Company Profile
Hawaii Preparatory Academy
Company Overview
Hawai`i Preparatory Academy, founded in 1949, is an independent coeducational school providing a full range of opportunities for students from kindergarten through grade 12. Our boarding program admits students in grades 9 through 12.
The school has two campuses in the town of Waimea (Kamuela) on the island of Hawai`i. The Lower and Middle Schools are located on nine acres in the heart of Hawai`i's ranching country, while the Upper School is located just two miles away on a 200-acre campus at the foot of the Kohala Mountains.
Interscholastic sports teams compete at the island and state level, and include the full range of Big Island Interscholastic Federation (BIIF) league play in football, cross-country, basketball, baseball, swimming, soccer, track and field, volleyball, outrigger canoe paddling, tennis, golf, and more.
The school’s cross-country, swimming and football teams—as well as individual student athletes in other team sports—have earned repeat league and, in some noteworthy years, state championships. Several of HPA’s football players have realized success in the NFL, with alumni Max Unger ‘04, a 2013 Pro Bowl player, currently the center for the New Orleans Saints, and Daniel Te’o-Nesheim ’05, a former defensive end for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The school’s student athletes strive to achieve their own measure of success both individually and as members of a team under the guidance of the school’s accomplished and highly motivated coaching staffs.
Athletic Director Stephen Perry states,
“Everyone on campus is involved in sports in one way or another. If a student is not on a team, he or she is in the stands, cheering on friends and classmates. By participating in athletics at HPA, students learn the values of sportsmanship and teamwork. They learn how to handle losses, and how to handle winning.”
While not all students will become league or state champions, student athletes at Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy benefit from an athletic program that considers and evaluates all aspects of a growing student’s needs and well-being at all times. That’s the daily challenge.