James “Jim” Iams is known to the Buff ’n Blue faithful as a three-year letterman in basketball. Iams led Punahou to an ILH championship his senior year, capturing player of the year and all-state honors along the way.
But Iams was more than just a hoops star. The Punahou President’s Award recipient was a member of an ILH champion volleyball team and track squad, and played in the Hawaiian Open as a senior – becoming one of the youngest qualifiers for a PGA tournament.
“My dad being athletic director for many years, Punahou athletics was very much a part of who I was growing up,” Iams says today. “I certainly had a lot of idols that I was trying to emulate and be like.”
After Punahou, Iams took to the coaching ranks in volleyball, mentoring at all levels at Punahou and later at Oregon State and the University of Georgia. He coached USA teams at the Goodwill Games and Pan-Am Games and in the Olympics at the 1988 Seoul Games.