Student athletes and their coaches at Kauai’s three public high schools now have a new way to stay cool during practices and games with a portable water system that was designed and built by a county water inspector.

The portable hydration stations were developed and built by Kauai County Department of Water inspector, Freddy Levinthol, who first proposed the idea of donating them to Kauai’s schools to Kirk Saiki, DOW’s manager and chief engineer.

“Freddy approached me about a month ago with the idea, and I was immediately on board,” said Saiki in a Kauai county news release. “He finished constructing all three a few weeks later, just in time for the start of pre-season football.”

Levinthol has helped with Kapaa High School’s football team for about seven years.

“When our KIF games were switched to Saturday afternoons from Friday nights, hydration became a critical issue,” said former Kappa High head coach Kelii Morgado, who is now Kauai High School’s athletic director, in the news release.

“I showed Freddy what type of hydration stations were being sold on the internet for athletic teams. These units contain expensive marine pumps and rechargeable batteries, not to mention high shipping rates to Hawaii. Freddy used his expertise in plumbing to come up with a hydration station that is far superior to anything you can find online. We would simply fill the cooler with ice and hook it up to the water hose down at our field. Hydrating our athletes became so much easier because of the ‘Levinthol Hydration Station’.”

Levinthol built the mobile stations mainly using items from the local hardware stores. It works through a water spigot connection. When water is turned on it first moves through copper coils installed inside of a water cooler, which is situated on top of a mobile garden cart. Ice is piled on top of the coils, cooling the water as it is dispensed through eight different sprays. Water comes out ice-cold with this pressurized system and does not need electricity or batteries to operate.

Mahina Anguay, principal of Waimea High School, added: “Waimea is so hot; this will help to keep our student athletes hydrated and safe through practice and competition “

Bill Arakaki, DOE’s Kauai complex area superintendent. said: “The water stations will be a great asset to our athletic departments to hydrate our student athletes and coaches during practices and games. We truly appreciate the assistance and support from our County partners.”

Daniel Hamada, principal of Kapaa High School and president of the Kauai Interscholastic Federation, also expressed his gratitude for coming together in support of student athletes. “We may be competitive in athletic events, but our collective efforts remains focused in helping our island students.” he said. “