Aloha Summer Classic will showcase 16 volleyball courts

A dream nearly 20 years in the making becomes a reality next week when whistles are blown on 16 volleyball courts at the Hawaii Convention Center. The inaugural Aloha Summer Classic tournament field isn’t as large as Kent Ma envisioned when he first approached center management in 2000, but after years of being told costs made it too prohibitive to be feasible, having some 55 teams committed to the three-day event is a start.

“We’re not getting as many teams from the mainland as we had hoped,” said Ma, the USA Volleyball Aloha Region commissioner for the past 25 years. “It’s a new event. We’re still looking at getting the word out and marketing to the right segment.

“We wanted both girls and boys as well as adults, but there wasn’t enough interest on the boys’ side. We thought we could attract more adult teams with both an open and fun division, but it’s been difficult to get them out. It might be the cost ($900 per team). Entries are still open for interested teams.”

Because the numbers aren’t there this time — the first in a three-year contract with the convention center — Ma has scaled back on his vision, which had included a beach tournament. He still feels it’s viable, particularly with the changing focus of the center and the Hawaii Tourism Authority to include more sports-related events.

“We’ve been looking at what markets we weren’t in and what the challenges would be in those markets,” said Teri Orton, Hawaii Convention Center general manager. “I went to the TEAMS (sports-event industry) conference, which is where sports directors come looking for venues for their event.

“People were interested in Hawaii, but we didn’t have the multi-purpose courts for events. The HTA has granted us funds for courts, so we’re looking at 28 courts that would fill all three exhibition halls. It’s quite a huge expense to take on, but there’s a huge amount of interest already to host in 2017, not just national but also international.”

Among the potential events are youth basketball, futsal (indoor soccer) and international table tennis. And, of course, volleyball.

“We hope to help Kent grow his tournament,” Orton said. “We want him to be successful. This opens the door to indoor sports, volleyball and others.”

The convention center’s investment (upwards of $1 million) in the multi-purpose courts comes too late to help this year’s Aloha Summer Classic. Ma said he is shipping in 16 courts, standards and weighted barrels at a cost of $25,000.

He said he had looked at buying the barrels — four per court — and keeping them in Hawaii but said the storage cost was as prohibitive as buying the courts. With the convention center bringing in courts later this fall, events such as the Aloha Summer Classic will only have to pay a rental fee.

“This whole thing couldn’t happen without the support of the convention center and their rethinking of it for sports events,” said Ma, also the varsity boys volleyball coach at Mid-Pacific Institute. “They’ve been very supportive.”

The tournament field includes girls teams from Hawaii, two from California and one each from Texas, Nevada and Samoa.

“Hopefully in the future we’ll be able to make more of an international event, getting teams from Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Guam … ,” Ma said. “After so many years of it being told it was too expensive, it’s a real doable deal now.”

The event concludes with on June 18 with an awards ceremony and concert featuring Kapena, Maoli, Mana’o Co. and Bruddah Waltah.

For more information, email usaaloha@aol.com.