Hawai'i Kai kids lose home field
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer
HAWAI'I KAI — A city construction project at Koko Head Neighborhood Park has displaced a Pop Warner football league that called the field home for more than 25 years, leaving 120 youngsters without a place to practice or play home games this season.
Officials with the Hawai'i Kai Dolphins say their permit to use the field was approved at the beginning of the year, and that notification that the work would start came just two weeks ago, long after suitable alternative fields had been taken by soccer leagues and other activities.
The league had heard that an irrigation project was scheduled for April at the park, said Shawn Coleman, president of the Hawai'i Kai Dolphins Pop Warner. But they figured since they didn't hear anything official from the city that the work was delayed until after their season, which runs from Aug. 1 to Nov. 15.
Work began last week, and the league is left scrambling to find a field before its first game Sept. 6.
"It's a disaster," coach Jim Higgins told members of the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board last week. "We're hoping to strike some kind of compromise with the city."
Since then, the city has been making a concerted effort to find a suitable field for the football teams, said Manny Menendez, city Economic Development executive director, who attended the meeting on behalf of Mayor Jeremy Harris. The city is talking to Kaiser High School about letting the Pop Warner league use its field when it's not scheduled for home games and has offered a playing field at Kamiloiki Neighborhood Park, Menendez said.
"The fields are heavily used," Menendez said. "No matter what time of year we do this, someone will be impacted."
When it became clear in August that the work was imminent, Higgins said the league started asking if the project could be put off until its season ends, but that request was denied.
"The city gave us Kamiloiki, but it's not suitable for us because of the grade," said Coleman. "I don't know what the other teams will say about it or what the refs will say. I'm surprised the city went ahead with a project like this when we were starting our season. Talk about timing."
All the other parks in Hawai'i Kai are too small or are taken by AYSO soccer players, Higgins said.
"We have not been able to find a field," Higgins said. "Football is a contact sport, and we can't have them tackling each other when the ground is not level. The momentum will make the impact more severe than normal. That wouldn't be safe."
Some of the teams are still trying to practice at Koko Head, playing around the black tarp and backhoes digging up the turf, but others have made the switch to Kamiloiki, Coleman said.
The teams, Junior Peewees, Peewees and Midgets, range in age from 10 to 14.
The teams have agreed that the upgrade to the Koko Head field will have long-term benefits for the children, Menendez said.
Construction at the park is part of a 2002 vision project to level the field for softball. The improvements are costing taxpayers $486,800. The contractor is Site Engineering Inc., which is expected to finish the work by Aug. 1, 2004, according to information provided by the city at a recent vision team meeting.
Sen. Sam Slom, whose son plays in the Pop Warner league, said he called the city Department of Parks and Recreation to see about getting the work put off until after the season.
"It all could have been avoided," said Slom, R-8th (Kahala, Hawai'i Kai). "There was a lot of time. It's the same old thing with people passing the buck in the city administration and not getting back to the public. Now the season is here and there's no more time."
Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.
