The Hawaiian Style Volleyball Club boys 15U team holds up their banner after sweeping the competition at the USA Volleyball Junior National Championships on July 3-5 in Minneapolis. Courtesy photo

The Hawaiian Style Volleyball Club 15U boys team earned their first-ever national championship at the USA Volleyball Junior National Championship on July 3-5 in Minneapolis with over a hundred different teams and divisions in the competition.

Entering its 20th year, the Hawaiian Style Volleyball Club offers training for boys and girls age 7 up to 18.

“The main thing we try to ingrain in our players is how to be a great teammate,” said Coach Kalae Tanaka. “To support each other with a ‘no one is greater than the team’ motto. Along with teaching new techniques surrounding the sport. As this team grows, the task will get tougher and expansion of learning will progress at a faster pace.”

Having traveled to Oahu three times and finishing the season off in Minneapolis, the 15U boys team became the first-ever boys or girls team from Maui to win a national championship after winning all seven of their games in the Gold Division.

“The feeling of winning a national championship is unexplainable,” Tanaka said. “There’s no words to express the joy for our boys, to represent Hawaiʻi let alone Maui was an experience we will never forget.”

With the final championship game on the line, Hawaiian Style was down 23-20 in the first set. The team called a timeout to regain their composure and get their heads and hearts in the championship game.

The coaches said they reminded the boys to support and trust each other, and to have fun and enjoy the moment. The Hawaiian Style Volleyball Club 15U team responded and struck back to win 27-25. After the huddle following their first-set victory, the boys secured the gold in the second set 25-14.

For the athletes, it was a remarkable and memorable moment, as the team proudly represented the Hawaiian Style Volleyball Club and their community en route to winning the championship, which is the first-ever for Maui, according to the volleyball club.

“Just being able to be on this high of a caliber team as an eighth grader and getting to compete at the highest level is one of the most fulfilling things I’ve ever experienced,” said Quinn Sardine, one of the players on the team. “To also come out with a win and being the first to ever do it from Maui is something I will never forget and carry with me the rest of my life.”

For libero Asher Tokuoka, playing on the national stage was something he will never take for granted.

“That championship game was the most important game of my life and I was playing off pure adrenaline,” Tokuoka said. “The feeling when we won is indescribable, because to think that we are just a small team from Maui going into the tournament as underdogs, but coming out on top, it just feels surreal. Winning a volleyball national championship, in the open division, is definitely my greatest achievement. Our whole team played our hearts out and left it all out on that court.”

The players on the team include Ryder Tokuoka, Asher Tokuoka, Tui Ika, Noah Feiteira, Tayden Tanaka, Kamahao Nobriga, Quinn Sardine, Keanu Torres-Estores, Kamakana Ferreira, Rylan Ching and Havana Kaaihue with head coach Darryl Tanaka and assistant coaches Albert Paschoal and Kauilanikuulei Tanaka.