Rich Miano returns to Kaiser

There was a time when Rich Miano couldn't wait to put plenty of distance between himself and Kaiser High School.

Rich Miano:
Returning to his
alma mater to coach

How much?

"Six thousand miles," Miano said.

Dragged to Hawaii from Brockton, Mass., pouting and defiant, if not exactly kicking and screaming, by a family move with seven weeks left in his sophomore year, Miano said he wanted little to do with the place.

He wanted even less when, after being given a tour of the campus, he was told about the institution known as "kill-a-haole day."

" 'What's a haole?' " Miano said he inquired.

" 'You,' " he said his guide told him.

"Needless to say I didn't go to school that day," Miano said. Nor did he want to return for his junior year, much less stick around long enough to graduate.

"I was the most miserable person on this planet," Miano recalls.

But here we are 34 years later and Miano, who was announced Friday as the Cougars' new head football coach, can't shake the place.

Fact is he hasn't wanted to. For nearly 20 years he has lived, by his wishes, a 5-minute stroll from the Kaiser campus.

***

From Kaiser To UH And Back (Bob Hogue article)