The College Basketball Summer League has long been a staple for Oahu hoops veterans and diehard fans. But this summer, for what would’ve been the league’s 43rd running, the Manoa courts went quiet.
The league — rebranded in 2018 as the HD (Hawaii Development) League — had issues finding a suitable venue and missed a deadline for NCAA certification, which is required for student-athletes at NCAA institutions, be they Division I or II, to participate.
While future and former college players still could’ve played, the league was deprived of its main draw — a chance for some competitive crossover between current collegiate and community favorites.
Typically, six sponsored teams would compete two or three times a week from late June to early August, playing in front of free-admission crowds ranging from a few dozen to a few hundred. The games have enjoyed intermittent TV, radio and internet broadcasting. In recent years there’s been a women’s component, too.
“It’s disappointing because it’s the first time that I can recall in the last 40 years that summer (here) hasn’t been involved with summer college/pro basketball,” said Artie Wilson, a former University of Hawaii guard who became a summer staple — first as a player, then as a coach. “My summers have always been full of basketball … watching guys grow and improve. But this year we won’t have that opportunity.”
Last year, leadership of the league transitioned to local basketball mainstays Derrick Low and Kyle Pape and it was played at St. Francis School’s gym for the first time. The move from the league’s longtime home at the nearby Manoa Valley District Park gyms was seen by the organizers as an upgrade; the park gyms had limited seating and occasional scoreboard issues.
Low, the former ‘Iolani and Washington State standout, desired to play at St. Francis again this summer because of its combination of amenities and location near UH, but the cash-strapped private school shuttering at the end of the 2018-19 academic year left him in a tough spot.
“With St. Francis closing down, it threw kind of like a big curveball,” Low told the Star-Advertiser this week in a phone interview from California. “We could have probably did HD League at Le Jardin or some gym far away, but then the UH guys won’t be able to make it. The HPU guys, they all ride mopeds, they can’t make it that far. So I tried to look for gyms close by so they could make it after their workouts. I don’t mind doing it because I want them to be a part of it. They’re a huge (component) of the HD League. UH and HPU and Chaminade and everything.
“It was just the whole gym situation. That really was difficult. And I’m kind of OCD. We had a great HD League last year at St. Francis, and I don’t like to take back steps. I don’t like the quality of things to go backwards. So rather than throw together a quick thing at a junk gym, I’d rather just, you know what, let’s try to do something else, let’s look forward to next year. We’re not going to have this gym situation again. We’ll be good. Let’s do that.”
He said HPU was in the legal process of taking over operation of St. Francis’ gym, but while the HD League waited for that to be resolved, the deadline for NCAA certification — which summer leagues varying from the small to the large, like Los Angeles’ Drew League, must meet — came and went. The deadline is typically on or around May 1, according to Pat Tanibe, the former longtime summer league director.
“We tried to turn it in, but it was late and it was denied,” Low said. “We tried to call the NCAA, people in charge of that, and told them what was going on, this and that, but they told us there was nothing they could do.”
At least one local college coach had strong feelings about the setback.
“I’m very disappointed. NCAA rules prohibited me from attending, but from what I heard it was pretty competitive,” Chaminade coach Eric Bovaird messaged from an AAU event in Las Vegas. “Summer is a very important time for development and I’m sure all college coaches want their guys playing in competitive opportunities. Also, I think it was a chance for basketball fans in Hawaii to catch some good basketball in the summer.”
Low is also the owner/president of PROformance Hawaii, a basketball academy that offers weekly skills clinics and gives up-and-coming players the chance to play on travel teams that visit the West Coast and be seen by college recruiters in the summer.
As to a question of possible schedule conflicts, Low replied in a message: “It’s a nonissue. They don’t conflict (at) all. Securing gyms are the only issues.”
The league would’ve crowned a champion right about now. Last year, a compacted three-week schedule concluded with the championship at Maryknoll on July 19.
Frequently, faces in the crowd at the tight-knit summer games were as familiar as performers like Julian Sensley, Llewellyn Smalley and Geremy Robinson.
Wilson said “seven to 10” people, including some he does not know, reached out to him to ask about the state of the league.
“There was a nice following of loyal fans who would come out to the Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday games,” Wilson said. “This year they’re not going to be able to watch it, but hopefully next year and a few years after, there will be summer league basketball.”
Low, a summer veteran who moonlighted in some games last year, is confident the league will return.
“We’ll get it for sure next year, because we don’t have to go through the problems again,” he said.
