Q&A: Honolulu Little League manager Gerald Oda

With each game getting televised on the ESPN family of networks, combined with its sheer name brand recognition, the Little League World Series has upheld its reputation as the biggest platform in youth sports for decades.

Held annually in Williamsport, Pa., teams from around the world compete for the opportunity to merely appear in the tournament.

Since 2018, the state of Hawai‘i has become a mainstay in the tournament. Teams from the Islands have won six of the last seven West Regionals, including Honolulu Little League in 2025.

The 2025 Little League World Series will mark Honolulu Little League manager Gerald Oda's third trip to Williamsport. Oda led HLL to 2018 and 2022 to LLWS championships, going a combined 11-0 in those tournaments.

Although the 2025 LLWS tournament began on Wednesday, Honolulu will not begin until Friday due to the tournament's bracket draw. Honolulu will take on Connecticut's Fairfield National Little League on Friday at 1 p.m. HST in a game that will be televised live on ESPN.

Aloha State Daily recently caught up with Oda via Zoom for a Q&A prior to a team dinner in one of the team's first days in Williamsport.

Aloha State Daily: Congratulations on making it to Williamsport once again. So many people look at it as a once in a lifetime experience, but for you, it's your third time.

Oda: "I just really feel thankful for these bunch of kids that we have. It's all due to their hard work and their effort and just very grateful. I don't take this for granted one bit. Like you said, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. But to make it this third time, I deeply appreciate this opportunity to represent again our great state of Hawai‘i to be on this journey with these 12 kids."

ASD: The first two teams you took to Williamsport pretty much dominated the competition. This year's team has had some tight games in states and regionals but still won them all thus far. Is the ability to pull out the close ones part of the identity of your team this year?

Oda: "[The 2025 team] is totally different. It's human nature. You're gonna want to compare. No different from our 2022 team, the first thing people say is, 'How does it compare it to the 2018 team?' They're all different. You know, 2018 team, bunch of hammahs. Thirteen out of the 14 players went on to play college baseball. The 2022 team, they dominated right when they came to Williamsport, which we're very grateful and appreciative of.

"[The 2025] team is different. It's like making a puzzle. The 2018 team was a totally different puzzle to put together and picture compared to 2022 and no different to this team. We don't have to be like how 2018 was or how 2022 was. We just have to make our own beautiful picture together."

ASD: You guys are the last team to take the field in the entire 20-team tournament this year. Do you enjoy the strategy part of that, or are the boys eager to get out there?

Oda: "They're definitely eager to play. But for us, I think it's a benefit being the last team to play. It could work both ways. We played the first day in 2022, which was great. We could get into that rhythm early, and it helped us out tremendously. So vice versa. I'm just hoping that us being the last team in this tournament is going to help us in a sense that it gives the kids a chance to soak it in more so off the field, so that when we step on the field, they're going to be really hungry to play."

ASD: It's been 20 years since the kids from ‘Ewa Beach went to the World Series and became the first Hawai‘i team to win it all. Kids on the teams that followed said they were inspired by that run. Any time there's a team in Williamsport from Hawai‘i, regardless of Island, they gain the entire state's support. You've experienced it a couple of times. What's that support like?

Oda: "A-may-zing [laughs]. That Layton Aliviado team back in 2005 when they went, of course, tremendous. Respect for those guys, because they were the first team to make it here and win it all. And no different from 2008, when Timo Donahue coached the team and they won it all. And even in 2010 when Brian Yoshii took his team and they won the U.S. championship that year. So of course, they laid on the groundwork for us in here in Honolulu Little League, and I deeply appreciate and respect those guys. Since back then, it's always been that same way. I was explaining it to the Mainland reporters that you don't know how Hawai‘i is, that Hawai‘i is a very special place in the sense that of course, you're very competitive with one another trying to represent and get out of the state tournament. But once a team leaves Hawai‘i, it's like, that's our team.

"We explained to the boys that we are no longer Honolulu. We're Team Hawai‘i. We're representing the entire state of Hawai‘i, and it's our responsibility now to make sure that when we step on the field, whatever we do, that we show the world how great our state is by their behavior, not necessarily just how we play, but by our behavior. And the support and love that we get from everybody back home is tremendous. After winning the regional tournament, almost got 200 text messages like, holy moly. My phone just blew up, which I was very appreciative. I could be saying the same thing about all the parents . ... It could be just a simple text message, a phone call, but just knowing that there's so many people back home wanting us to do well, praying for us to do well, it means a lot."

ASD: What kind of ballplayer were you back in the day?

Oda: "Horrible [laughs]. I was not a good baseball player. I wasn't good. You know, I thought I was good. I was cocky as hell. I wasn't really good, but I do have a lot of great experiences from my Little League baseball coaches. Guys that not only did they teach us baseball, but they were just good coaches that really cared for myself and my brothers. ... They taught us the Xs and Os on the ball field. But they taught me, they showed it by how much they cared for myself, along with my brothers. That's who I wish to be. I was not a very good baseball player, but I really had great coaches, though."

ASD: How did you get into coaching? Were you always winning a lot of games?

Oda: "My older brother, Donovan, he was a former baseball player at the University of Hawai‘i. After he graduated one of the parents saw him one day and asked him if he was interested in coaching. My brother said yes, and my other brother [and current Honolulu Little League assistant coach], Keith, was coaching with me. We all decided, hey, let's give back. I started the journey some 33 years ago. How I coached when I first started coaching with my brothers, now it's totally different. When I was young, I already thought I knew it all, but I still don't know it all. That's the great thing about coaching. If you stay humble and you always stay hungry to learn, there's so much I can improve on, even to this day. But it's something that's very gratifying for myself along with my brother Keith and (Honolulu Little League assistant coach) Willis Kato, too."

ASD: Pretty much every adult involved in Little League baseball is a volunteer. What's your day job like?

Oda: "I'm an investigator for GEICO Insurance. I work in their special investigations. I'm very fortunate. It gives me a lot of flexibility. Without that kind of flexibility with my job, there's no way I could coach baseball. Of course, I'm very fortunate and appreciative to have that kind of occupation, being an investigator with a great company at GEICO."

ASD: One difference in you I noticed from the last time you were on ESPN in 2022 to now is the tattoo on your left arm. Can you explain the significance of it?

Oda: "It's actually a new tattoo. There's actually Kanji on it in Japanese, it means never give up. It's my way of reminding myself that no matter what, never give up. And I explained that to the kids, that even as coaches, as an adult, there's times that I feel like, wow, can we really do it? But, looking at this tattoo on my arm always reminds me to never give up. Nothing we can't accomplish as long as we don't give up."

ASD: Thanks for sharing that. When exactly did you get it? Do you have any other tattoos?

Oda: "I got it in 2023, so about two years ago. I have one on my back, but you can't see it, it's a smaller one on my back, my shoulder. Me and my best friend actually got it together. It was actually his daughter that gave me the design, that did the ink on my arm. So I very much appreciated that, that she did it for me. ... She went on, and it was painful as hell, but again, it has deep significance. For me, I wanted something that really meant something. I practice Buddhism.

"There's a carp. There's a waterfall, and so my tattoo is about a carp trying to get up this waterfall. If the carp gets up to this waterfall, it promises that if you can make it to the top, you become this dragon. They call it the dragon game. It's actually a dried up carp trying to make it up to this waterfall. It goes all the way to here, and it turns into a dragon.

"But it symbolizes that whole never give up thing that even though it seems insurmountable, if you want to achieve greatness, then you cannot give up. ... I will never give up, it all ties into that, and that's the significance of that tattoo. And it reminds me every day that, hey, if you ever want to achieve something great, you got to make great effort, and you cannot give up."

ASD: Mahalo for your time and insight, coach. Is there anything you'd like to add?

Oda: "I just want to say thank you to everybody back home for all their tremendous support and prayers. There's a lot of Cal Ripken teams out there. There's a Mānoa team coached by Matt Apana. There's a Fear 808 team coached by Chris Hino, there's an LA team coached by Dane Sardinha. They're all at the 12U World Series for Cal Ripken in Branson, Mo. And then you have a 10-and-under Hawai‘i Kai team coached by Shane Butcher, they're in Vincennes, Ind. Just wishing all those guys the best. All of us are all in the same boat. We're just trying to represent Hawai‘i in the best way possible, and deeply, deeply sending prayers to those guys."

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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.