West Maui AYSO has new commissioner in Annie Hayes

Hayes
LAHAINA — The West Maui American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) will kick off the 2010 season in early August, but the ever-popular program has the ball rolling this spring with registration set for the coming weeks.
Led by new Commissioner Annie Hayes, West Maui AYSO has scheduled registration for two Wednesdays, May 19 and June 16, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Princess Nahienaena Elementary School Cafeteria, and on two Saturdays, May 22 and June 5, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the same location.
Hayes takes over for longtime Regional Commissioner Owen Ueno, who will maintain his contribution to WMAYSO as a board member.
“Owen has simply done a wonderful job of organizing this program and setting a steady path for all of us to follow,” said Hayes last week from the Lahaina Recreation Center field.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better situation to step into.”
Hayes is no stranger to WMAYSO after spending the past 11 years as a board member with her husband, James. The couple has established the organizational skills required to run such a program with that experience and with several other community efforts.
“With all of her years with us, I know that Annie will do a wonderful job as the regional commissioner,” said Ueno. “She has been with West Maui AYSO for so many years that she knows how everything works.”
Annie will be joined by Ueno as assistant regional commissioner; Sam Aki, coach administrator; James Hayes, safety director; Anthony Griffith, referee administrator; Mark Altier, safety director; Tehani Villalobos, treasurer; Sky Delaney, regional instructor; Annabehl Sinclair-Delaney, registrar; Holly Pendergast, secretary/volunteer protection advocate; and Marilyn Ueno, area VIP program director.
“This is a great group of volunteers to work with, and it’s nice to see all the parents find their niche and feel like they’re making a difference in their children’s lives,” Annie explained. “We’ve got over 400 kids involved in the program and their ages range from four-and-a-half to 14 years old, so we need all the coaches we can get to keep the ratio of coaches to players at 8:1. There is also a fast-growing Hispanic player base, so we need more Spanish speaking coaches. We’ll have approximately 40 teams playing in six age divisions from the Under Five on up to the U-14.
“Our player base is also 40 to 45 percent girls, and so we have separated them from playing with the boys. It has made a difference and we’ve seen the girls playing with more confidence since the change was made,” she continued.
“I just want to carry on Owen’s work, continue to try to do the miraculous things he did in doing things right and bringing West Maui up to the top. West Maui AYSO always got an excellent regional assessment during his tenure. We’ve been getting ‘gold’ assessment ratings in the past several years by adhering to AYSO guidelines, and even got the platinum recognition a few years ago. This organization has great integrity across the board from Owen on, and that makes me want to keep going — there are good, noble intentions here. We want the board to keep its visibility and focus on safety and the advancement of the organization.”