Growing up in Hawai‘i in the 1990s, Alex Ma‘ila Ching ’08 was small for his age and burned off his boundless energy by playing nearly every sport under the sun. He gradually came to focus on golf and tennis, training privately with his father as his primary coach and competing in diverse tournaments. As he grew into his body throughout his varsity career at Punahou, he gained a foot in height and 50 pounds in weight, also gaining glory with individual and team championship trophies.
Ching made his first major impact in tennis, joining the Punahou varsity team as a freshman and finding success deep into the state tournament as a singles player on a stacked roster. Moving to doubles as a sophomore with partner Jon Wong ’06, Ching won the 2006 state title; he repeated the feat with partner Erik Shoji ’08 the following year. Ching was a member of four state championship tennis teams.
During his senior year, Ching also wanted to represent Punahou as a golfer and made accommodations with the coaches allowing him to participate on the course and the courts concurrently. Juggling busy practice and competition schedules, he placed third in states in doubles tennis and won the individual ILH and state championships in golf, anchoring league and state team titles in both sports.
Ching played golf in college, continuing his career at the University of San Diego (USD), where he was a two-time West Coast Conference Player of the Year and four-time first-team All-WCC honoree, recording six career medalist finishes. His USD teams competed in three consecutive NCAA Championship tournaments. He is a 2025 inductee to the USD Athletics Hall of Fame.
After college, Ching played professional golf for five years and now lives in Hawai‘i with his wife and children.