LIHUE — A small group that works to highlight Kauai’s sports scene has recently been acknowledged.
Local sports media producing team The Countdown, which is regularly broadcasted on Ho’ike Kauai Community Television, won the W.A.V.E (Western Access Video Excellence) Award for the Sports Coverage-Community Producer category.
“Total surprise,” said Joel Pahukula, co-producer of The Countdown. “First of all, we didn’t do this to win awards. We just did it to give exposure to the sports community here on Kauai. That was our main goal When (I was) asked me to submit a piece, in fact, I had a disc in my hand of one of our shows. I said, ‘Here. Submit this one.’ I didn’t realize, didn’t even think that we’d win anything.”
The award is given by the Alliance for Community Media Western States Region.
There are 30 categories total and there were about 35 entrants in the community sports category, said J Robertson, Ho’ike Kauai Community Television managing director.
The Alliance for Community Media is a national organization about local community television, Robertson said. They serve in the Western region: Colorado, New Mexico and west, which includes Nevada, Arizona, California and Hawaii. Every year, the Western Alliance has a video excellence award. More than 450 entries were received this year.
“In sports programing and sports coverage, this great team, The Countdown, was the winner out of a very, very aggressive and really tough category. It’s the most competitive category in all of this, even though they do news stories and things like that,” Robertson said. “Sports has always been a huge part of what community television is. These guys are being recognized for their really outstanding work.”
Pahukula, known as “Anahola Joel,” was previously a radio play-by-play announcer for years on Kauai but studied television production at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
The episode which won the accolade for The Countdown featured Kauai Interscholastic Federation football, the Ultimate Hawaiian Trail Run, bass fishing, roller derby and drag racing.
“A few weeks (after I submitted it), I looked it over. By that time, we had done a few shows since. The whole ironic thing about the award is that was the worst-edited show I ever did,” Pahukula said. “I had just started learning how to use Final Cut. That was the first show that everything was did on Final Cut. It wasn’t as smooth as the previous shows that we did.”
He added: “I don’t think they were looking at the technical aspect when it came to our show. I think it was the content. We had some pretty good, kind of deep, community stories in that show. I thought it was the content that did it for us.”
The Countdown co-
producer Todd Fuerte, too, has deep roots to Kauai’s sports community. He has coached various youth sports for years including soccer, baseball and inline hockey.
“I help out any of the kids who need help,” he said. “As long as they’re serious, I’ll go out there and help them. It doesn’t matter what school they come from, what age group they are, boy or girl. If they’re serious and the parents are serious about it, I’ll go out there and help them.”
Fuerte added about winning the award: “I’m very appreciative and stoked that they thought of us and they thought our product was worthy of being given an award. At the same time, that kind of adds a little more fuel under us to want to continue to hold ourselves to a higher standard and to just put out better stuff. Our kids are worth it. Our community is worth it.”
Two other Ho’ike producers also won W.A.V.E. Awards this year:
w Community Issues-Community Producer: Felicia Cowden, Wailua Walk with Kim Souza
w Educational Access-Community Producer: Sean Doi, Kauai Shining Stars Season 3 Episode 3
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Nick Celario, sports writer, can be reached at 245-0437 or ncelario@thegardenisland.com.
Congrats! You do a great job! Glad you got recognized!