KALAHEO — The Bears filed quietly into the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center, uniformly garbed in their black T-shirts emblazoned with a white strip of Hawaiian flowers that framed their identity — the PioPio Bears. Various members of the group named for
KALAHEO — The Bears filed quietly into the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center, uniformly garbed in their black T-shirts emblazoned with a white strip of Hawaiian flowers that framed their identity — the PioPio Bears.
Various members of the group named for a street in Hilo on the Big Island have come to Kaua‘i with the intent of providing their student athletes with an experience that goes beyond the athletic arena, coordinator Dennis Onishi said.
During last year’s Fourth of July weekend, Onishi worked with Lorna Santos and officials in the County of Kaua‘i’s Agency on Recreation, to bring his boys 14-and-under age-group basketball teams to the island, where they were involved in a series of goodwill basketball games with Kaua‘i teams, and took in the annual Kaua‘i Hospice Concert in the Sky fundraising fireworks and live-entertainment event before returning home.
Two years ago, in 2003, the PioPio Bears also fielded a girls-volleyball team as well as boys basketball teams, for the ongoing tournament that was being played at Waimea High School, hosted by leaders of the Ho‘oikaika Volleyball Club during the Memorial Day weekend, both teams helping to support each other at their respective games.
This gave the Bears’ student athletes a complete experience, where they actually played against Kaua‘i and other off-island opponents, had an opportunity to support some of their fellow PioPio competitors, and became immersed in the lifestyle of Kaua‘i by attending the Concert in the Sky, as was the case last year.
While here in 2004, some of the Kaua‘i girls basketball players asked if they could have the same kind of good-will competition.
The affirmative answer came Friday night, when Onishi returned with squads of under-12 and under-14 girls teams for a series of goodwill games against Kaua‘i teams.
Santos, who has since retired from the county, is still deeply involved in coordinating the Kaua‘i end of the trip, working with Karen Matsumoto of the Kauai Youth Basketball Association (KYBA), and the county’s Clyde Vito and Sam Arashiro in coordinating the Kaua‘i logistics.
The Bears bivouacked at the Kaumakani Neighborhood Center for the weekend, with coaches Bobby Kamakele and Talbert Tacbian hosting the squads for both competition and fellowship during the teams’ stay here.
Santos, who was at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center Friday night, said, “I haven’t been home yet. The plane was an hour late, they went to have dinner at Kukui Grove, and now we’re here. We haven’t even reached Kaumakani yet.”
For the PioPio Bears’ female hoopsters, Santos said she was told this was their first trip to Kaua‘i, with the exception of two girls who actually lived here before moving to Hilo.
Friday-night’s activity involved am under-14 game against coach Cecil Gee and Gee’s Angels.
Saturday’s schedule called for three games at Kaua‘i High School gym, where the Bears went up against Russell Grady and the under-12 Lihu‘e Pacers, Tacbian’s under-14 Wailua squad, and Gee’s under-12 Gee’s Angels.
A final game against coach Maynard Shea’s under-14 Westside Hornets is scheduled this morning, Monday, July 4, rounding out the basketball schedule, freeing the Bears to attend the Concert in the Sky today, Monday, July 4, from 3 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., before they return home to the Big Island tomorrow, Tuesday, July 5.
One of the parents explained that the Big Island has pyrotechnic displays put on by leaders at a lot of the hotels, but things are changing.
“It used to be that everyone would gather on the waterfront. But, when people started leaving too much rubbish, they closed that down,” he said.
People would go to Kona, or to the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, but they closed that down, too, he said.
Between their Saturday games, one of their coaches, Kevin, said that some of the girls are familiar to them because they’ve been to the Big Island before, pointing out some of the familiar faces on the Wailua under-14 team.
Additionally, coach Brian Inouye has brought over to the Big Island his girls basketball team, where he got help from Onishi in coordinating a Big Island schedule of games during their off-season. Santos said she got a call from Inouye, who offered any help if she needed it, when he found out the Bears were scheduled to arrive.
On Saturday night, the PioPio girls danced at the Waimea Higashi Hongwanji bon dance, many of them enjoying flying saucers for the first time in their young lives.
Onishi, who is currently at the head of the Bears’ basketball program, explained that PioPio is one of the streets in down-town Hilo, and the Bears organization has a long history there.
“The Bears were organized way back in the late ‘30s, or early ‘40s,” Onishi said. “Originally, they were involved in barefoot football, basketball and baseball.”
Slowly, as team members matured, the program began to wane, as youngsters’ interest moved into other arenas and, eventually, the Bears were down to just a baseball program, Onishi said.
As those players began to age, that, too, became nonexistent until a few years ago, when some of Onishi’s friends decided to rekindle the Bears program, starting with basketball.
“Three years ago, we added volleyball, and just this past year, we started baseball,” Onishi said, indicating that the organization had come almost full-circle. Onishi perked up when he discovered that the Lihue Baseball League’s Mustangs are currently in Hilo battling for a state title.
Santos said that, in addition to the help from the county, Mel Chiba and the Kaua‘i Community Federal Credit Union has been helping host the Big Island visitors.
- Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@pulitzer.net.
