University of Hawaii Swim and Dive Thrives in Silent Energy  — Grady Newsource

Beyond the University of Hawaii’s high-revenue athletic applications is a group hidden from the highlight. Quietly and humbly, they construct alternatives for an underserved native inhabitants by means of the island’s historic vantage and deep funding in its cultural values.

Yet, the college’s media relations primarily arms publicity to high-interest spectator sports activities. 

It’s 8:30 a.m. on a summer season morning on the University of Hawaii’s Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex. The sky is overcast with heavy gusts of wind and sporadic two-minute bursts of pouring rain, a traditional a part of day by day life on O’ahu. 

As I sit in a puddle alongside the concrete fringe of the pool, watching swimmers stroke steadily up and down their lanes, I can not assist however query why the swim and dive group’s reputation on an island smothered in water tradition seems to be no match for different mainstream collegiate sports activities. Instead, the game carries the identical lack of collegiate illustration as any mainland swim and dive group regardless of the island’s historic connection to land and water.

The swim and dive program set a house meet attendance document this previous season with 350 spectators, an unusually robust turnout for a Division I collegiate swim meet, in line with UH head coach and swim and dive alumnus Steve Allnutt. Even so, attendance stays far under that of higher-profile sports activities on the college, reminiscent of girls’s basketball, which generally attracts no less than 1,500 to 2,000 followers per sport. 

“Swimming, outside of a couple of specific places in the world, has been an every four-year sport for the public interest during the Olympic cycle, so there hasn’t been a push to become more visible … It’s hard to get people interested in swimming,” Allnutt stated. “Only in the last couple of years has there been a more concentrated effort to get people in the stands at competitions.”

I hear this and assume again to a picture of a defining determine in Hawaii’s historical past. A bronze statue of the well-known waterman Duke Kahanamoku stands on the shore of Waikiki Beach, serving as a reminder of the Native Hawaiian who proved his expertise by turning into the primary of his individuals to win an Olympic medal within the 100-meter freestyle occasion on the 1912 Summer Games. He spent his lifetime sharing compassion and demonstrating humility and laborious work by educating nations of those that mocked him, bringing world recognition to Hawaii. 

Despite Kahanamoku’s great affect, Hawaii’s trendy tradition nonetheless displays the lasting results of colonization, together with the lack of land, language and custom following Western and American growth into the islands. Despite generations of political and cultural displacement, Native Hawaiians have preserved a lot of their ancestral practices and values. Its trendy tradition has advanced by means of the mixing of Indigenous traditions with facets of American society, creating a singular identification formed by resilience and adaptation.

“Hawaiian people like mainstream things,” stated UH Director of Marketing and Fan Experience Eric Mathews. “They want to be part of something popular. Swim and dive is popular in some aspects, but it is not mainstream. Right now, there is no star in swimming and diving … there isn’t a polarizing person piquing the public’s interest in the sport at their local universities.”

The actuality is that O’ahu is crammed with water sports activities, however they’re extra generally present in native settings and aren’t recognized for being mainstream or spectator sports activities. Because swimming and diving attracts fewer spectators, the college invests much less time and advertising and marketing in this system than sports activities that generate extra income for its general athletics program.

“When it comes to our business, it’s not a very smart decision to invest a lot of time and effort into a sport that is not bringing in any money,” Mathews stated. “When you incorporate the current business of college athletics, you have to consider whether the sport will help the program make money.”

While the group lacks collegiate promotion, it naturally brings in supporters by means of contributions to the local people. Swimmers, coaches and alumni take care of youth membership groups, highschool groups and grownup aquatic applications by offering teaching, volunteers, college pool entry and native competitions to develop athletes. 

“I’ve realized how far I’ve come and how impactful I am in the community through my swimming because younger kids are looking up to me,” stated UH swimmer Aoife Harkin. “When I was younger, I looked up to older kids and that’s what helped me. I wanted to be as fast as them and get to where they were.”

Caring for the neighborhood is simply as vital as embracing and honoring Hawaiian cultural values. The group’s cheers, carried out within the Hawaiian language ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, replicate deep respect for native traditions. During convention finals, cultural practices reminiscent of performing the Haʻa, a ceremonial chant, and sporting Ulua fish tattoos additional have a good time Hawaiian heritage. Athletes lead with native values marked by humility, laborious work and work-life steadiness, making certain the game isn’t their sole focus. 

“We want to have a connection to the people and history here, so it’s important for us to be a positive member of the community as a whole and part of that is embracing Hawaiian culture,” Allnutt stated. 

Duke Kahanamoku was generally known as the “Ambassador of Aloha,” a title that displays the Hawaiian worth of treating others with unconditional love and respect no matter who they’re. It was not what he did that contributed to his affect, however who he was that gave him that affect. The UH swim and dive group is uniquely grounded in humility and goodwill, embodying the spirit of aloha in a manner that positions this system for continued development towards a better future.

Leila Woods is a scholar within the Travel Journalism in Hawai’i program within the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.