Where does West Oahu Little League win rank among greatest Hawaii sports moments?

Now that we’ve had 10 years to reflect that’s a fun question to ponder.

Where would you rate it compared to Hawaii making it to the Sugar Bowl, UH getting to the finals of the College World Series, the home run by Jenna Rodriguez to propel the Wahine into the softball CWS? There are many others, like Bryan Clay winning the decathlon gold, UH volleyball’s national championships, and Marcus Mariota winning the Heisman Trophy.

In my opinion, the state’s first LLWS championship goes somewhere in the top 10, and No. 1 remains Chaminade beating Virginia in one of — if not the — biggest upsets in the history of college basketball.

During the week while working on the package marking the 10-year anniversary of Ewa Beach/West Oahu’s win over Curacao for the LLWS championship I asked a few friends who are local sports fans if they remembered what big event happened on August, 28, 2005.

No one remembered until I gave them lots of easy hints. However, it seems like everyone in Hawaii, once reminded about it, can recall exactly where they were and what they were doing when Michael Memea hit that historic home run in Williamsport.

Here’s something I found striking: One of the main reasons only five of the 12 players could make our photo shoot at Mahiko Park last Saturday is that many of the others were at their jobs. (Ty Tirpak and Harrison Kam, however, were out of state). It made me remember what hard workers these kids, now men, are.

“If there’s overtime, I’m going to take it. I have to,” said Quentin Guevara, who regretted missing the photo and video shoot but works as an electrician apprentice to provide not just for himself but relatives, too.

Special thanks to Alaka’i Aglipay who rounded up as many of his teammates and coaches as he could, and helped me immeasurably with contact information and plenty of details.