As part of a consolidation of resources in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii Pacific University announced Friday a plan to use softball and soccer fields at Sand Island to replace its longstanding fields in those sports in Windward Oahu.

HPU is phasing out operations at its Hawaii Loa campus in Kaneohe in favor of building around its new headquarters at Aloha Tower Marketplace. The school sold its 132-acre Hawaii Loa campus to Adventist Health Castle in 2016 and subsequently got a multi-year lease from Castle.

According to an HPU news release, the new Sand Island soccer practice field will be in use in the spring of 2024 and the softball field will be available in fall 2024. The softball field will be dedicated to the late coach Howard A. Okita, for whom HPU’s storied field in Kaneohe was named.

Chaminade, a fellow PacWest program, also recently relocated its softball games to Sand Island Fields, which are overseen by the Hawaii Softball Foundation. HPU’s field is expected to be adjacent to Chaminade’s.

HPU said it expected to reach a “greater audience” for its softball games with a larger field, new bleachers and new dugouts and new branding opportunities. The field will be about a 15-minute drive around Honolulu Harbor from the primary HPU campus.

However, HPU, the 2010 NCAA Division II national champion, has a storied history at Howard A. Okita Field, the site named for its former head coach who helped elevate the program. Okita, who died in 2017, was renowned for his meticulous care of the field.

HPU acknowledged that the Kaneohe field “has been home to the historic achievements of the late Head Coach Okita, his coaching staff, and our HPU athletes. The field has a special significance in the hearts of alumni, players, coaches, and everyone who set foot on the field.”

HPU said administration had been searching “tirelessly” for a new site and that the school was presented with an “extraordinary offer” to develop the new site.

"We carefully considered all aspects of this opportunity and decided that we will move forward with the transition," HPU said.

The soccer field will be a practice field only and HPU will continue to play its men’s and women’s soccer games at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium. HPU said its soccer athletes would benefit from the practice site’s closer proximity to the downtown Honolulu campus.

HPU stopped using Atherton Field in Kaneohe for official soccer games after the 2017 season. By that point, it had ramped up use of the City and County of Honolulu's WPSS as its primary home venue.

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.