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Richard Turbin

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Annabelle Le Jeune

Jayden Kepoo Caspino

Jayden Kepoʻo-Caspino

Bill Brennan

Kalani Akana Cultural D opt

Kalani Akana

HPU School of Nursing Dean Edna Magpantay Monroe

Edna Magpantay-Monroe

Christian Zuckerman

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Katie Helland

Arts & Entertainment

Aloha Spirit

Ready to make plans for the long weekend? Some of the events coming to Oʻahu soon include 

 ceremonies, a benefit gala for Hawaiʻi Foodbank, and a car show in Hawaiʻi Kai.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Friday, May 22"}]

Want to help create the 38,000 lei placed on the graves of the service members laid to rest at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific? Join one of these 

bring lei you made at home to one of the donation sites

. Hawaiʻi Foodbank is hosting its inaugural Nourish Gala where guests can enjoy a cocktail reception, multi-course dinner with curated tasting stations and live music from 

, and the Hoʻoheno Duo at ʻAlohilani Resort Waikīkī Beach. The event supports the Hawaiʻi Foodbank. Individual tickets are available for $375. Tickets must be purchased by Thursday, May 21. 

Catch this special exhibit about Robert Cazimero. 

A special exhibit honoring the legendary musician, composer and Kumu Hula Robert Uluwehionāpuaikawēkiuokalani Cazimero has been extended through Saturday, May 30, at Gallery ‘Iolani, which is located on Windward Community College’s campus in Kāneʻohe. Learn more about the 

kumu hula of Hālau Na Kamalei o Lililehua

, which was the kāne overall winner for the Merrie Monarch Festival of 1976, the first year that men were allowed to compete, as previously reported by Honolulu Star-Advertiser. He was also part of The Brothers Cazimero, a 

more than two dozen Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards

, which performed decades of May Day is Lei Day concerts at Tom Moffatt Waikīkī Shell. The gallery is open from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. daily, except Sunday and Memorial Day. Free. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Saturday, May 23"}]

Head to the Waikīkī Community Center and join in this hands-on event where attendees can make and toss 

. Made of clay, rice bran, molasses and microorganisms, Genki Balls are said to digest sludge and leave water cleaner, although there is 

. Up to 28 participants can attend this event which runs from 1 p.m. until 3 p.m. Tickets cost $10 plus fees. 

Head to the Waikīkī Aquarium and support University of Hawaiʻi alumni owned businesses in a special market, starting at 9 a.m. Admission is $5 and includes access to the Waikīkī Aquarium. Want to start the day earlier? Arrive at 8 a.m. for a pilates sculpt workout led by Annie Chang, a current UH student, for $30, which include access to the aquarium, the class and a towel. 

Wear white and head to this yacht party, hosted by Atlantis Cruise. Drinks are available for purchase. Boarding starts at 9 p.m. The yacht returns at 1 a.m. Individual tickets start at $125. A pair of tickets can be purchased for $170, plus fees. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Sunday, May 24"}]

Ready to add some dinosaurs to your life? “T. rex” chronicles the story of three boys discovering a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex fossil in North Dakota in 2022. It will be playing at 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Bishop Museum’s J. Watumull Planetarium. Admission is $5 per person and includes access to the planetarium’s lobby exhibit, “Wayfinders: He Waʻa He Moku, He Moku He Waʻa,” plus a seat in the theater. Tickets to the rest of the museum are an additional cost. 

The Honolulu Museum of Art will offer a guided tour of its Renaissance Collection. These tours start at 2 p.m. on Sundays. Gather in the front of the Central Courtyard for tours which are between 45 and 60 minutes. These tours are included in museum admission, which is $15 for kamaʻāina and free for youth who are 18 years old or younger. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Monday, May 25"}]

The event starts at 8:30 a.m. and there will be an oli, a speech from Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, a presentation of wreaths, a firearm salute, a military aircraft flyover, and performances from the Royal Hawaiian Band and Sounds of Aloha Chorus, as well as 

. The ceremony also features taps. Parking is limited. Additional parking is available at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School and Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School starting at 7 a.m., and a courtesy shuttle will take attendees to the cemetery. Free. 

Join Gov. Josh Green, Maj. General Stephen Logan, and Lt. Col. John Alamodin for the Governor’s Memorial Day Ceremony at 1 p.m. at the Hawaiʻi State Veteran’s Cemetery in Kāneʻohe. There will be a musical prelude by the 

Spend Memorial Day at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, where you can visit the 

 (reservations recommended, although some standby admission is available) or the 

 submarine. Visitors can also book a tour to Ford Island, where they can visit the 

, where authentic WWII hangers hold a variety of aircraft and visitors can step into flight simulators. The Pearl Harbor National Memorial’s visitor center is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Cruise over to the Hawaiʻi Kai Towne Center and check out this showcase of classic cars in the parking lot in front of Costco. The event starts at 2 p.m. Free. 

. This Memorial Day ceremony brings thousands to the water’s edge to release floating lanterns and remember loved ones and fallen service members at Ala Moana Beach. The ceremony starts at 6:30 p.m. 

 are available on a first-come, first-served basis with pick up between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., or as long as supplies last. Messages can also be added to 

Learn why these volunteers keep coming back, 

Planning to be outside this weekend? Send us your pictures of rainbows, sunsets and more for a chance to be featured in our Hawaiʻi Skies series. Include your name and where the picture was taken plus why the moment was special. 

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Shinnyo Lantern Floating Hawai‘i

<title>What to do on Oʻahu for Memorial Day weekend</title>

From sewing lei for service members to the Shinnyo Lantern Floating Hawaiʻi, there are lots of events happening on Oʻahu this weekend. Aloha State Daily rounded up some of the ceremonies and activities, so you can make plans.

What to do on Oʻahu for Memorial Day weekend

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

This new spot serves up frozen Greek yogurt.

Avenue in March. It’s open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The biz faces 

Avenue and is located close to International Market Place.

The biz offers self-serve frozen Greek yogurt with Hawaiʻi-inspired flavors. You can choose from flavors like mango, ube, original tart and Big Island Lehua honey. There are also rotating flavors like guava, lilikoʻi and lychee.

The yogurt costs $1.35 per ounce. Customers are invited to pick a bowl, choose their flavors and add toppings. Complimentary yogurt samples are available.

The toppings bar includes fruity options like strawberries, blueberries and pineapples, along with chia seeds, almonds, granola, coconut flakes and macadamia nuts.

Although this is Greek yogurt, it isn’t extremely tart and features a creamy consistency. Customers can enjoy a 10% 

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Aloha Greek Yogurt yogurt bowls 051126

<title>New frozen Greek yogurt spot in Honolulu</title>

Aloha Greek Waikīkī opened recently on Kūhiō Avenue. The business offers self-serve frozen Greek yogurt with Hawaiʻi-inspired flavors like ube, mango, liliko‘i and pineapple.

New frozen Greek yogurt spot in Honolulu

While she was working at Hawaiian Airlines, Aubrie Usui — the owner of 

 — recalls traveling often to Japan and Korea. She remembers how experiencing both coffee and matcha there changed her perspective on the popular beverages.

“The quality is unmatched, and they don’t cut corners on ingredients or portions,” she says.

Usui had the idea to open her own café business for a few years, but while working full-time at Hawaiian Airlines, she couldn’t find the time to fully commit.

However, once Alaska Airlines acquired Hawaiian Airlines and she was given notice that she would be laid off in the upcoming months, Usui took that as a sign to go “all in” on the business idea.

“I wanted to bring that same level of quality back home and re-create the drinks I fell in love with, while also experimenting with my own flavors,” she says. “I developed a deeper passion for coffee and matcha. I especially fell in love with the creative side — how you can take something as simple as a latte and turn it into something unique and memorable.”

From that point on, Usui devoted her full attention to building her business — working on branding, developing recipes and planning operations.

“I was able to open the shop within five months of my last day (at Hawaiian Airlines),” she says. “One of the first major steps was meeting with my coffee distributor, who plays a huge role in the quality and consistency of our drinks.”

Da Morning Grind Café officially opened on April 6 in King Laundromat — owned by Usui's parents — located at the intersection of South King and Pensacola Streets. The business’s name was a collaborative effort among her family members, according to Usui.

“The name actually came from a family group chat,” she says. “At first, we were trying to incorporate the word ‘Corner,’ but nothing felt right. My sister suggested ‘Morning Grind,’ and it immediately clicked.

“Our family has always been active and involved in sports, so we’re very familiar with early mornings and having something to work toward,” she adds. “‘Da Morning Grind’ represents that shared experience — everyone has something they’re waking up early for, and we wanted to create a place that fuels that.”

There are two ways to order — customers can visit the takeout window on South King Street, or visit the takeout window located within the laundromat. Just ring the doorbell when you’re ready to order.

The café offers a variety of coffees, teas, dirty sodas and specialty drinks. For coffee lovers, Usui recommends the black honey cold brew latte and dirty matcha latte, which includes espresso, honey and matcha. Most drinks are available in 12- and 16-ounce sizes.

“These are stronger, more bold drinks designed for people who want a real kick to start their day, but they’re still smooth and enjoyable,” Usui says.

She notes that lattes come with a double shot of espresso, regardless of size.

“If you prefer a stronger coffee taste, the smaller size will be more concentrated,” she says. “The medium size is more balanced and gives room for add-ons. We will be adding a 20-ounce size soon.”

The business’s cold brew is steeped overnight in the fridge to develop a deeper flavor, according to Usui.

“To match it with something sweet, I chose Kuromitsu (a Japanese sugar syrup that translates to 'black honey') because it wouldn’t overpower the cold brew’s taste,” she says. “The dirty matcha came from experimenting with how to create a high-caffeine drink that feels smoother than a typical multi-shot espresso.”

Consistency and balance are important when developing new flavors, according to Usui.

“Our matcha lattes are carefully scaled so the flavor stays consistent every time,” she says.

The café’s newest drinks — Da Matcha-nana and Da Big Island Vog — feature the café’s new homemade pudding cloud. Da Big Island Vog latte is the business’s twist on a London Fog latte, which usually includes vanilla syrup, steamed milk and earl grey tea.

“My mom loves ordering them [London Fog lattes] because she doesn’t always want espresso, but still enjoys a creamy, latte-style drink,” Usui says. “We elevated it by adding our matcha pudding cloud to make it more unique.”

Of course, the name is a play on Hawaiʻi Island’s vog. Da Matcha-nana features a matcha latte base that’s topped with a homemade banana brown sugar pudding cloud.

“It was inspired by local flavors,” Usui says. “Banana lumpia is something a lot of people in Hawaiʻi love, and we wanted to translate that into a drink without making it taste artificial.”

The pudding cloud is also available in flavors like salted caramel and salted maple, which can be added as toppings for espresso lattes.

The café rotates its seasonal specials every two to three months to keep introducing new flavors and ideas, according to Usui, who encourages customer input.

“We’re always open to feedback and continuously refining our recipes to improve the experience for our customers,” she says. 

Customer parking is available in the laundromat lot (entrance is on Pensacola Street).

Da Morning Grind Café is currently open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays to Fridays and from 7 a.m. to noon on Saturdays and Sundays.

Open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, 7 a.m. to noon Saturdays and Sundays

Da Morning Grind owner 051826

<title>Da Morning Grind Cafe is tucked away within a laundromat</title>

The business’s takeout window is located on South King Street. Open for grab-and-go, the café offers a variety of coffees, teas, dirty sodas and specialty drinks, including a twist on the London Fog latte.

Da Morning Grind Cafe is tucked away within a laundromat

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Crime & Courts

Government & Politics

A San Franciscan candidate for Honolulu Police Chief hopes to be “the last outside chief in Honolulu.”

Dave Lazar is one of three nominees for O‘ahu’s top cops selected by the Honolulu Police Commission. Formerly with the San Francisco Police Department for 33 years, Lazar is one of two candidates from the Mainland, the other being Georgia resident Scott Ebner.

But while Lazar told Aloha State Daily that his outside perspective is what the Honolulu Police Department needs right now, he added that his hope is to strengthen the department enough that it can shape the next generation of leaders without having to look farther afield.

“I want to get the culture in such shape where, in terms of succession planning, you bring that next generation of leadership in internally, and they’re part of the reform effort, they’re part of all the changes,” Lazar said.

Lazar’s highest priority changes, he said, will be to improve transparency and accountability within the department, something he said is sorely needed.

“The prior chief did not last his full term,” Lazar said. “There was an interim chief, and then the chief before that didn’t last her full term, and the chief before that was, you know, indicted and arrested for corruption. So this is a department that is in need of strong leadership, is in need of tremendous support and it needs a chief that has their backs.”

If selected, Lazar said he wants to modernize HPD, implementing technology and other best practices being adopted by other police agencies around the country. As an example, he addressed HPD’s clearance rate, the proportion of cases the department closes; the most recent data from the state Attorney General found that only about 20% of cases ended up closed in 2024.

“That’s the perfect example of why change is needed,” Lazar said. “Because if the most current data you have is 2024 and not the first quarter of 2026, that’s one thing that we need to fix.”

Lazar said that, in the SFPD, the homicide clearance rate was upwards of 80% — HPD’s homicide clearance in 2024 was 57% — thanks in part to better adoption of data integration technologies that allow officers to analyze relations between data points much more efficiently.

Of course, Lazar added, HPD also has a significant staffing shortage that stretches investigators thin. He echoed 

 by fellow chief candidate Mike Lambert that improving the working conditions of HPD officers is key to improving officer retention.

“When we talk about retention, it’s about wellness,” Lazar said. “Do they have wellness opportunities? Is there a path on career development? Do we really support them personally and professionally?”

Like Lambert, Lazar wants to invest into HPD’s infrastructure and resources, saying that “you feel good about where you work because things are modern. You feel like leadership cares about you because you’re being provided with the equipment you need to do your job effectively.”

However, unlike Lambert, Lazar took a hardline stance against HPD ever collaborating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“I come from a department where we don’t cooperate at all with ICE,” Lazar said. “That’s what I’m used to, that’s the right thing to do. If I’m selected as chief, we will not cooperate whatsoever with ICE. We will not participate in anything they have going on.

“We’re not going to transport for them, we’re not going to support them, we’re not going to respond to any of their calls, we’re not going to set up perimeters,” Lazar went on. “Those are the policy decisions that will be made on my watch.”

Lazar acknowledged that there may be incidents where a criminal investigation overlaps with an ICE operation, but he said that HPD’s actions would remain separate from ICE’s.

If selected, Lazar said he will work with the Honolulu community and the State of Hawai‘i Organization of Police Officers to develop specific policies for how HPD handles immigration questions.

“I would work very hard to promote to the entire community that they need to report crime, that they can come to the HPD and report crime, that we want to help them regardless of their immigration status,” Lazar said. “We can’t let our officers be out in the community without any direction from leadership in order to make sure that they are covered in what they do.”

By the same token, Lazar said efforts to improve the transparency of HPD will help emphasize the diversity of the department: “If you look around at HPD, and they come from different backgrounds and different ethnicities … you build a tremendous amount of trust.”

While Lazar’s own background is largely separate from Hawai‘i, he has some family ties to the island. His wife of 32 years comes from a Hawaiian family and he has “plenty of aunties and uncles” across the island, he said.

Lazar, who is 55 years old, retired from SFPD in 2025, having never been permanent police chief there, although he had stints as acting chief between 2022 and 2024. He said that, by the time of his retirement, he no longer had interest in the top job, and much of the department’s leadership was also retiring amidst a mayoral transition.

Nonetheless, he said that he still has “so much energy,” and soon decided after retiring that he wanted to keep working. Lazar said SFPD was in a very different place when he began his career — “in need of reform, in need of technology” — in ways similar to how HPD is today.

“It’s almost like I get to repeat that experience [with SFPD],” Lazar said.

If selected, Lazar said he thinks he “probably has a good 10 years left” before leaving the job.

Whether Lazar gets the job will be determined on Wednesday. The Police Commission will conduct final interviews with all three candidates Tuesday, and make a final selection the following day.

 For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

0508 1311 David Lazar image 16x9

<title>Top cops: The last Mainland HPD chief?</title>

Dave Lazar, candidate for Honolulu's police chief, promises strong leadership, technological improvements and no deals with ICE.

Top cops: The last Mainland HPD chief?

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Sterling Higa

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Ben Sasse is bleeding from the face."}]

He’s seated across from New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, 

, and he pauses to note it. He’s dying of stage 4 pancreatic cancer. One side effect of the treatment is that his body can’t grow skin.

“Yeah, you look terrible,” says Douthat.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“Thank you,” says Sasse with a smile."}]

Since his diagnosis, Sasse has appeared on 

 stage, and a parade of podcasts. He uses the time to say what most politicians never dare to.

He talks about faith. He quotes R.C. Sproul. He discusses Tocqueville with the ease of someone who has actually read him.

Sasse is a two-term Republican Senator from Nebraska, a Harvard graduate, a Yale PhD in History. He voted to impeach Donald Trump and took the consequences. Though popular with voters in his home state, he left the Senate to serve as President of the University of Florida.

Now he spends his last days making one argument: American political life has gone badly wrong. Not because the wrong party is winning. Because the whole enterprise has lost its bearings.

Sasse starts with something most politicians would rather ignore: the pace of technological change. Previous economic transformations — industrialization, electrification — unfolded across generations. This one won’t. Robotics and automation will wipe out whole careers within a single working life.

Sasse sees a second shift: disembodied consciousness, the way screens let people leave their world. Families are breaking apart. Communities are dissolving. The local ties — churches, civic groups, the small-scale institutions Edmund Burke called “little platoons” — that help people absorb hard times are being stripped away. The formation of souls and citizens is at risk, and government is mostly ignoring it in favor of clickbait and rage.

He thinks our loves should be ordered, first to God, then to those nearest us, rippling outward from family to neighborhood to state to nation. Caring about a national political party more than your own community isn’t just confused. It’s a disorder of affection.

What’s true of the nation is true in Hawai'i. The legislature introduces three thousand bills a year. How many of those take the large challenges seriously? The demographic shifts, the cost pressures squeezing local families, the slow hemorrhage of young people off the Islands? The floor speeches and press releases gesture toward these problems, but the lawmaking doesn’t match the problem.

Sasse’s example suggests why. He can sit for an hour-long interview on dense political and theological matters because he has a clear philosophy — a disciplined way of working through problems. It also gives him the power to persuade, which is the precondition for coordinated action.

The founders studied rhetoric and philosophy with the same care they gave the law, because republican government runs on argument and clear speech. Most of Hawai‘i’s lawmakers couldn’t sustain an interview like Sasse’s, and the laws show it. There’s no clear direction. No will to rally the public. Few signs that anyone has thought hard about what government is for. What fills the vacuum is performance: press releases, floor speeches written for social media, outrage timed to the news cycle.

Sasse has a simple framework for what a coherent politics looks like. He describes four ways of valuing government, measured in cheers. No-cheer people — hardcore libertarians — don’t understand that government exists to secure liberty. Three-cheer people believe in a state that controls everything. Republicans, he says, are the one-cheer party. Democrats are the two-cheer party. Each has an extreme wing. Hawai‘i’s loudest voices are at the extremes.

What we lack are the one-cheer leaders: those who see government as necessary but flawed, able to secure order but not to deliver salvation.

Government should do a small number of important things well. It should get out of the way of the little platoons. It should never present itself as the path to utopia. Hawai‘i’s government casting itself as humanity’s last best hope has always been faintly comic.

Sasse’s sharpest line comes when he describes what voters already sense about the way their leaders talk.

They know it’s bullshit, he says — and they don’t want to be lied to. Why can’t politics do a small number of important, long-term things?

There is something clarifying about a man making that argument while bleeding from the face. He has no election to win, no caucus to protect, and by his own reckoning, weeks or months to live. What he’s chosen to do with his time is sit down and think hard about what government is and isn’t for, and what we’ve lost by confusing the two.

In watching Ben Sasse die, Hawai‘i might learn something about how to live.

Ben Sasse Getty Images 1231346544

<title>Ben Sasse is dying in public</title>

The former U.S. senator from Nebraska is talking about big ideas everywhere he can as pancreatic cancer takes his life. Hawai‘i's politicians could learn from what he has to say about government doing fewer things well, says ASD opinion columnist Sterling Higa.

Ben Sasse is dying in public

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

LĀ‘IE — For the Le Jardin boys volleyball team, destiny was decided by a vote. 

With O‘ahu battered by heavy rain, flooding and lightning strikes on Friday, the possibility of postponing the HHSAA Division II championship match between Le Jardin and Pearl City at BYU-Hawai‘i's Cannon Activities Center to a later date was floated to both teams. 

Back in Kailua, Le Jardin already loaded its team bus on campus. Head coach Makana Wade told his team they didn't have to play on Friday if they didn't want to, that tournament organizers could move some things around to get the match played later in the weekend. Wade asked his players to raise their hands if they wanted to play on Friday.

"Everybody's hand went straight up," setter Brennan Nakayama said. "We just knew we were ready for this, and we knew what we needed to do."

Following a commute to the North Shore that lasted three hours due to traffic brought on by the weather, the Bulldogs arrived prepared to do something the school had never done before. With a 25-18, 25-9, 25-21 sweep over Pearl City, Le Jardin won its first HHSAA boys volleyball championship in school history. 

"Just a real surreal feeling," Wade told Aloha State Daily following the match. "When I took this job, this is the last thing I could ever dream of, was being here. I'm just so happy for Le Jardin and everybody there for believing in me and giving me this job. And so blessed to be able to coach these amazing players."

When he saw the look of determination in his team, Wade knew they were destined to take the title home. 

"I wish everybody could have seen inside our bus for three hours. You would have thought we were gonna play UH or something," Wade said. "The guys were so locked in, having fun. I kept getting calls from our AD, my dad asking, 'Sure you wanna play tonight, coach?' I'm asking the guys, 'Are you sure?' And they're yelling at me, like, yes, of course. There's no way we weren't going to play this match tonight. I think we really took what was ours tonight."

The notion of playing against UH is something Wade would have deep knowledge of. The son of Hawai‘i head coach 

, Makana Wade was a UH men's volleyball assistant coach for multiple seasons. He departed the program in January in order to take the position of Le Jardin head coach, as NCAA rules prohibit one from coaching high school and collegiate teams of the same gender and sport in the same season.

leading Hawai‘i to a national title on Monday

 since arriving back to Honolulu on Tuesday. After taking care of business on Monday, Charlie Wade made it clear where his priorities were during the program's celebration event on Wednesday. Ahead of a scheduled autograph session, Wade told the thousands of fans gathered at the Stan Sheriff Center that he'd have to leave early in order to watch his son coach. 

On Friday, Charlie Wade sat courtside across from the Le Jardin bench, locked in on the match. When the Bulldogs secured the victory, father and son shared multiple long embraces following the match, the look of pride in Charlie Wade's eyes undeniable. 

"Very cool," he told ASD. "He's been coaching with me at the club level, and obviously the last couple years at the collegiate level. He's always kind of had that analytical brain that it takes to be a good coach, and he and I have spent uncountable hours out walking the dogs at night and talking about coaching. He's asked me about a lot of different stuff over the years, and it's great to see him take on that role as a head coach and have to deal with playing time and all that other stuff that is not coaching that's a part of it, but not the X's and O's part. He's doing a great job and has a lot of passion for it, so fun to see him have some success."

"I don't think we have enough time to talk about what I've learned, but I think the basic is just be a guy that people can lean on and trust," Makana Wade said when asked what he learned from his father. "My dad has taught me countless things, and I'm just so happy to be able to learn from him every day, really. I wouldn't be here without him."

For the 2026 season in particular, Makana Wade worked closely with UH associate head coach Kupono Fey on analytics and strategy. He suddenly received the opportunity to run his own program at just 21 years old. 

"It was really hard to leave," Makana Wade said. "I love those guys to death. It was only gonna be a special job like this, a place like this, where there's amazing people, amazing kids. ... It was pretty crazy. I got hired, couple weeks later, we had tryouts, and then next week we're playing our tournament, then we're playing ILH. It's been a pretty hectic couple months, but it's all worth it in the end."

Makana Wade, a UH-Mānoa junior, also had a French final exam he had to take on Friday morning. "It's been a crazy day, but it's been awesome," he said. 

On Friday night, the Bulldogs were in control for the entirety of the match. Nakayama paced the offense with 39 assists, while La‘akea Kamahale had 20 kills on 31 swings. Following a commanding win in Set 2, Le Jardin took a comfortable 24-19 lead in Set 3. After consecutive Pearl City points to cut the lead to 24-21, a calm Makana Wade called timeout to make sure his team was composed. The Bulldogs finished their 2026 campaign 16-1 and state champions for the first time in school history.

"Our whole team can't thank him enough for how lucky we are to have him," Nakayama said of Makana Wade. "The knowledge and experience is super cool. The scouting reports, and how tight he keeps the team and everything, all the way to the bus rides, everything you want. I think we started a legacy."

For the Wade family, the week started with Charlie and Kainoa Wade winning an NCAA championship. On Friday, Makana Wade coached his own team to a championship, capping an unforgettable week for a family that has no plans to stop chasing greatness in the sport for the foreseeable future. 

"Monday seems like a long time ago," Charlie Wade said. "It doesn't seem like it's the same week, but obviously very cool, a lot of positive stuff."

Added Makana Wade: "I'm just so happy for my dad, and they worked really hard this season. To be able to do this too is just a surreal feeling."

Hina Kneubuhl

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