly with his educational endeavors to form a most effective mentor for the keiki of Maui.

This Ball family is immersed in public service, as Lindsay’s wife, Momi Kihata-Ball, also works for the Hawaii Department of Education (DOE) as a behavioral health specialist. They have three grown children, Rachel, Jimmy, and Kainalu, and seven grandchildren.

The generations of families that have attended schools in the canoe district he supervised, the schools he guided as an administrator as well as the student-athletes he mentored all owe a deep debt of gratitude to him for his steady, precise leadership. The immeasurable value of public education during the formative years is indeed brought to light in rural communities such as Maui.

Mahalo and aloha, Coach Lindsay! (By Walter Chihara)