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Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Takin' care of business..."}]

Smile 26 1 31

<title>Daily Smile: Saturday, January 31, 2026</title>

Takin' care of business...

Daily Smile: Saturday, January 31, 2026

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Real Estate

Business & Tourism

A Waikīkī timeshare more than five years in the making has opened to guests.

[{"type":"text","text":"Ka Haku, a Hilton Club, opened Oct. 2; 120 guests were expected."}]

Developed by Hilton Grand Vacations Inc., an Orlando-based timeshare company, Ka Haku is the company's 14th resort in the state and the first Hilton Club-branded property in Hawai‘i, "a distinction reserved for a boutique, highly curated ownership experience," a recent announcement noted.

“Ka Haku’s opening is a moment our entire team has been building toward, and there’s real pride in the experience we will share as we welcome members and guests to the resort,” General Manager Robert Ishihara said in a recent announcement. “From the moment members and guests arrive, our goal is to make every visit feel like coming home, creating meaningful experiences that inspire their story and stay with them long after they leave.”

Ishihara led a group of reporters on a tour of the property shortly before its public opening. 

He was appointed as general manager in July, and has more than 30 years of experience in hospitality, most recently serving as the GM for Kings' Land, a Hilton Grand Vacations Club in Waikoloa, an announcement this summer noted.

Located at the former King's Village site on Ka‘iulani Avenue, Ka Haku offers 205 studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom suites; an arrival and departure lounge; state-of-the-art fitness center, pool and bar; a Japanese-style bathhouse with a communal bath, sauna and cold bath; and an exclusive owners lounge for Ka Haku owners.

Rob Gunthner, regional vice president, resort operations for Hilton Grand Vacations, told Aloha State Daily following that tour when asked how it feels to reach this milestone, "It's [an] even a better feeling knowing that this is the start of something really, really special."

"One of my favorite discussion points was always, 'Let's get to the finish line,' and then ... I was reminded it's really the starting line," he said. "That just transitioned me."

Ka Haku's opening comes a little more than a year after developers topped off the property in July 20225 and 

A senior director of development for Hilton Grand Vacations told ASD at that time that construction began on the project in 2019 and the developer was about a year into the groundwork when the Covid-19 pandemic hit; the project was paused at that time and later resumed in 2023.

Ka Haku has created nearly 200 full-time hospitality roles and more than 400 local jobs during construction, the recent announcement notes. Statewide, HGV supports nearly 1,800 jobs.

Meanwhile, in coordination with the City and County of Honolulu, the company donated $1 million toward the revitalization of Kūhiō Beach Park.

And through its corporate social responsibility program, 

, the company has given more than $200,000 to nonprofits in Hawai‘i this year alone, while team members have contributed more than 1,600 volunteer hours in support of more than 30 nonprofits across the state, the announcement says.

Ka Haku7

<title>Waikīkī timeshare welcomes first guests</title>

Developed by Hilton Grand Vacations Inc., Ka Haku, a Hilton Club, opened earlier this month. It is the company's 14th resort in the state and the first Hilton Club-branded property in the Islands. Rob Gunthner, regional vice president, resort operations for Hilton Grand Vacations, recently told Aloha State Daily that "this is the start of something really, really special."

Waikīkī timeshare welcomes first guests

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

, is not, in fact, a specialty pickle shop. The business, located next door to the husband-and-wife team’s ice cream shop, 

, just celebrated its grand opening on Saturday.

“‘Little Pickle’ is actually a nickname for our 7-year-old son,” Kyle explains. “We call our five-year-old son ‘cornichon,’ so he’s the mini version of little pickle.”

While the biz does sell pickles — “We love pickles, and we serve local pickles from Ho Farms,” 

— its primary specialty is gourmet hot dogs.

[{"type":"text","text":"These aren’t your typical Costco food court hot dogs, Kyle notes."}]

“They’re all-beef, pasture-raised hot dogs with no hormones and no antibiotics,” he says. “Nowadays, a lot of people are health conscious and don’t want to put ultra-processed meats in their body. This (what we’re serving) is a super high-quality hot dog; we hunted down the perfect bun, as well.

“It took us months,” Kyle adds. “It’s so hard to find buns that don’t have preservatives. We found a local baker who could do them, and they were perfect. It was a journey to get there.”

The journey began before the couple got the space next to their ice cream shop. While they do love hot dogs, Kyle and Josephine say they were trying to come up with a savory concept that was both affordable and family friendly.

“We love food, but we love community more than food,” Kyle says. “We wanted to do something amazing next door to our ice cream shop, to keep building community and invite more people in. This spot opened up — it was supposed to be a bakery, but the couple that was doing it had to pull out for personal reasons — and it became available. It was open for a while; we decided to go for it.”

He says that if they didn’t settle on hot dogs, the space could have been a pizza, hamburger, dumplings or sandwich shop.

“We want to make places and experiences for the neighborhood,” Josephine says. “We always consider ourselves a family party that the whole neighborhood is invited to. I guess that can be manifested and expressed in many ways.

“It’s expensive to eat out in Kailua — you can’t really grab and go for anything less than $30 — and we were like, ‘What can we do?’” she adds. “There aren’t a lot of hot dogs on the Island. We really challenged ourselves to find a relatively healthy hot dog with no nitrates.”

The couple officially got the space last December, but say the build out and sourcing for their products took longer than expected.

Little Pickle’s opening menu features six specialty hot dogs ($12 each); flavors will rotate every month or two, according to Kyle. Customers can choose from Chicago, Seattle, nori, chili cheese, tropickle and L.A. Dirty dogs.

“They’re all kind of different and unique; they all have sweet and savory flavors,” Kyle says. “Jo is from L.A., so for her, the L.A. Dirty Dog is kind of like a homecoming. The chili cheese dog is my favorite — just savory and delicious; you put cheese and onions on top of that, I won’t say ‘no.’”

The business’s Chicago dog features an all-beef, premium hot dog with yellow mustard, sweet relish, chopped white onions, tomato wedges, pickled sport peppers, poppy seeds, celery salt and a dill pickle spear. Meanwhile, the Seattle dog features a schmear of whipped cream cheese, housemade yellow onion jam, a sliced jalapeno and Sriracha zig zag.

“We didn’t even know what a Seattle dog was, initially,” Kyle says. “Somebody came in and was like, ‘You should do a Seattle dog.’ We looked it up; apparently, it’s a whole thing to put cream cheese and jalapenos. The nori dog is for people who love kewpie mayo; it has Japanese flavors.”

For customers who want something unique, Kyle recommends the tropickle dog, which comes with lilikoʻi mustard and pineapple-mango salsa. Josephine says the biz will eventually offer a vegan and vegetarian option.

He says the flavors will keep rotating — with the exception of the Chicago dog and chili cheese dog, which will likely stay on the menu — to give customers new options to try. He says they also want to do chef partnerships and collaborate with different chefs to create a specialty hog dog.

“We’ll create something really special (with them),” he says. “We’re also going to have fun and maybe do meatball sandwiches, oysters on the half shell and fun things that we rotate in to keep it exciting.”

Besides its gourmet hot dogs, Little Pickle also offers side dishes — ranging from kale yuzu salad ($9) to chili cheese fritos ($8) — and drinks.

“We make our own agua frescas ($5),” Josephine says. “We do a liliko

i iced tea and yuzu lemonade. We do a pickled Coke ($6), which features salty, dill pickle brine. Since we have the ice cream shop next door, we’ll have root beer floats (with Please Come Again’s vanilla ice cream) as well.”

While the business will start by opening from noon to 8 p.m. Wednesdays to Sundays, Josephine says the shop’s goal is to eventually open from 8 a.m.

“We’ll start serving breakfast sandwiches,” she says. “Then, as soon as we can, we’ll open more days. We’ll probably always be closed on Mondays.”

“We just wanted to have fun (with this new concept); accessibility, quality and affordability are important to us,” Kyle adds. “We just want to give people a high-quality option that doesn’t break the bank; something they can pick up on the way home from the beach.”

Open 12 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays to Sundays, closed Mondays and Tuesdays

Parking available in the surrounding municipal lots 

Little Pickle owners 100226

<title>Little Pickle is a new specialty hot dog shop in Kailua</title>

Located next to Please Come Again Ice Cream, Little Pickle celebrated its grand opening this past Saturday. The biz specializes in all-beef, pasture-raised hot dogs made with no hormones, nitrates or antibiotics. Choose from a rotating selection of flavors, ranging from the Chicago dog and chili cheese dog to the Japanese-inspired nori dog.

Little Pickle is a new specialty hot dog shop in Kailua

From the moment she opened her first cafe in Hilo three and a half years ago, business owner Savanica Johansen of 

“The vision (for my shops) was always just bigger — opening across the Islands, maybe even opening on the Mainland,” she says. “It was always just a big vision. This was always a matter of when (not if) — when we would open in Honolulu.”

Long before Coffee Girl came about, Johansen was a sales manager for Hilton. Part of her job including traveling; the first thing she would do in a different city was to look for cute coffee shops.

“I’ve always been a coffee girl,” Johansen says. “When I would travel (for work), I would just go to a different coffee shop every day. That was what I loved to do.”

At that time, Johansen recalls that coffee shops/cafes were not plentiful in Hilo.

“If I wanted to get coffee before work, the Starbucks line was so long,” she remembers. “It was so hard to get coffee; if I went on my lunch break, everyone was also there at the same time.”

During a trip to Australia, Johansen felt “really inspired” to start her own coffee business one day.

“There are beautiful coffee shops on every corner (there),” she says. “I kept saying, ‘I want to have a coffee shop.’”

Around 2018, Johansen left the hotel industry to pursue real estate, which she says “was her first dream.” She said her goal for the longest time was to be a luxury real estate agent. When the Covid-19 pandemic happened and life slowed down, Johansen remembers coffee was still a highlight in her life — specifically, in the form of white mochas from Starbucks.

“White mocha was my thing,” she laughs. “I asked my husband, ‘Can you please buy me one of those fancy, expensive coffee machines? It’ll save money.’”

For six months after getting a coffee machine, Johansen says she “dumped everything down the drain” and still went to get her fix at Starbucks because her coffee “was terrible.”

“I’m very, very picky with my coffee, so none of them tasted good (to me)," she says. "Finally, one day, I made something really good.

“My sister, who is a nurse at the hospital in Hilo, came over and tried it,” she adds. “She said, ‘Can you bring me a coffee for my night shift?’ I started bringing her coffee at work, and her coworkers wanted coffee, too, so I started delivering.”

Johansen credits her drink recipes to a lot of trial and error. The coffee deliveries were the catalyst to officially starting her business.

“It was still around 2021; they (my sister’s coworkers) said, ‘This is really good, but you should be charging us,’” Johansen says. “I was just making it for free; I started charging $3 for the drinks.

“I wanted something to do; I’m a very social person,” she adds, noting the struggles with social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic. “I just wanted connection. I feel like it’s so fulfilling to give somebody a cup of coffee and for them to be so happy. This (coffee) brought me more fulfillment than real estate ever did.”

At first, Johansen didn’t know what to call her business, but “coffee girl” was a suggestion from her daughter.

“I didn’t like it at first because it was just (geared) to one market,” Johansen says. “But most of my drinks are to this market — the girls who want the fancy coffees, who want the aesthetic.

“At that time, I was working for a lawyer part-time and doing coffee deliveries,” she says. “My lawyer was like, ‘This is a genius idea; a lot of people can resonate with being a coffee girl.’”

With her business name and social media account set, word started to spread about Coffee Girl, and Johansen realized having a physical location for her business was the next step.

“My business got registered; I wanted to do this right — in line with the health department guidelines — and get a shop,” Johansen says. She ended up funding her first store, located at 2100 Kanoelehua Ave., with the money from her biggest real estate sale.

“I put every single penny into my shop and opened my first location in March 2023,” she says. “It did really well; I was so happy with the response that I got.

“It was my first shop, but I wanted more; I just felt like it was made for me,” she adds. “I ended up getting the opportunity for my second shop, which is in downtown Hilo (42 Waianuenue Ave.).”

While opening in Honolulu was always on her heart, everything came together quickly this year. Johansen says she was on O

ahu for vacation in June and didn’t want to leave.

“I went home and was like, ‘I want to be in Honolulu,’” she says. “I flew back the next week, looked at spaces, and put in an offer (for this one). By the time I got the keys, it was August. We started construction at the end of August; we finished in about four weeks.

“I believe in myself so much that sometimes, I’m like, ‘Wow, girl … you need to check yourself,’” she laughs. “But honestly, sometimes I don’t want to think about it (too much) because who opens a coffee shop in 60 days?”

Coffee Girl’s Honolulu location officially opened on Sept. 26. While all of her stores are slightly different, Johansen says there are common elements in each one.

“All of my shops have roses; I love roses, they are my favorite flower,” she says. “They’re (the stores) all different colors — my first shop is pink, my second shop is a lighter shade of green, like a sage green, and this one is white and gold. They’re the same vibe, but different; I want them all to be destination coffee shops. I want people to experience all the Coffee Girls.”

She says that while her Big Island stores are inspired by French cafes, her Honolulu store features a more modern look. She says her cafes usually feature mirrors and heart-shaped straws for the drinks.

The menus across all three stores a mostly the same, according to Johansen. The café

’s signature beverage is its pink macchiato, a layered drink with white chocolate, vanilla, strawberry milk and espresso shots. Other popular options include the banana bread latte and chocolate haupia pie latte.

Johansen says, referring to the menu selection. “A lot of my drinks are inspired by my favorite desserts. I’m a big dessert person; I love sweets. I made the chocolate haupia pie years ago because I love Ted’s Bakery’s chocolate haupia pie.”

She notes that many of the drinks are designed as iced lattes, but hot drinks are available as well. Besides coffee, the menu includes frappes (blended drinks), lemonade, matchas, teas and kid-friendly options like hot cocoa and chocolate milkshakes.

“Our strawberry matcha is made a little differently here,” 

Johansen notes. “There are different products that I can get here (in Honolulu) that aren’t as easily accessible in Hilo.” 

For her Honolulu store, Johansen collabs with local bakers to feature a rotating selection of treats. Coco’s Cravings 808 (cinnamon rolls), Aloha Loaf (brown butter chocolate chip banana bread cookies) and Lyman Lattes (mini croissants) are a few of the featured vendors so far.

“I was not about to put an oven and a whole bakery in here,” Johansen says. “I was like, ‘Let me get some local bakers who want to collab and I can sell their stuff here;' it’s a win. I love what everybody does, and the hard work they put in.”

Coffee Girl Honolulu does offer a café menu, comprising dishes like grilled cheese ($10.95), chicken pesto panini ($16.95) and build-your-own avocado toast (starting at $14.95).

“I never used to do food when I started,” Johansen says. “We started with the build-your-own avocado toast, which is popular on the Big Island.

“People want a one-stop shop — they want to come in and get their coffee, get their breakfast or lunch, and maybe get a sweet treat,” she adds.

ahu store came together quickly partially because she “gets things done quick,” but also because materials were more accessible.

“When I do things, I fully commit,” she says. “All of my orders came in faster (here) than they did in Hilo. Sometimes, that’s the biggest thing; just waiting on stuff to come in. When I finally opened last Saturday, it was surreal.

“I couldn’t do any of this without God, every space, every opportunity was because of Him. He’s opened every door at the right time,” she says. “It’s definitely a lot of hard work and sacrifice, too; my kids back home sacrifice a lot. But let this inspire people who have kids; they can definitely accomplish their dreams.”

Coffee Girl Honolulu’s grand opening is this Saturday, Oct. 3 at 8 a.m. The first 100 customers will get a free goodie bag; after grand opening, the biz will be open daily from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“This location is just special because I always wanted to be on O

ahu,” Johansen says. “I love the city. Every time it’s Merrie Monarch (in Hilo), I get a lot of O

ahu customers. They’re like, ‘When are you going to open on O

“It’s finally here; it’s been talked about for years now, and it’s really been on my heart,” she adds. “I really felt like this is where I wanted to be. I made this for you guys; I made this for the O

Customer parking available at Azure Ala Moana (retail stalls available)

Open daily, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. (open from 6 a.m. after Oct. 3)

Coffee Girl owner 092826

<title>Oʻahu has a new ‘Coffee Girl’</title>

The cafe with roots in Hilo — known for its coffee, matcha and aesthetic decor — just opened its first Honolulu location on Keʻeaumoku Street at Azure Ala Moana. Its grand opening is this Saturday at 8 a.m.; customers can look forward to specialty lattes like chocolate haupia pie, banana bread and white chocolate strawberry.

Oʻahu has a new ‘Coffee Girl’

[{"type":"text","text":"Looking for the best jolt of java?"}]

Drip Studio HNL in Honolulu and HiCO Hawaiian Coffee in Kailua-Kona are two of just 20 in the U.S. nominated for the list of 

 in the USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice Awards.

The awards aim to rank the 10 best in several areas of travel and lifestyle, and the 20 nominees were chosen with the help of a panel of experts. The final 10 will be determined by voters.

Drip Studio owner-operators Vince Pohaku and Kelsie Mercado Uehara founded the specialty coffee house, located at 1114 Fort Street Mall, in 2023 with no cafe experience and the argument that "

Hawai'i grows world-class coffee, so we should drink like it

," an announcement from the shop notes. The coffee shop founders add that it works directly with farms and roasters to showcase Hawaiʻi as a world-class coffee destination.

Meanwhile HiCO, which has three Big Isle locations, serves 100% Hawai‘i-grown coffee, supporting local farmers and honoring the Islands' agricultural heritage, its 

 once a day until 6 a.m. Monday, Oct. 19. Winners will be announced Wednesday, Oct. 28.

Several other Hawai‘i businesses are up for spots on various other 10Best lists, voting for which is underway:

Drip Coffee sign 092526

<title>These Hawai‘i coffee shops, distilleries are nominated for 10Best lists</title>

The USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice Awards aim to rank the 10 best in several areas of travel and lifestyle. Nominees are chosen with the help of a panel of experts but the final 10 will be determined by voters.

These Hawai‘i coffee shops, distilleries are nominated for 10Best lists

Arrasmith Portrait

Perry Arrasmith

Government & Politics

Columnists

Primaries in Hawai‘i are brutal, especially when several candidates compete for a party’s nomination. In a state as heavily Democratic as Hawai‘i, the net result is a number of local races where Democrats are elected in their respective primaries and there is no general election.

There was a time when local legislative races were arguably more competitive and more politically diverse. It was a time when state house and senate districts were larger, when candidates were selected from a crowded primary race, and when multiple Democrats and Republicans faced-off in a single general election.

Elections in Hawai‘i would be more competitive and politically diverse with this model, known popularly as multimember districts (MMDs). If we want more dynamic races, there’s no reason why MMDs shouldn’t eventually return to local legislative races.

In Hawai‘i, MMDs used to be a big thing. 

“When we became a state in 1959,” former Republican State Senator Fred Rohlfing 

 in 2011, “Hawai‘i’s bicameral Legislature was elected employing MMDs for both the Senate and the House. For example, four senators and four representatives were elected in the general election from the districts of East Honolulu from a party slate of up to four selected by each party in the primary. Every voter in our district could cast up to four votes for both senators and representatives.”

MMDs gave voters more votes–and choices. They could also select both Democrats and Republicans as their favored candidates. One could pick an old-school conservative Republican and a new-age liberal Democrat. They could guarantee a legislature with more ideological diversity. 

In his own case, the Republican Rohlfing was elected alongside a Democrat, Vincent Yano. “Many issues can be handled in a bipartisan fashion,” he recalled. “Even substantive issues can be the subject of a team effort.” 

That’s how it also worked for Neil Abercrombie, a progressive Democrat who was first elected to the State House in 1975. In the community of Mānoa, he was elected alongside Republicans like Hiram Fong, Jr. 

MMDs are still permitted in Hawai‘i, although they’ve been absent for over four decades. The reason dates back to a botched reapportionment effort in 1982. 

Hawai‘i’s Constitution, in addition to explicitly permitting MMDs (see 

), also requires the State to review the boundaries of existing districts every ten years. To do so correctly, two standards must be met. 

Firstly, the total number of seats in the House and the Senate must be apportioned among the basic island units of the entire State. A district, for instance, could not be drawn from a chunk of Lāna‘i and the Hawai‘i Kai neighborhood of O‘ahu.

Secondly, the re-drawing of districts (in response to population changes) would require that the average number of registered voters in each district to be “as nearly equal to the average for the basic island units as practicable.” Every House district in Maui County needed to have the same average amount of registered voters as possible, and the same went for every other county. 

As long as you meet those two standards, the State Reapportment Commission should be able to draw either single-member districts (where only one candidate is elected, as it the case in every House and Senate seat), or (as it did before 1982) MMDs. 

In 1982, however, Hawai‘i’s Reapportionment Commission’s plan was thrown out in the U.S. District Court case of 

. The court found the plan faulty due to its methodology for factoring the state’s population (the State had drawn districts on the basis of registered voters, not total residential population). The State of Hawai‘i’s 1981 Reapportionment Commission was in a bind and needed to speedily create a new plan, and subsequently threw away MMDs in the process. 

1982 marked a practical change in culture, not a true change in law. State law has never been amended to expressly ban MMDs, nor are MMDs unconstitutional. They still exist at the county level (look at Maui or Kaua‘i) and at-least ten states have legislatures with some form of MMDs.

A Call for the Return of Multimember Districts

Just because Hawai‘i follows the principle of ‘one-person, one-vote’ does not mean that MMDs are no longer possible. 

The last serious effort to restore MMDs in Hawai‘i occurred in 2011. Former Republican State Senator Rohlfing supported the return to MMDs, and believed that the Reapportionment Committee could legally restore them as part of their plan to re-draw the boundaries of Hawai‘i’s districts.

In May 2011, then-Governor Neil Abercrombie was also open to the idea, although he 

 that MMDs would need to be expressly permitted via an amendment to the State Constitution.  

In June, the State Reapportionment Commission ultimately voted 

 the idea by a narrow difference of five-four. At least one member of the reapportionment commission believed that MMDs were unconstitutional. This was not true. An unreleased letter from the office of the Attorney General confirmed that MMDs were still possible. 

Here and there, the concept of MMDs has appeared during legislative sessions. In 2023, Senate President Ronald Kouchi introduced 

Technically speaking, Hawai‘i’s Constitution still permits MMDs, although it holds that “not more than four members shall be elected from any district.”

The concept is largely defunct, for now. Candidates will jockey for their party’s nomination, and the grand majority of local races will be sleepy moving into November. 

Our elections will be stilted affairs. MMDs should return — and make them more interesting. 

Capitol Jan 2026

<title>In Hawai‘i, where are the multimember districts?</title>

Election season is a good time to ask — why doesn't Hawai‘i go back to having multimember districts? In a such a system, more of Hawai‘i's voters would have representation in the state Legislature.

In Hawai‘i, where are the multimember districts?

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

[{"text":"Rod York gathered his team after a tough loss and began to lecture them. ","type":"text"}]

He balanced sternness and sympathy with honesty when addressing his players, some of whom were in tears following their first loss of the season, a 

25-6 loss to Moanalua in the OIA championship game

. He told them to embrace the pain and tears, that the experience will make them a better team. 

That type of display from York is usually reserved for the Fridays and Saturdays in the fall, where he's coached the Mililani High School football team since 2010. With the 

advent of girls flag football as a sanctioned high school sport in Hawai‘i

, York, who is also a special education teacher at Mililani, was asked to coach the team and accepted. 

"We needed a flag coach, and I said, 'I'll do it.' We got some more coaches and the players help out the girls to teach them, just like everybody else," York told Aloha State Daily. "Flag football is new for these girls. Why not be a part of something special?"

In York's time as Mililani's tackle football coach, the Trojans have won five OIA titles and two state titles, one in 2014 and another 2016, although the latter was in the state's second-tiered Division I tournament. When asked about the difference between coaching tackle and flag football, York said there's "not much."

"You cannot be too hard on them, but at the same time, you can be firm. But these girls want the coaching," York said. "They want that, that hard coaching. They want to be treated just as equally as the boys. As far as the coaching, the teaching, whether it's a girl or a boy, it's still mentoring, it's still teaching. And, yeah, we're having fun. We're having fun."

Flag football is the latest sport to be sanctioned at the high school level in Hawai‘i, with surfing a potential addition in the months ahead. 

From a local programming perspective, flag football has earned the tackle football treatment, with the OIA championship getting televised live on Spectrum Sports OC16. Statistics taken from the game show that Mililani quarterbacks were intercepted five times against Moanalua, although the Trojan defense picked off star quarterback Zaira Sugui three times, including one returned for 28 yards by Sienna Maafala. 

"Big ups to the OIA for putting this together," York said. "Title IX, it's a big win for the women. You see how much talent there is all over the state. Just having these girls come out and compete and coming on this stage, what a beautiful stage. OC16 is exciting for the girls. The only time they really (used to) play is on Sundays at the park. 

"They had to travel out of state and spend all that money to have this type of stage, so big ups to Bryce Kaneshiro, OIA executive, all the athletic directors for putting this together and making it happen for us, and especially for these girls, because they get an opportunity. You saw them cheer, they cried a little but, but that's part of the fun. The journey, learning moments. Now we take this, and we both move into states, and now we get to compete with the ILH and the outer Island teams."

Moanalua is the top overall seed in the inaugural 

, which features teams from four different Islands and five different leagues. Mililani is on the opposite side of Moanalua's bracket and will open against Wai‘anae. The single-elimination format concludes with Saturday's championship set for Saturday at Mililani at 7:30 p.m. 

In between the time Mililani lost to Moanalua on April 18 and the opening of the state tournament on Wednesday, York was able to celebrate his former quarterback 

 getting selected by the Cleveland Browns in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft. It was the second year in a row York had a former player selected, as Darius Muasau was selected in the sixth round by the New York Giants in the 2024 NFL Draft. 

"Like I said, we still got life, so moving on, learning from this, and then just enjoying the process, the wins, the losses, that's what we preach," York said. "And even when we win, we say, hey, it's not about the win. It's just about doing your best. These girls are loving it. They're embracing it. We do team bondings, we go to the beach, we go to the pool, we go to the driving range, and it's all part of the process and the fun.

"At the end of the day, it's not really about flag football, it's about life and life lessons that they're gonna learn, and that's what we stress."

Daily Smile: Saturday, January 31, 2026

ASD Staff

Reporter

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Daily Smile: Saturday, January 31, 2026

Authors

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