Real Hawaii in LA
by: Ian Earleposted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 at 11:15 PM
Thus, on Saturday, July 21st, 2007, I bought my own ticket and found myself at the Home Depot Center stadium in Southern California sitting in the nosebleed grass section, waiting to watch David Beckham play his first game with the L.A. Galaxy against perennial European powerhouse Chelsea. Not only was I way high up, I did not even get a chance to meet Victoria Beckham. Not to worry, though, I can at least watch her on television. Beckham played the final ten minutes of the match to stadium-wide-screams every time the ball came near him. Unfortunately, not even David’s star power could help the home team as Chelsea snuck by with a 1-0 victory.
There is at least one perk to being a soccer magazine editor. You can walk up to most people and say “Hi, I’m the editor for Hawaii Soccer Magazine,” and, for the most part, those you approach are happy to talk soccer with you. While watching the Galaxy game, I noticed a large enough group of young girls to be a soccer team excitedly watching the match and, just as enthusiastically, eating copious amounts of stadium food. They looked like they were from Hawaii. With the deductive reasoning required for this job, I came to two conclusions. One, they were part of a soccer team, and two, they probably were from Hawaii.
During halftime, despite being on vacation, I put on my editor cap and approached one of the grownups keeping watch over the girls and opened with the introduction line from above. I was immediately brought to Coach Robin Nakagawa, to whom I again gave my same speech. It seems my powers of deduction were correct this time: I was indeed speaking to the coach of Copa 94 girls, one of the six Real Hawaii F.C. teams in Southern California competing in the Pateadores Cup.
Try to imagine, if you will, the coordination necessary for six teams to successfully make it to games, restaurants, amusement parks and hotels on time. It really boggles the mind. Robin’s team alone, the Copa 94 girls, consisted of fi fteen players and twenty-fi ve adults. I asked him how they got from place to place in a state with more than just two freeways. “People get lost,” he answered frankly. Fortunately, though, in the end, with the help of modern technology like walkie-talkies and on-board GPS, those who got lost always wound up found.
The team had arrived in California on Thursday and was staying at the Wyndham Hotel in Costa Mesa. All athletes know that carbo-loading before a match helps endurance and what better place to carboload than at The Old Spaghetti Factory (where, at the Honolulu Ward Warehouse branch of this restaurant, this very editor once worked). One doesn’t just walk up and ask the Spaghetti Factory hostess if he or she can seat one hundred sixty people. Instead, with foresight, Real Hawaii rented out the whole restaurant. Again, using my deductive reasoning, I figured there was more than one scoop of the delicious spumoni ice cream served during the meal.
Earlier that day, Robin’s players had drawn a 0-0 tie with the Riverside
Vipers and, from what I could tell, his players were yet again carboloading
for the game the following morning. Real Hawaii, when traveling to a tournament, is not club completely focused on soccer. Robin mentioned that his players were eagerly looking forward to Disneyland later in the week, before their scheduled return to Hawaii on Wednesday and, of course, after playing their final game.
With the second half of the game about to begin, I thanked Coach Nakagawa for his time and asked if he could assemble his team for a photograph. All players were present except for one who was off buying more food. We waited…and waited some more for her to return but, in the end, I had to take the team photo without her. As a side note, not to worry, she also ended up found.
I later learned that the carbo-loading and watching Beckham play paid off for the Copa 94 girls from Hawaii, doing their team, club and state proud by winning their age group. Congratulation to Robin and his players for their fi ne showing in Southern California! Seems the Galaxy could use a few Hawaii pointers.
There is at least one perk to being a soccer magazine editor. You can walk up to most people and say “Hi, I’m the editor for Hawaii Soccer Magazine,” and, for the most part, those you approach are happy to talk soccer with you. While watching the Galaxy game, I noticed a large enough group of young girls to be a soccer team excitedly watching the match and, just as enthusiastically, eating copious amounts of stadium food. They looked like they were from Hawaii. With the deductive reasoning required for this job, I came to two conclusions. One, they were part of a soccer team, and two, they probably were from Hawaii.
During halftime, despite being on vacation, I put on my editor cap and approached one of the grownups keeping watch over the girls and opened with the introduction line from above. I was immediately brought to Coach Robin Nakagawa, to whom I again gave my same speech. It seems my powers of deduction were correct this time: I was indeed speaking to the coach of Copa 94 girls, one of the six Real Hawaii F.C. teams in Southern California competing in the Pateadores Cup.
Try to imagine, if you will, the coordination necessary for six teams to successfully make it to games, restaurants, amusement parks and hotels on time. It really boggles the mind. Robin’s team alone, the Copa 94 girls, consisted of fi fteen players and twenty-fi ve adults. I asked him how they got from place to place in a state with more than just two freeways. “People get lost,” he answered frankly. Fortunately, though, in the end, with the help of modern technology like walkie-talkies and on-board GPS, those who got lost always wound up found.
The team had arrived in California on Thursday and was staying at the Wyndham Hotel in Costa Mesa. All athletes know that carbo-loading before a match helps endurance and what better place to carboload than at The Old Spaghetti Factory (where, at the Honolulu Ward Warehouse branch of this restaurant, this very editor once worked). One doesn’t just walk up and ask the Spaghetti Factory hostess if he or she can seat one hundred sixty people. Instead, with foresight, Real Hawaii rented out the whole restaurant. Again, using my deductive reasoning, I figured there was more than one scoop of the delicious spumoni ice cream served during the meal.
Earlier that day, Robin’s players had drawn a 0-0 tie with the Riverside
Vipers and, from what I could tell, his players were yet again carboloading
for the game the following morning. Real Hawaii, when traveling to a tournament, is not club completely focused on soccer. Robin mentioned that his players were eagerly looking forward to Disneyland later in the week, before their scheduled return to Hawaii on Wednesday and, of course, after playing their final game.
With the second half of the game about to begin, I thanked Coach Nakagawa for his time and asked if he could assemble his team for a photograph. All players were present except for one who was off buying more food. We waited…and waited some more for her to return but, in the end, I had to take the team photo without her. As a side note, not to worry, she also ended up found.
I later learned that the carbo-loading and watching Beckham play paid off for the Copa 94 girls from Hawaii, doing their team, club and state proud by winning their age group. Congratulation to Robin and his players for their fi ne showing in Southern California! Seems the Galaxy could use a few Hawaii pointers.
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