The Oda brothers was my LL coaches and I played with Kato. Long post ahead.
Prior to playing for the Oda's, I was on a team of mainly Polynesians. These types of players are bigger and stronger than me, a small Jap kid. My coach has been the same from the very beginning until I switched. So he taught me the fundamentals. But at some point, you cannot coach bigger, stronger players the same as smaller, weaker ones. So for years, I was the worst player on the team. I was always in right field (worst players position) and 9th at bat (worst batter). I played the minimum LL requirements of 2 innings and 1 at bat. My batting average was probably less than .070. For reference, anything in the .300 and higher is very good.
Because we were in a poorer district, we got the basic uniform. Basically a t-shirt with a random number on it. I could not choose my own number. Also the team shared batting helmets, so if the guy at bat wore the same size as you, then you had to wear a bigger one. And same went with bats. We had team bats, which were often tailored as being heavier for the bigger players. Me as a small kid, was SOL. I had to make due.
There was 1 team mom, who was the head coaches wife and she coordinated the after game lunches. Often it was pizza hut or McDonalds.
This went on for years. All coaches did the best with what they could and the team mom did the best with what she had.
I hated going to practice and playing the games. I wasn't having fun and my dad saw this and finally wanted me to try different coaching. So he found the Oda brothers.
That first season with them, I became a much better player. I was now a 3rd baseman and 5th at bat. My average was now around .500. Our team was mainly Japs. So small kids who were not home run hitters, but base hit or doubles. Donovan, Keith, and Gerald were my coaches. Donovan played for UH as a pitcher so he brought much of how things ran at the college level to LL. The team kept stats on the game. And if you hit .500 for the game, you were rewarded with a star you got to sew on the back of your hat. Also you got a star for home runs or awesome defensive plays. So a reward system.
For the first time I got to choose my own number, I was blown away. We also had actual jerseys. For the first time, I now looked like a baseball player. I even wore a belt, which prior to them, I wore only the elastic waistband pants. I even got my own helmet with my number on it and a bat (which my parents bought), so no more sharing community stuff.
The Oda's knew how to coach the smaller players as well as the sluggers. And our team was good, we took 1st place 3 years in a row. So it's not like I was a better player on a junk team. So I went from the worst player to a pretty good one.
Another diff thing the Oda's did was we had way more batting practice. With my old teams, we would only have it like once every 3 weeks. With the Oda's it was like at least once a week. Practices were M, W, &F. They made T & Thurs optionional batting only. You can show up in shorts too. I pretty much came to almost all the optional practices as did many other guys.
I was also first introduced to complex signals with "indicators". Prior to this, our signals was one 1 hand, 1 is bat, 2 is bunt. And if the coach wanted you to steal, he yelled it to you from the 3rd base line all the way to you at first base. With the Oda's we even had time alloted to practicing the signals (college/major league style signals).
Donovan being a pitcher for UH, he kept close count on our pitchers. He didn't want anyone to throw their arm out. So he kept a clicker and pulled the pitcher after so many pitches. Only 1 guy was allowed to throw curve balls. As he was big and strong for his arm to handle it. The rest of the smaller guys weren't allowed. Also this was the first time I saw him tell certain players they have the "green light to steal". Which meant they could steal base without being told to do so. They did it if they felt like it.
Then the team mom assigned all the parents a pot luck rotation. We didn't have Pizza Hut or McDonalds, but home made stuff like katsu's, musubi's, yakisoba, etc...And during the game, about half way thru, a box of cold orange slices was brought out for us to eat. No other team I played for did this.
Now for off the field stuff, we often went to the movies as a team or did sleep overs. At the time Donovan worked for Fun Factory and opened the place up to us and often put lots of credits in the machines we wanted to play. Gerald was a manager at World Cafe and we had a get together there. The DJ way playing, waitresses brought virgin drinks and food was served too. It was just us and no parents. We even went to Hooters once. A few times we went to Big Island where the Oda's parents lived and played against the teams there. We crashed at their parents home.I remember 1 night we were watching HBO and a movie title came on named "WHORE". None of us knew what that was. Gerald was quick to change the channel. This was before digital TV, so there was no way of knowing what was going to play next. And being like 12, we were all suspect to why he changed it and we pronounced it "wuh-hore". He never explained it. I remember his parents hat a hot tub and Donovans wife at the time came out in a bikini and we were all checking her out. She got in the hot tub and so did the rest of us try to fit in it. Again 12 year olds or so with hormones starting to kick in.
So all this is off the field team building. I think much of the differences came to money. The Poly team I was with, the parents didn't make a whole lot, in fact many were on welfare. So that coach did the best with what he had. And going under the Oda's the parents were able to afford better/funner stuff.
But in the end, they made me a better player and I now was having fun. I think Donovan brought what he learned in college to LL on how to operate a team effectively.
Every now and then I run into Gerald and Keith and till this day, they still remember my name. It's a talent coaches have is they remember all their players. I haven't seen Donovan since I stopped playing LL (high school ball took over), but my dad runs into him here and there and ask how I'm doing by name. So even he remembers the parents as well.