The Huikahi Volleyball Club has its roots in the Lokahi Volleyball Club. When Lokahi decided it would no longer travel, a group of Lokahi girls and their parents opted to stay together as Huikahi and continue to travel. Huikahi's head coach played for decades with Lokahi and learned the Lokahi system of play, which is what he teaches Huikahi's players.
In 2017, Lokahi ceased operation and transitioned into another club after 47 years of success carrying on the skills and system of play developed by its founder, two-time Olympian, All-Time Great, and Hall of Fame member Pedro "Pete" Velasco, Jr. Huikahi continues to teach and play the effective system he developed. Go here and here (at the 3:06 mark) to see and learn more about Mr. P, as his players respectfully call him. For personal remembrances of him, go here.
After the 2017-2018 club season, Huikahi had run its course because, with most of its players either graduated or in their senior year and choosing to focus on college preparations, there were insufficient players returning or interested in joining to form a team. Then in late 2019, a parent who wanted his daughters to learn and play with Huikahi was able to find enough new players to coax coach out of retirement to teach a new group of young girls. So, we begin anew!
Huikahi has always fostered an atmosphere of ohana. Huikahi means One Team. We want our girls to compete together as One Team. All are equal and each is valued as a member of the Team. Together they form a Team which is stronger and better than the sum of its individual players. With players and parents pitching in as one ohana, our fundraising projects become fun, not work. We keep fees low with everything paid in by families going to their daughters; our coaches volunteer and pay their own way on trips. This Team culture easily fits with that of our non-profit partner, the Iolani Raiders Boosters Club (IRBC), and we've supported the IRBC's events over the years.
Huikahi strives to prepare its players to compete at the highest level, thus preparing them for play with their schools and beyond. We stress that every member of the Team should do her best and that when every player does her job, then the Team will play its best and have its best chance to prevail. To enable this, we emphasize fundamentals and physical fitness and good Team play. As part of the life lessons we teach, we also stress good sportsmanship and respect for our opponents, even as we strive to defeat them. If we have played our best, then there is no shame in defeat and we will work harder to get better, another valuable life lesson that sports can teach.
We teach all players the same individual skills because we do not believe players should be type-cast into a single role at this early stage of their careers. Because all players learn to set, pass, dig, serve, block, and hit, we do not use a libero and our teams are less affected by individual injury or absence; the next girl steps up because she knows the same skills. Those with the best skills start but the others are ready to step in. The system we play is designed to minimize any athletic deficit resulting from our preferred no tryout policy wherein we will conduct tryouts only if our prospective numbers exceed the capacity of our practice sites. We welcome those with great athletic ability but our system allows us to compete even when we do not have the best athletes or the tallest players.
We are thankful that our girls won the inaugural 15U Division Championship of the first annual Aloha Summer Classic, going undefeated, with two of our girls named to the All-Tournament team. We are also thankful that our girls were able to win the Silver Division Championship of the 8th annual Summer Soiree in Anaheim despite many being ill. In the 44th AAU Junior National Championships in Orlando our girls fought their way to the finals of the Emerald Division. Our girls were regular qualifiers for the Gold Division of the Aloha Region Championships and once, when they missed qualifying for the Gold, went undefeated to sweep the Silver. At the end of their 12U season, our girls traveled to Kauai and went undefeated, losing just one set, to win the Hooikaika Tournament.
We are proud that four of those girls who began with us in 2011, and one who joined us the next season, were given scholarships to play in college, and that three of those four and two others started for the 2019 State D2 championship girls volleyball team. Another of those five was honored as the most valuable player for her high school team. Several have been named to various all-state teams or selected as impact players during telecasts of local matches.
Aloha!