This was a guy who seemingly always had a smile on his face.
And Eddie Gudoy did a ton to help the youth of Hawaii, especially in his capacity through the years as a teacher, wrestling coach and overall organizer in Moanalua.
A Moanalua graduate, Gudoy died unexpectedly in his sleep last week, according to those who knew him well. He was 59.
“The No. 1 thing about Eddie is he loved Moanalua, a proud Moanalua graduate,” Na Menehune athletic director Joel Kawachi said. “He started coaching pretty much straight out of high school, starting when George Goto was the athletic director and wrestling coach. And he wound up becoming a wrestling official so he could see the other side of it.”
Gudoy was employed at Moanalua Middle School as a teacher and he is survived by siblings.
Gudoy was constantly volunteering at Moanalua sporting events, including football games in the stadium and basketball and volleyball games at the school gym.
Current Moanalua wrestling coach Lucas Misaki made the following social post about Gudoy on Monday:
“When I saw him last, he was running the OIA Eastern Division Judo Championships,” Kawachi added. “He was one of my assistants when I was the wrestling coach. He was part of our travel coaching staff for when we took wrestling teams to the mainland. And he was excited for the upcoming (May 7) judo state championships.”
Like Kawachi, former Aiea wrestling coach Rick Williams was saddened by the news of Gudoy’s death.
“He and I competed against each other for a while when he was coaching at Moanalua,” Williams said. “He and I ran a whole bunch of tournaments together over the years. He’s gonna be missed. It’s really sad. He was a neat guy.”
According to Williams, Gudoy was an actor who had parts in plays at local venues such as the Manoa Valley Theater and was also an extra on Hawaii Five-O.
Eddie Gudoy, left, with his fellow actors in a Manoa Valley Theatre production from 2018.
“He didn’t usually have any lines in Hawaii Five-O, but once in a while he would say something like, ‘Stop that truck.’ That kind of thing.”
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