Hawaii Tribune-Herald
It will be a little like a homecoming for Gene Okamura when the new University of Hawaii at Hilo soccer coach sends his men’s and women’s teams out for their first matches in August.
A little, but only a little.
The familiar part is that the Vulcans will be hosting NCAA Pacific West Conference games on the field of Kamehameha High School, where, for the last two seasons, Okamura coached the girls’ team to second place finishes in league play and reached the championship game this past season.
That’s about where the fun of homecoming will end, because, while everyone at UHH, including the coaches and players, will benefit from competition on a regular-sized artificially-turfed field, in doing so, they will be giving up about the only advantage they enjoyed against better-funded teams in the PacWest.