The Big Island’s only NCAA soccer programs will be getting a better place to play in 2016, by transferring games to a local high school.
University of Hawaii at Hilo athletic director Pat Guillen said Thursday he is “almost done,” with negotiations between the school and Kamehameha to move Vulcans’ men’s and women’s soccer matches to Paiea Stadium in Keaau in the fall.
“It’s one of the best high school facilities I’ve ever seen,” Guillen said, “and it has lights, so there are some things we can do there. The people there are great, it’s been a very positive experience talking with them.”
The UH-Hilo soccer field was not installed with adequate drainage so it is often unplayable, even for practice. The Vulcans have been playing games on the outfield of the school’s baseball field, which is often unplayable for the baseball team, which plays its games at Wong Field.
“It’s in the works but it’s not quite done yet,” said Kamehameha athletic director Kimo Weaver. “I know they are struggling with their game sites and such and we want to be able to help however we can, we feel like having a quality program with quality coaches and players like they have will be a win-win for both of us.”
Guillen said the opportunity to play at Kamehameha, which has a 12 year-old artificially-turfed field, “will be a big improvement not only for our teams, our players, but it will be a better place for our fans to watch our teams play.
“Let me stress,” he said, “this is a temporary solution, but the pluses are that it will be improvement on what we’ve had, and it will also buy me some time to work out a long range solution that can really solve some problems.”
Weaver said the two parties will call a news conference to explain all the details and dates of games, “in the next couple weeks or so.”
