Armed with lei and gifts, family, friends and teammates gathered around Mid-Pacific's cozy softball field to honor its two senior leaders under a late afternoon sky several weeks ago.

It was the final home game for seniors Desi Dung and Mari Tanaka, two players whose leadership and unselfishness had guided a young team to the best season in school history.

Both seniors filled out a questionnaire, which was read by a teammate during the ceremony. In Tanaka's questionnaire, she thanked Dung, her sister and mother for their support, and gave words of advice to her younger teammates.

Lastly, she thanked her late father, Gordon.

"To my Dad. I know you are out there somewhere and can hear this. I will always work to make you proud and want to thank you for teaching me all I've ever needed to know..."

Gordon passed away last May 31 after a long battle with diabetes. He was 61.

Tanaka kept herself and family together and never appeared to waver. She continued with school, softball and her numerous academic and extracurricular activities. She has a 4.3 grade point average and will attend Harvard in the fall to study pre-med.

"When I take tests, when I study, I always keep him in mind, to promise I make him proud," said Tanaka, a right fielder and the leading hitter on the team. "I think of him every day. I study extra; it's what I promised to do. I promised to make him proud; because of that I've been successful. It helps me with my work ethic and helps me make the correct decisions in things to do."

WELL ROUNDED

Mid-Pacific president Joe Rice describes Tanaka as a renaissance type of student, for her ability to pull off a heavy academic load while balancing multiple extracurricular activities, all while remaining unassuming and making things look effortless.

"She is the most unassuming person," Rice said. "She's completely normal in about every way one would want. She always has a smile ... seems happy most of the time. There are so many things going on in her life, one would never have a clue about."

Tanaka is in the school's International Baccalaureate program, a two-year international program where students take college-level courses in major subject areas. She's also taking Advanced Placement courses.

As senior class president, Tanaka has found creative ways to lead community service projects. To raise money for the Children's Discovery Center, she organized a fundraising theme around Discoverer's Day with three ships captained by select teachers. The ship captain with the most monetary donations got a pie in the face.

To honor the school's grounds crew, Tanaka organized a cake-decorating contest, and presented the cakes to them afterwards.

She was class president in three of her four years and was voted prom queen this year.

"She's well liked by a wide range of students," said Michele Miyamoto, senior class co-adviser and assistant softball coach. "She's good friends with people who are very academic, friends with people who are very athletic. She's got a bunch of different groups she blends into because she's so well rounded."

Tanaka has been on the school's math team and Academic WorldQuest team, which covers international affairs, geography, history and culture. She's an intern at the Center for Strategic & International Studies' Pacific Forum, a foreign policy research institute.

"With all that she does, she seems to do everything effortlessly," said Gareth Russell, chair of the International Baccalaureate program. "She never complains about the workload. To be honest, I don't know how she does it all."

Growing up, Tanaka did everything, from music to playing inline hockey on a boys team. Her parents took her to community events so she'd be familiar with different cultures. She was honored for her academic work at Ahuimanu Elementary School. Her mother, Mid-Pacific social studies teacher Mary Sullivan-Tanaka, said her oldest daughter was always a deep thinker and like a little Buddha.

"My wide variety of experience, it has made me more understanding and accepting of other people," Tanaka said. "When different things happen to me, it makes me versatile in handling different challenges and impediments I encounter. Having a variety of experience, meeting different types of people, it has makes me a stronger of a person."

TAUGHT TO BE STRONG

"...One day we'll be together again, but until then, I will continue to work hard and do everything I promised to do."

Tanaka's father went to the hospital last January, and she visited him every day after school and after softball practices. She always wanted to be a doctor, and her father's long battle with diabetes only furthered her interest.

"Ever since I was a child, I wanted to be a doctor," said Tanaka, who plans to major in biology or chemistry at Harvard, where her grandfather and an uncle also went to school, with a political-science type minor. "I had a love for how things work. When my dad got sick and passed away, I got exposed to what doctors do.

"Watching my father suffer through all of that made me want to be a doctor. I don't want people to suffer like how my dad did. I want to help people."

Before the prom in March, Tanaka and boyfriend/prom date Derek Tan visited her father in the hospital in their prom attire.

"My dad was always there for me, softball games, awards ceremonies, it's important for him to see my prom date and I," Tanaka said. "It's something fathers do; they take pictures of their daughters. It was important he saw that and I'm glad he did."

Gordon even commented on how good Tan looked.

Later, he lapsed into a coma before passing away on May 31.

Tanaka found strength through her father and also her Catholic faith to continue with school, softball, her extracurricular activities, and supporting her mom and sister.

"My mom and my sister are a lot alike and I've always been more like my dad," Tanaka said. "I guess since that he was the strong one, I was the only one left. That's what he taught me to do."

Kathy Wheeler, senior class co-adviser and language arts department chair, said it's not in Tanaka's nature to do things in a mediocre way.

"The strength of her character, she's able to maintain all of those things," Wheeler said. "(Other students), they can do that and sacrifice something else. I don't think she sacrificed anything. Everything was maintained at such a high level."

LEADS BY EXAMPLE

"...It's now how you play, it's what you play for..."

On a team with young talent, Tanaka has helped lead the Owls to their first-ever state tournament appearance. Mid-Pacific (10-4) plays Hilo (10-2) in today's 1 p.m. first-round game of the Data House/Hawai'i High School Athletic Association Division I State Championships at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.

"I'm so excited I get to be part of this time," Tanaka said. "We're pretty much making history for Mid-Pacific softball. I'm proud of it. I really hope we take states. It means so much to everyone."

On the field, she's the role model and leads by example, whether it's sprinting around the bases during practices or raking the field afterwards.

"We got a young team and they come from a place where they were successful in intermediate," assistant coach Miyamoto said.

"Coming up, they feel like winners. Mari's job is kind of to remind them they are part of a team, there's still a road to play in terms of the little things."

Miyamoto said Tanaka always had that will to succeed. When her father became ill, "it made her even more driven, made her even better of a person."

"I still get the sense that God and even my dad himself has been helping me throughout this year," Tanaka said. "I've had so many successes and it's hard to deny some spiritual aspect. I'm thankful to God and everyone for what I've been able to accomplish. My faith helps me keep a positive outlook on everything that's happened."