A Life Well Served with Ed Kamiyama

For more than five decades, Ed Kamiyama has been a fixture in Los Angeles schools and on tennis courts across Southern California. A devoted family man, teacher, coach, athletic director, and Vietnam veteran, Ed has lived a comprehensive life with an unwavering commitment to helping young people succeed—not only as athletes but as students and citizens.

Ed’s roots have always been firmly planted in Southern California. Born in the 1940s and raised in Watts—a neighborhood in South Los Angeles—he graduated from 92nd Street Elementary, Gage Middle School, Huntington Park High School, and finally California State University, Long Beach, where he majored in physical education and minored in mathematics. But before his post-college career began in SoCal, the country called him to a different kind of service—the U.S. Army.

Representing His Country

In the fall of 1967, Ed was drafted into the U.S. Army during the height of the Vietnam War. His training took him from Fort Campbell, Kentucky to Fort Polk, Louisiana, before being deployed to Vietnam in April 1968 with the 1st Cavalry Division. Seven months into his service, Ed was wounded in action, suffering a wrist injury from enemy fire. He was later awarded a Purple Heart, Silver Star, and Bronze Star before being medically discharged in 1970.

“Earning these awards means a lot considering all the great friendships I made with the guys in my company,” Ed says. “Presently there are only five of us still around after the war. Many of them have passed away. I will never forget about my fellow veterans who are not here.”

For Ed, military service was never a question of choice, but of duty, as it was important to stand by his country regardless of his parents’ concern. “Serving my country was always my number one priority,” he recalls. “My parents wanted me to go to Canada or Mexico so I would not get drafted. I told them if I leave the United States, I would be classified as a deserter and I could never come back [to the States].”

A Life-Changing Promise

While in combat, Ed witnessed the devastating costs of war. During one ambush, his unit discovered that the Viet Cong troops had used child soldiers as human shields. Later, he came upon a village where every inhabitant had been killed, including infants. Those experiences left a deep mark and a promise to himself that changed the course of his life forever.

“When I was hired by the LAUSD [Los Angeles Unified School District], I made a commitment that I was going to do as much as I could to make sure every kid that I came in contact with would finish their education and live a happy life,” Ed states.

Education First, Sports Second

After being medically discharged, Ed brought the lessons of the military—discipline, accountability, and integrity—into the classroom. He began working for the LAUSD as a playground director in 1970, and later became a math and physical education teacher. Over the years, he worked at multiple schools, including Henry Clay Middle School, Citrus Middle School, Bell High School, Jordan High School, and finally Gardena High School, where he has been working since 1996.

He also continues to be a devoted coach, having taught basketball, softball, and tennis over many decades. At Gardena High School, he was named the school’s Athletic Director from 1996 to 2010, and in 2008, he was honored with Athletic Director of the Year. He retired from Gardena High School in 2015 but still coaches the high school’s girls and boys tennis teams, a role he has proudly held for 25 years.

Despite being a driven sports coach, Ed’s guiding principle for his students has always remained clear: education first, sports second. “Education has always been my number one priority with my players. When I took over the program, there was an issue with grades. I immediately corrected that,” he says. In fact, Ed implemented a progress report system to ensure accountability and discipline with his players. Every Friday during the season, the students take their progress report home to show their parents. “The parents have to sign it to show they have seen it and they return it back to me on Monday,” Ed explains. “The [boys and girls] tennis program has had the highest GPA of all the athletic teams at Gardena High since I took over the program.”

The results definitely speak for themselves. Because of Ed’s education-first approach, the girls’ tennis team has won the CIF-LA Academic Achievement Award 21 times, with a record-high 3.94 team GPA in 2023, the highest among all athletic programs in the district. The boys’ team has also earned the honor five times. For Ed, those achievements matter far more than any championship.

Contributions to Japanese American Community

Ed’s commitment to youth extends beyond the high school campus. Since his teenage years, he’s been an active member of the Japanese American sports community, playing and officiating basketball and baseball for decades. In 1973, he co-founded KT Basketball Recreation Officials, which continues to assign referees to Japanese American leagues and tournaments across Southern California. His dedication earned him the Aki Komai Award and the Nikkei Community Service Award—shared with his late wife Sue Kamiyama—for outstanding contributions to the Japanese American community. These honors recognize individuals for their commitment and positive influence, often demonstrated through decades of service in sports leagues, community organizations, and mentorship of the next generation.

Sue was a trailblazer in her own right—an Athletic Director, coach, and advocate for gender equality in LAUSD sports. Together, they championed opportunities for girls in athletics, ensuring girls had a chance to play high school sports. “Sue implemented girls sports for everything and made sure that girls had varsity and junior varsity levels at their schools [in LAUSD],” Ed says. 

Family Legacy

After her passing in 2004, Ed established the Sue Kamiyama Scholarship Foundation, which provides scholarships to student-athletes at Bell High School, Gardena High School, and North Torrance High School as a way of honoring her legacy. 

Their three children have carried that legacy forward. Their daughter, Lauren, is the Athletic Director, PE teacher, and head girls’ basketball coach at North Torrance High. She’s also honored in the Chapman University Athletic Hall of Fame for her basketball career. Their sons, Darin and Stephen, have also built meaningful careers; Darin is the assistant girls’ basketball coach at North Torrance High under Lauren, and Stephen is a Digital Product Manager at Honda.

A Vow Kept

Today, at 79 years old, Ed reflects on a career that has touched thousands of young lives. Over his 55 years in education, his players have gone on to become teachers, principals, engineers, doctors, and nurses—to name a few. One former student is now Department Chair of Pathology at UC Irvine, another at Stanford University in Engineering. More than 150 of his former players became nurses through El Camino College’s nursing program. “All of my players go to four-year colleges or universities and many of them are happily married and have great families and jobs,” he proudly exclaims.

After all this time, Ed’s sense of purpose remains rooted in the promise he made after Vietnam—to help young people find peace, direction, and opportunity through education.

“Looking back at all the years that I have been in education, I can always say that I’ve done my job and kept my commitment that I promised I would do for kids,” he says.