On Friday, O‘ahu Circuit Court Judge Jordon J. Kimura denied a motion filed by former Kahuku football coach Sterling Carvalho following his removal from the program. Carvalho had sought, through the motion, an immediate return to his coaching job in time for the 2025 season.
On March 31, Carvalho was removed from his position as head football coach for Kahuku High School.
The removal stemmed from a Department of Education investigation involving Carvalho and a former player, Tavian "Manoa" Hallums, during the 2023 season. After Kalani Hallums, Manoa's father, made disparaging social media posts about Carvalho, a one-on-one meeting was held between Carvalho and Manoa Hallums in Kahuku's weight room. Following the meeting, which was one of the main focuses of an evidentiary hearing held on July 28, Kalani Hallums filed a complaint after the season that alleged Carvalho created a hostile environment.
When reached for comment by Aloha State Daily on Monday, Carvalho's attorney, Eric Seitz, expressed displeasure towards the process. Despite Friday's ruling, he says efforts towards getting Carvalho back to coaching will continue.
"I disagree with the ruling, but it was a long shot to get him to reinstate to coach at this state, at this time or juncture in the proceedings," Seitz told Aloha State Daily. "I think the actions of the Department of Education are atrocious when they take a disgruntled parent, any kid, and they accuse somebody with the kind of record that Sterling has of sufficient misconduct, to remove him.
"It's a loss to the program. It's a loss to the kids. It's certainly a loss to the state, and I would hope that we had people in positions of authority in the Department of Education who exercise better judgment, but we'll proceed. I think that there's no question that he should not have been removed. There was no justification for it, and the people who did so acted atrociously."
The interaction between Carvalho and Manoa Hallums occurred during the 2023 season. The Red Raiders went on to win the HHSAA Open Division championship, their third in a row. Although the complaint was filed after the season and an investigation ensued, Carvalho coached the entirety of the 2024 season, which concluded with a loss to Saint Louis in the state championship game.
Complex area superintendent Samuel Izumi concluded the investigation for the DOE and ultimately made the determination to remove Carvalho.
In an attempt to return to the Kahuku sidelines for the 2025 season, Carvalho sued DOE superintendent Keith Hayashi, Izumi, and both Hallums.
On July 18, with attorney Eric Seitz, Carvalho filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, which sought "the issuance of a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction 'enjoining and restraining the Defendants, their agents, employees, and successors in office from engaging in any conduct to interfere with Plaintiff’s contractual rights to coach the Kahuku High and Intermediate School boys football team during its 2025 season'" and "the issuance of a preliminary injunction enjoining and restraining the Defendants, their agents, employees, and successors in office 'from continuing to utter, publish, and distribute defamatory statements about Plaintiff,'" according to court documents.
An evidentiary hearing was held on July 28 at O‘ahu Circuit Court from 8:30 a.m. to approximately 3:20 p.m., with multiple breaks throughout the day. Both legal teams were asked to turn in remaining evidence by 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Five witnesses were presented by Carvalho's team on July 28: Former Kahuku principal Donna Lindsey, Izumi, Kalu Wolfe, and Stewart and Sterling Carvalho. The state one presented one witness in Kahuku athletic director Gillian Yamagata.
The defense, led by attorney Bradford Chun, pointed out that Sterling Carvalho did not have a contract for the 2025-2026 season, which was confirmed by Yamagata on the witness stand. Sterling Carvalho coached during but did not sign his contract for the 2024-2025 season, which would have expired on June 30.
In one of his final findings of fact, released in court documents Friday, Kimura sayid "requiring KHIS to abide by contractual terms where no contract exists, and to force the school to breach the contract with its current football head coach, does not serve the public interest."
Interim head coach Nihoa Pule and Yamagata have signed a contract for the 2025-2026 season. Kahuku kicks off its season on Saturday, hosting Saint Louis in a rematch of the 2024 state championship game.
"We're going to continue to go after the DOE, because the fact of the matter was, they did terminate (Sterling Carvalho). They wrote him a letter terminating his contract," Seitz said. "If they had any reasonable expectation that the public was not going to find out about that and find out the reasons, I think they were living in some other world, because obviously, he's a public figure, and people were going to want to know why they were firing him.
"And for them to fire somebody of his stature, of his reputation, of his character for the reasons stated, as I said, is just atrocious. I think they should be ashamed of themselves, and I think that the defendants who act in this case, up to and including the superintendent, ought to be fired. They have no business interacting with kids because they have no integrity. You can quote me on that."
Seitz also says he doesn't want the DOE to be an obstacle if Carvalho desires to apply for other coaching positions in the future.
"(Carvalho) clearly is qualified, and I think it's a disgrace that somebody like him is on the sidelines. Some of these other people who by no means have his track record, not only as a coach, but as a human being mentoring kids, are allowed to coach. The DOE just is so inconsistent about that I think they got their values confused."
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
