Soccer

Michele Nagamine wondered aloud at the purpose of preseason polls after another hot practice on Thursday morning. The sentiment was not too surprising. UH was picked to finish seventh in the upcoming 2019 season by the Big West’s nine head coaches in the morning’s released poll. “I actually think we will finish higher. But I don’t even know why we do this, to be honest,” the ninth-year coach said. “The preseason polls are one of the most crazy things. Everyone […]

The Hawaii women’s soccer team is determined to make the most of a tough situation. UH has been displaced from its regular home for four games at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium because some chemical resin seeped into the field from the bleachers in late June. The grass — including sections of the field a few yards into play along either sideline — has yet to recover. Breaking: Here’s the current state of Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium’s field, which was damaged by a […]

The chalking of an entire soccer field and the playing of an actual 11-on-11 scrimmage in fall practice hasn’t happened a whole heck of a lot in recent years for the Hawaii soccer team. Last year, especially, the numbers just weren’t there, as UH had only 20 healthy players right from the get-go. This fall is different in that respect; the Rainbow Wahine are stocked with bodies with a 30-player roster. UH coach Michele Nagamine decided to get the ball […]

The Hawaii fall soccer roster went up with a notable absence. It was Leialoha Medeiros, the All-Big West first-team midfielder from Makawao, Maui, who would’ve been a junior and the team’s primary go-to option in 2019. Coach Michele Nagamine told Hawaii Warrior World that Medeiros left the team in the offseason due to personal reasons. “We wish Lei all the best,” Nagamine said Saturday. “Sometimes life gets in the way of soccer, and it’s always about the student-athletes’ well-being and […]

A couple of former Hawaii soccer standouts of different eras came together to help bring home a professional championship. Natasha Kai and Sonest Furtado, who played more than a decade apart for the Rainbow Wahine, were among the victorious LA Galaxy Orange County side that won the United Women’s Soccer title, 1-0 over host Calgary Foothills WFC in Canada on Tuesday. The UWS is a semi-pro, 23-team league a step below the National Women’s Soccer League. It was the fourth […]

As degree-of-difficulty points go, the just-released 2019 Hawaii soccer schedule nets close to a 10 out of 10. The Rainbow Wahine will host three Pac-12 teams at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium, matching a program high, and take a doozy of a road trip to the Dakotas for three games in five days in September. “This is among the most challenging, if not the most challenging, because of the Dakotas road trip as well,” said ninth-year UH coach Michele Nagamine of […]

The most decorated women’s soccer player of Hawaii’s Big West era is establishing a foothold as a professional. Raisa Strom-Okimoto, UH’s first Big West offensive player of the year, saw her first official action as a pro with the Utah Royals in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) on Friday night. She’d received an invitation to train with the team beginning in late February and had lived in Utah since. Then the Royals temporarily lost three key players from their […]