KANEOHE, Hawaii — Howard A. Okita Field provided its own waterworks for Saturday’s emotional farewell to the Hawaii Pacific University softball program.
Steady rain at the Hawaii Loa Campus washed out the Sharks’ season finale doubleheader against Chaminade at the beloved venue, which is being shuttered as part of an administration decision to relocate the program to Sand Island’s softball complex starting next season. Nevertheless, Sharks players, coaches and alumnae made the best of it with a goodbye ceremony.
[Note: See below for more photos of Okita Field.]
As HPU players cleaned up for the day, Sharks coach Jarnett Lono said she was “an emotional wreck." A more thorough break-down of items that were added over the decades will take place later; HPU must be clear of the grounds by June 30, per its agreement with Adventist Health Castle.
“I think the loss of this place, more for our alumnae, has been a lot deeper,” said Lono, a former HPU player and assistant coach in the program’s Sea Warrior era. “Because I’ve been sort of involved with it all these years and knowing there would eventually be an end date, I can walk away feeling okay that we did everything we could to preserve it, to maintain it, and that going forward we’ll be able to carry on the legacies and traditions we’ve established here into our new facility.”
Whereas a typical end-of-season celebration is done for the program’s seniors, this time all players on the roster participated in a run around the muddy basepaths in an honoring of the field itself, which has served HPU for more than 30 years, including during its NCAA Division II national championship season of 2010.
The lush, tucked-away venue was a labor of love and a local “field of dreams” for the late coach Howard Okita, who developed the site himself for play beginning in 1993 and tended to it well after his retirement in the 2010s. Caring for the field became a tradition handed down for many of the program’s local players, staff and volunteers.
Some of those people who made it to the field Saturday were recognized in the ceremony.
Hoku Ching, a Roosevelt High alumna and the Sharks’ lone senior, let out something between a laugh and a sigh as she described the emotions of the day.
“It means a lot that I’ve been able to play on this field, built by Howard A. Okita himself, knowing that I’m one of the last ones to play here,” Ching said. “It’s a lot to take in.”
She said the beauty of the field, which features a phalanx of Norfolk pine trees beyond the outfield wall, does not compare to any other home field in the PacWest Conference.
“These trees have been planted by players, alumni themselves,” Ching said. “This whole field was just created by a couple of coaches with the dream and now look at it today.”
HPU administration has cited upkeep costs and the overall student body’s desire for a centralized campus hub at Aloha Tower Marketplace as reasons to jettison the Windward Oahu site, which includes Atherton Field for soccer practices.
Nina Okita, the widow of former HPU coach and field namesake Howard Okita, was at the ceremony and presented the Sharks players and coaches with framed portraits of the field.
“It was bittersweet to have 30-plus years of Hawaii Loa and Hawaii Pacific University softball at Howard A. Okita ‘Field of Dreams’ come to an end,” Okita messaged Spectrum News on Sunday. “I would like to express my appreciation to the coaches, players and families for all their love & support throughout the years. His legacy will always live on in our hearts!”
Lono said the program must secure a softball practice facility for the fall. It will use a field at the former Saint Francis School for non-hitting drills for the time being, she said.
The Sharks finished 9-31 this season. They and Chaminade would’ve made up Saturday’s rained-out doubleheader somewhere if there were postseason stakes on the line, but with both programs out of the PacWest race, they agreed to call it a stalemate so as to not risk pointless injuries.
Lono and others are hopeful they will be able to return to the site in the future, if only for the memories.
“We’ll definitely do an alumnae day where all the alumnae can come before we exit the campus,” Lono said, “so that should be, I think, more than sufficient for all of those who still have those ill feelings and grief that they’re harboring. I still get it every day. It’ll be something more for them.”
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.