James Kanoa Leahey, known as Kanoa Leahey, is a play-by-play announcer for UH sports and high school sports on Spectrum Sports, and for college basketball on the ESPN networks. He was also a former sports reporter for

KHON-TV KHON-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, serving the Hawaiian Islands as an affiliate of Fox and The CW. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate KHII-TV (channel 9). Both stati ...

, the Honolulu Fox affiliate; and a former co-host of Leahey & Leahey, a weekly talk show featured on PBS Hawaii with his father, Jim (Leahey & Leahey Live). Following the death of longtime commentator Robert Kekaula, Leahey became the TV voice of Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors football in 2021. Born and raised in

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

, the

Iolani School Iolani is a masculine Hawaiian name meaning "royal '' hawk''." It comes from the Hawaiian words ''ʻio'', meaning "Hawaiian hawk," and ''lani'', meaning "royal." It may refer to: *ʻIolani School, a private school located in Hawaii *ʻIolani Pala ...

alum got his first job as a sports reporter at

KITV KITV (channel 4) is a television station in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, serving the Hawaiian Islands as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Allen Media Group alongside multicultural independent station KIKU (channel 20). The two stations ...

, Honolulu's ABC affiliate. After several years as the weekend sports anchor, he took over as the sports director at

in 2004. In 2012, he stepped down to make more time for his national play-by-play work. He was replaced by Rob DeMello. Leahey is a third generation sportscaster in Hawaii, and earned a Hawaii Sportscaster of the Year award, like his father, Jim Leahey, and grandfather, Chuck Leahey.

References

1977 births American television personalities ʻIolani School alumni Living people {{US-tv-bio-stub