HILO – Give back to the people that give to you.  

The University of Hawai’i-Mānoa and University of Hawai’i-Hilo basketball programs came together Saturday afternoon at the Pana’ewa Park Gym for a pair of Keiki clinics with young local hoopers, getting a chance to connect with the next generation of basketball players from the islands. 

Right in the middle of a packed weekend for the four programs, the two men’s programs came off a tightly contested matchup on Friday night that saw the Rainbow Warriors slip past the Vulcans, 64-61, and worked hand-in-hand with each other less than 24 hours later on Saturday to put on an enjoyable first session of skills development for the keiki.  

“It was really cool,” said Kaniela Aiona, head coach of the Vulcans men’s basketball team. “Great for the community here, you know the local keiki … a lot of them came to the game last night and then they get to interact with them today.” 

The young basketball players split into lines and were led through dynamic warm-ups and defensive slides to begin before being broken up into five groups to work on various skills such as ball handling, rebounding, defensive footwork and shooting. The first session ended with a game of “In-Out” before the teams and keiki came together for one final group photo after 90 minutes of fun. 

“Great day, great weekend, obviously going to cap it off for the community here with the women’s basketball game [on Sunday], but really happy for our guys and happy for the kids here,” Rainbow Warriors head coach Eran Ganot said after the clinic. “The objective was to play some basketball and grow as a team, which we did, and then shift gears to give back to the community that has been so good to so many. Just to see so many smiling faces, between the kids, our student-athletes, and the parents in the stands – it’s what it’s all about.” 

After the men’s programs wrapped up, the Vulcans women’s basketball program and Rainbow Wahine program entered the gym for their turn at another hour and a half of skills, drills and memories being made with local keiki. After Vulcans head coach David Kaneshiro addressed the new group of excited hoopers and both teams introduced themselves by name to the keiki, the fun continued. 

“This is great, for the keiki, for youth basketball and I think especially for girls’ basketball,” Kaneshiro said. “The fact that we get to team up with UH-Mānoa is even better and I’m hoping we can keep this going in future years. Just a great afternoon, the keiki looked like they had a great time and certainly our players did.” 

Again, keiki split into groups and rotated around stations at the four different baskets over the course of the clinic. After every station rotation was completed, the college coaches addressed the group one final time before breaking for the day with a “1… 2… 3… Hawai’i basketball!” chant. 

“Any time we can come to the neighbor islands and just show some aloha, get our kids out working with these young keiki, I think it’s unbelievable,” Rainbow Wahine head coach Laura Beeman said after the event. “To be able to work with Hilo’s women’s basketball team I think is great as well – [UH-Hilo HC David Kaneshiro] is an amazing guy, he runs such a good program.” 

The fun for basketball lovers continues into Sunday when the Rainbow Wahine visit the Vulcans at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium for a preseason exhibition game at 2 p.m. to close out the weekend. 

“Every year, [UH-Hilo] has come to the SSC to play us there, so for us to come over this way and play them here, I think it’s really fun,” Beeman closed with. “I just think any time you can give back to your community, that’s what you are supposed to do.