Sometimes, soccer coaches double as a salespeople.

Come tomorrow, Punahou boys soccer coach Bob Clague will be neither.

"Thirty-four years is long enough," Clague said. "I felt this year I was starting to drag a little bit with practice every day."

He postponed his retirement one year to coach a "special group" of seniors, and they awarded him with his 16th state championship.

"He'll be remembered, not just at Punahou, but the Hawai'i soccer community," said former 'Iolani boys coach and Chaminade men's coach Bob Barry.

Clague, 65, also retired from his job Friday after 26 years as a salesman in the Hawaiian Fluid Power division of Hawthorne Pacific.

"Ask me Monday what I'm going to do," Clague said of his new free time. He does have plans to travel.

He came to Hawai'i in the '60s from England, when he was 24, for what was supposed to be a six-month stint with an engineering company.

He joined a local soccer league, where he met Barry, a longtime soccer coach and supporter in Hawai'i who coached against Clague at 'Iolani for many years.

"In those days, it seemed like people who came to Hawai'i with an accent thought they knew more about soccer than anyone here," Barry said. "Bob was never one of those people. I always respected him."

Clague said Barry offered him his first coaching job as a junior varsity coach at 'Iolani. Clague instead went with Punahou.

Thirty-four years later, he leaves a program with 21 Interscholastic League of Honolulu championships and 16 state championships, including the last two.

"Everyone thinks it's easy to coach at Punahou, but expectations are so high," Barry said. "But he met those expectations."

Kalani coach Myles Arakawa, whose Falcons lost to Punahou, 3-2, in the state title game said Clague will "probably be the first to tell you the trophies were good, but it was probably not the most gratifying part of the job. It's how he develops the kids and turns them into productive people."

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com.