Maui High School’s Tamryn Taoka (in photo) and Maui Prep’s Niko Banto (second photo) are the coaches’ choices as this year’s MIL Surfers of the Year. Dayanidhi photos
Tamryn Taoka of Maui High School and Niko Banto of Maui Preparatory Academy have been selected as the Maui Interscholastic League Surfers of the Year by the MIL surf coaches.
The coaches voted Maui High’s Jeff Balinbin as the coach of the year.
The two surfers, Taoka from Kihei and Banto from Lahaina, are from different parts of the island but were similar in so many ways this season.
Both were senior team captains who led their teams to their first MIL surf titles. Taoka led Maui High to the girls title while Banto paced Maui Prep to the boys team crown. Both were coached by their fathers. Both were in the 20-30 percent minority of being goofy-foot surfers. Both were straight-A students. Both surfed in the No. 1 position during the season, and both played other team sports.
Maui Prep’s Niko Banto
Taoka won at Lahaina Harbor, was second at Hookipa and third at D.T. Fleming and Koki Beach.
“That’s insane, I’m really stoked, probably the best way to end my year,” Taoka said when she heard about her individual honor. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without all my coaches, my teammates, my competitors and my school.
“It was by far the best year I’ve had in MIL. It wasn’t only just because of the competitors, but my team. It was the biggest amount of participation that we’ve had at Maui High, our surf team. It was really cool to see everyone come together and we all bonded really well, which made it extra special.”
Taoka embraced her role as a team captain.
“I wanted everyone to feel like we were a team and we were really there for each other,” she said. “They all supported me throughout this whole entire season as I supported them. And it was really nice to have a solid team effort, and our coaches also were very supportive of all of us.”
Her coaches included head coach Jeff Balinbin and assistants Eric Balinbin and her father, Truman Taoka.
Tamryn Taoka was grateful that her dad was part of the staff.
“It was really good,” Taoka said. “He’s a great coach and he’s very good at articulating what needs to be done or how to do certain things without it sounding like criticizing in a way where it’s mean. He’s good at getting people to listen to him. Just a great dad in general, he does a lot for all of us.”
Taoka was able to balance her studies and play center midfielder for the Sabers soccer team as well as surf.
Explaining her routine during the surf season, she said: “Right after school, I would go straight to surf and then I would come home, shower, do all of my chores, or whatever. And sit down and really focus on my schoolwork in getting it done. I’ve been a straight-A student since sixth grade. It’s something I always wanted to maintain and a goal of mine to keep up the good grades and to show that I can do both at the same time.”
Taoka will take her 4.17 grade-point average to the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the fall and major in business. She added, “I want to start a surf team there because I know they don’t have one.”
Banto was the senior leader of his championship Na Pueo team. Surfing in the No. 1 position, he won at Fleming, was second at Lahaina Harbor and a finalist at Hookipa.
“We had a great team,” Banto said. “This year our team was super good. I think almost every single contest every single one of our boys made finals pretty much. We had a really solid group of five surfers. I was psyched about our team.”
“We pretty much had the same squad as the year before and we placed second. But we got Zolten Poulsen, that was a big addition. And just being able to win it, I didn’t know if we could do it to be honest. I was super psyched to win it.
“I think one word to describe the season for me, it would probably be ‘perfect.’ I mean, it was the perfect season, we won it all. You can’t ask for much more.”
Banto’s father, Lucho, was the Maui Prep head coach. He was assisted by Pedro and Rafaela Robalinho, Lyndee Sprenger and Rob Lloyd.
“I didn’t know how it would be at the beginning of the year just because it’s my dad,” the younger Banto said. “I think it actually really helped a lot because when we went home after practice, we were able to go over things and he was able to give me advice that he probably wouldn’t have if I wasn’t his son.
“Also it helped a lot because he had a lot of questions, just a lot of things he would run by me before he ran by the team. As a captain we got to form a really good relationship over that.”
Banto ran cross country and qualified twice for the state meet, though he missed the state race this school year due to college visits. Banto, who has a 4.1 GPA, will attend Babson College.
