KALAHEO — Grand opening ceremonies for the Kaulupono basketball program will take place Saturday at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center, said Bobby Kamakele of the Kaulupono program. “The numbers are still coming in, but we’ll be having teams in the 6
KALAHEO — Grand opening ceremonies for the Kaulupono basketball program will take place Saturday at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center, said Bobby Kamakele of the Kaulupono program.
“The numbers are still coming in, but we’ll be having teams in the 6 Under, 8 Under, 10 Under and 12 Under,” Kamakele said. “Tuesday night, we had a couple of games with the 12 and Under kids, but the real opening comes Saturday morning.”
Kamakele, along with Pedro Saligumba head up the program that is based on the county’s successful Termite Basketball program.
The Westside, including Lihu‘e youth, program was delayed due to the reflooring of the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center. Once that project was completed, school was nearing the end of its year so Kamakele and Saligumba waited until now to launch the 2009 program.
The Kilauea program, hosted by the Kaua‘i Police Activities League, was played earlier this year and had hundreds of youngsters playing for six weekends headed by Bill Troutman. One of the features of the Kilauea program was the weekly matchup of a kupuna team against a Mitey Mite team.
Kamakele said starting Saturday, the Westside program will have games playing Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center. Weekday games start at 6 p.m. and the Saturday games start at 8 a.m. and will probably run through most of the day. Wednesday games will be played at the Island School Gym starting at 6 p.m.
The final game for the Kaulupono program is scheduled for July 11.
Kamakele said the 6 and Under players will be in the Mitey Mite division. The 8 and Under kids will be the Termites and the 10 and Under players will be the Extreme Termites. The 12 and Under players will play under the Hornet division.
