Until this year, Leilani Okuda was highlighted for umpiring at the Olympics. Now she can add onto her titles Hall of Honor member. She was inducted during an assembly in McKinley High School’s gymnasium on Jan. 31.

Okuda was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. She attended Kauluwela Elementary School, Central Middle School, and McKinley High School. She later went onto the University of Hawaii System at Honolulu Community College and then onto the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She was a teacher in McKinley for one year in 1995, moved to Radford and came back to McKinley in 1999. Okuda said she is proud that she was a student in McKinley and that she wouldn’t want to work anywhere else and part of that special part of being here are the students at McKinley.

“McKinley has always been a special place for me,” she said. “My experiences here have an important role in shaping me who I am today.”

Okuda teaches PE but she has also been the driver education coordinator, adviser of the National Honor Society, a class adviser, and a softball coach.

“I love sports and I had really good role models as physical education teachers all the way from my days at Central Intermediate and here at McKinley,” she said. “They made learning fun.”

Okuda played softball, soccer and basketball. She took part in Judo, Track and Field, was a part of the Daily Pinion and was a part of the student government. She said she had many memorable moments as a McKinley student and it was by participating in activities.

“When I got involved, that’s where you sort of find your friendships,” she said. “They became my lifelong friends. Going to games together, taking part in the activities, and anything that we did as students became really memorable.”

Okuda said she believes PE is a place where everybody can come together to learn about the concepts of sports as they play, whether or not they can understand English.

“Somehow, in the world of sports, we find commonality,” she said. “PE is very enjoyable for me and I hope it is for my students, too.”

Okuda said her teaching philosophy is to help PE students to become efficient movers.

“The students are important and the idea that makes students want to learn so we have to try to find a way for students to get better at whatever is needed,” she said. “In the case of physical education, that came a little bit easier for me because I like sports. Some of my teachers found a way to make learning easier to understand and from there, follow the students’ growth.”

There’s a philosophy by Toyota (Kaizen) which means constant improvement. Okuda said it has always been her philosophy in everything she does.

“Whatever you do, you don’t stop and be satisfied,” she said. “You always want to try and make things better. It’s not necessarily that you’re always changing something, but if there’s a way to make it a little better or a little easier for students and you want to do that.”

Okuda said she has a passion for coaching softball.

“When I was coaching here; just working with the athletes on an everyday basis, that was pretty special,” she said.

Okuda said one thing that people would know about her is that she has a passion for softball.

“When they see me, there’s that association with the sport of softball,” she said.

Okuda said some challenges of being a PE teacher are students who don’t like participating and bad weather.

“We try to encourage them [and] try to make it fun for them,” she said. “We always have to work around the weather, so if it’s raining [then] we can’t go outside.”

Okuda said PE being an activity-based class gives the PE department a bad reputation because of not being a traditional reading and writing type of classroom.

“We develop different types of learners,” she said. “We have to remember that we are performance-based, just like band and maybe art. There is an appreciation for what we do.”

Okuda said her favorite memory was always the faculty play as a teacher.

“We used to look forward to taking part in faculty play,” she said. “We haven’t had one in a while but we would be working with the rest of the faculty and putting on a play for the students.”

Okuda said her second favorite memory is to see students grow from their freshman year all the way through their senior year.

“Those are memories that I cherish,” she said. “We get to see them mature as young adults and it’s always a little emotional when you finally get to see them graduate and just to know that we had a little part of their experiences here.”

Teaching driver education is one of Okuda’s specialties. She said she delves into healing art as one of her hobbies.

“I have a license as a massage therapist and a Reiki practitioner,” she said.

Okuda said she also enjoys watching television for fun, to catch up with news and reading for fun.

“I like to watch Korean dramas whenever there’s a free moment,” she said. “Sometimes I like to read short books and biographies. I haven’t had an opportunity to do that too much since I’ve been teaching driver ed.”

Okuda is an umpire in the Olympics. As an umpire, she judges an athletic event and calls if a person is safe. She said there are positives and negatives of being an umpire.

“The bad side is one side will always be mad at you at times,” she said. “They won’t like your call and so forth. In that sense, umpire becomes a little challenging.”

Okuda said she enjoys umpiring and being an official of softball because it helped her stay a part of the game that she loves.

“There came a moment when you know that you can no longer play the game, [because] you can’t run as fast as the younger participants,” she said.

Okuda said being at the Olympics was an extraordinary moment because she was on the field with Olympians who were the best in the game of softball.

“At the Olympics, we played a small part of the opening ceremony,” she said. “We were able to be on the field with the best in the game. I got to sit in the best seat in the house which is on the field.”

Okuda said being an umpire for the Olympics was a memorable experience.

“It was very tense at times because it is a competition and they’re representing their nation,” she said. “There is a lot of pressure and stress put on you as an official but at the same time, it is an enjoyable moment and it was a very humbling experience to be able to represent my country (USA) at the Olympics.”

Sophomore Ronya Malae said she was surprised when she heard that Ms. Okuda had a role in the Olympics and that she is a role model.

“Ms. Okuda is definitely an inspiration for many,” she said. “Hearing that she umpired for the Olympics has inspired me to work harder and smarter, to be resilient and to believe in myself.”

Okuda said she was sad to hear what happened with 40-year-old Kobe Bryant.

“He’s been an icon in the world of basketball and it was sad to see or hear what happened,” she said. “You have to think about our own lives and realize that life can be short and we don’t have control of that so we really have to make the best of it and do our part in the world just like he did.”

Okuda said the administration building changed when she was a student. One of the changes was the placement of the library.

“When I came as a tenth grader, by the time I left as a senior, that library (originally upstairs in the administration building) was then rebuilt in another building,” she said. “The traditions on campus, I feel like you never appreciate it until you go to another campus.”

The athletic area had a big improvement. Okuda said she would like to thank Mr. Neal Murray because he had a vision for what he wanted in the athletic area.

“We have a wonderful Olympic-sized track, a softball stadium, and of course our original gymnasium that is still in good shape,” she said. “As a student here at McKinley, when I played softball, we couldn’t play in that stadium; we didn’t have a field because of gender equity. I had to catch the bus after school all the way to Ala Wai where Ala Wai elementary is and we had to practice and play there.”

When Okuda was a student at McKinley, the campus had lollipop trees starting from King St. which was infested by bugs. She said the campus had hardly any litter and had a feeling of pride from the students to the custodians to the faculty.

“That feeling is still there on our campus as far as the aesthetic,” she said.

Okuda still considers herself as a student because she still learns as a teacher. She said appreciating McKinley is important.

“We have to love where we are and really take care of it [and] make it last for future generations,” she said.

Okuda said W-building has improved after renovating.

“You folks are very lucky to be in this new modern building,” she said. “Learning is now innovative and up-to-date.”

Okuda traveled within the US throughout her career. When she traveled internationally, she went to Japan, Greece, Taiwan, and Australia. Okuda said she enjoyed visiting Japan.

“I could understand the language and their transportation system, getting on the train and so forth, was a little easier for me.,” she said. “I enjoy the sights and also because I learned a little bit about my family. I was appreciative of that.”

Okuda said she visited Taiwan.

“Because we were dignitaries, they took us to a Buddhist temple that is now closed off to the public,” she said. “I was just honored and inspired and appreciative of all of those countries that I got to go to.”

Australia was another country that Okuda visited. She said she wasn’t able to explore more of it.

“I got to see the Sydney Opera House, the harbor,” she said. “We were limited to a couple of days of sightseeing. If I had the opportunity, I’d like to go back there.”

Okuda said Greece was also interesting because she experienced where the original Olympics were held and the Acropolis.

“When I got up there, it [was] all falling,” she said. “One of the most interesting things was the marble stones and to go up there and just to know that you were in the house of gods.”

Okuda said she was able to go to the Athens Olympics in 2004.

“It was spectacular to me just to know that the original Olympics were held there (Greece),” she said.