Randy Nako joined the University of Hawaii at Hilo volleyball staff in 2010.
Nako’s impressive resume spans 29 years of coaching volleyball. He has trained athletes to compete among the best at the highest level in junior club, high school, national, and international volleyball and developed 11 All-Americans, boys and girls, four USA Volleyball Youth National Team members, and three USA Volleyball Junior National Team members. All of his teams have consistently finished in the top 10 at various Jr. National Championships over the past 25 years.
Nako has been very active in the USA Volleyball training “pipe line” for a total of 13 years.
For five summers, he has been a staff member at the USA High Performance Camps, working with some of the elite junior volleyball players chosen from around the country. He has also been a staff evaluator at many High Performance, Youth National Team and Jr. National Team tryouts through out the country.
For eight summers, he has worked with the USA Volleyball Youth National Team and Junior National Team, working with the training teams, made up of 18 to 20 selected athletes from all over the country and the final 12 man travel teams at the Olympic Training Centers located at Lake Placid, New York and Chula Vista, California, and training cities in Long Beach, CA and Cleveland, Ohio. These teams have gone on and participated in the bi-annual NORCECA Zone Championships winning the gold medals in 2004, 2006, 2010, and 2014. In 2010, Nako was selected as the Head Of Delegation and technical coordinator for the Men’s USA Volleyball Junior National Team, and accompanied the team to Gatineau, Quebec, Canada where the team participated and won the gold medal in the NORCECA Zone Championships which qualified USA to participate in the 2011 World Championships in Brazil.
In 2011, Nako was selected to be the technical coordinator for the Men’s USA Volleyball Junior National Team which placed 4th in the world at the 21 & Under World Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Prior to the 21 & Under World Championships, he was selected to travel with the Men’s USA Volleyball Junior Nation Team to Argentina as their technical coordinator, to play in a warm up tournament with Argentina and Canada.
Nako was on staff with the 2013 USA Youth National Team that participated in the 19 & Under World Championships in Tijuana, Mexico and Mexicali, Mexico as the Technical Coordinator.
Nako was a staff member of the 2014 Youth National Team that played in the 19 & Under NORCECA Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma, winning gold and qualifying for the 2015 World Championships.
A local product that prepped at McKinley High School, Nako began coaching at the high school level at the Kamehameha Schools. After two seasons as junior varsity girls coach and a league championship, he took a short break from coaching. Randy later returned to the coaching ranks at Punahou School and assisted the boys program for the next five years and then assisted the girls program for five years, winning back to back league and state championships for the Buff & Blue. In 2010, Randy assisted the boys program at Kamehameha Schools and helped them win the State Championship.
Nako graduated with an Accounting BS from Brigham Young University–Hawaii.
