The miles are many for the visiting Na Alii of Aiea since venturing into the Northwest on Monday.
Veteran football coach Wendell Say brought his team to central Washington, where Aiea (2-1, 1-0 OIA D-I) will play Woodinville today.
On Tuesday, though, plans were nearly derailed on the way to practice, but the aloha spirit prevailed.
“You talk about aloha, our bus broke down yesterday outside Pacific Lutheran on our way to practice. One of my friends knows the athletic director, and there’s a caravan of Hawaii people with SUVs come pick up our kids and take them to (Washington High School) so they can practice. Amazing, aloha in Washington, and a lot of them are from Waianae, Nanakuli, Aiea,” Aiea coach Wendell Say said. “Six SUVs come pick us up and transport us. In no time we were at practice.
“One of them is a head coach at the middle school for girls volleyball. There was a junior league football team practicing near us. It looked like we were in Hawaii. There’s a big contingent of Hawaii guys in the Tacoma area.”
Aiea brought 36 players, and the team will stay in the Northwest until Labor Day. By then, they will have visited eight colleges.
“It’s been great. Went to Puget Sound on Monday, watched Pacific Lutheran practice (Tuesday). I didn’t realize they have 25 kids from Hawaii. Puget Sound has five from Hawaii,” Say said. “Today, we’re here at Central Washington. It’s a beautiful campus. This is a place I think a lot of our kids can play, Division II.”
Woodinville will make its season debut.
“They’re a good team. Talking to all the coaches we visit, they’re always No. 1 or 2 in their league. They’re like ‘Iolani, but they’re bigger. It should be a good game,” Say said.
The team plans to watch Farrington’s game at McMinnville (Ore.) on Friday.
“We’ll visit colleges in Oregon,” said Say, a longtime counselor at Aiea.
