Since 2018, Hawai‘i's Little League state championship tournaments have been dominated by Honolulu Little League and Central East Maui Little League. The two powerhouses have advanced to the Little League World Series a total of six times since then, with Honolulu Little League winning the world championship in 2018 and 2022.
In 2026, Kaua‘i's Kawaihau Community Little League knew it would have to get past both to achieve its dreams of taking the state crown. Miraculously, the team of 12 won five games over the span of three days, including a doubleheader sweep of Honolulu on July 21 to win its first state title since 1990.
"It just kind of stayed surreal for me," Kawaihau manager Ka‘ili Pānui told Aloha State Daily. "It's been a long journey with these kids, and just getting past states is an accomplishment. Just amazing and still surreal."
The championship run for Kawaihau nearly never got off the ground. In its first game of the double-elimination state tournament, Kawaihau lost 7-6 to Honolulu in extra innings.
With no margin for error, Kawaihau rattled off five straight wins over the next three days, including a 5-4 win over hosts Central East Maui in Wailuku on July 20.
Winning a tournament with such a compressed timeline was a testament to the team's pitching depth. Pānui said nearly every player on the team can pitch, with "four or five elite" arms. That includes ace pitcher Waika Doctolero, who struck out 11 while allowing just one hit and a walk against Honolulu in a 1-0 win to set up July 21's winner-take-all game, which Kawaihau won 3-2.
Doctolero will be on the mound again when Kawaihau opens West Region play on Sunday against Arizona's Chandler Little League. The contest will be streamed live on ESPN+ at noon HST.
"He's definitely our ace pitcher, and definitely the guy that'll be taking the mound the first game for us," Pānui said of Doctolero. "He'll battling up for us out there again, and it'll be a special moment again for him."
Pānui, a 2002 Kapa‘a High School graduate, also was a former Kawaihau Community Little Leaguer. Although his time playing with the 11- and 12-year-olds came half a dozen years after the 1990 team's state championship, he remembers how special their run was in the Kaua‘i community. The 1990 Kawaihau team fell just short of a Little League World Series appearance, losing in the West Region semifinals.
"I got a couple of my friends that I know that was a part of that team, most of them are a little older than me. When I was growing up playing T-ball and stuff, their names were flying all over the place, and they were getting talked about a lot," Pānui says of the 1990 team. "To this day, people are always talking about that team and how they're the only team that made it (prior to 2026).
Following their state tournament victory, Pānui acknowledged that the championship run took a physical toll on his team, so he gave his team four days off. But since then, they've returned to the diamond and have ramped up activity before heading to California.
Regardless of how the weekend goes, the tournament promises to be a special time for the Kawaihau Little Leaguers and their families. Given the additional costs of attending a Mainland tournament, a fundraiser was recently set up for the team.
With only four teams in the West Region, Kawaihau will have to win just one of its first two games in order to play on ESPN's main channel. Additionally, the further Kawaihau advances, the more they can expect to play in front of big crowds.
"I talked to (Honolulu Little League manager) Gerald Oda, and he said, 'Be ready to be playing in front of 10,000 to 15,000 people,' which is gonna be something crazy for these kids," Pānui said. "Even if it's 100, it doesn't matter. It's the same approach."
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
