Faith rewarded

Waipio fans who never gave up see their team claim a milestone win

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Screams of delight greeted the live televised finale of the Little League World Series game yesterday as family members and friends of the Waipio victors celebrated Hawaii's second title in four years.

Greet them The Waipio Little League World Champions return home tonight on Continental flight 15 at about 6:20 p.m.

About 100 supporters crowded into Mililani Golf Club, where the game was shown on a big-screen television.

"These kids, they worked hard," said Marcus Moises, a coach for Waipio for 13 years. "Whatever comes to them -- the parties, the parades -- they deserve it all. This is the ultimate achievement. It's what all Little League teams everywhere wish for."

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Dennis Fukunaga and his wife, Annette, must have knocked on thousands of doors. They printed 3,000 fliers advertising the creation of a new organization that they thought would be an instant hit with their neighbors.

The Waipio Little League.

They were mistaken. In 1985, the year the Waipio Little League was created, the Fukunagas recruited only 24 boys to play for their baseball league. And for the next two years, the teams would lose every single game.

"We lost 37-2 to Pearl City the first year," recalled Fukunaga, now 62. "That's the kind of beating we took year after year. Our first win was against Waipahu. It was like we won the World Series at the time."

Two decades later, after many other losses and several winning seasons, the Waipio team claimed its first Little League World Series title yesterday.

"When the other leagues played Waipio, it was an almost automatic win for them," said Richard Akau, who has coached for the Waipio Little League for about 13 years. "Twenty-three years later we're playing for the world championship, the grandest of all stages."

About 100 supporters -- family members, friends, former coaches -- crowded into Mililani Golf Club yesterday, watching as Waipio easily beat Mexico 12-3 at South Williamsport, Pa., to become the second Hawaii team in four years to win the biggest title in youth sports. They cheered at every Hawaii run and every Mexico strike.

And at the end of the sixth and final inning, the crowd erupted out of their seats and screamed for the team that many say never stopped believing.

"These kids, they worked hard," said Marcus Moises, a coach for Waipio for 13 years. "Whatever comes to them -- the parties, the parades -- they deserve it all. This is the ultimate achievement. It's what all Little league teams everywhere wish for."

Mayor Mufi Hannemann had told the team he would start planning a parade for the team to march in along with Olympians from Hawaii returning from the Beijing summer games.

"This is an awesome achievement that will be noticed around the world," Hannemann said.

Ross Masuhara played for the Waipio Little League in 1998, when the league won its first state championship title, which was considered the turning point after years of losing seasons.

"People looked at us for inspiration," Masuhara, now 22, said. "Now the Little League teams in Hawaii will look up to this team. We were the underdogs. Now we're the team to beat."

Before the team won the World Series, many in Hawaii were declaring them champions after they had defeated a Louisiana team Saturday in a thrilling comeback to win the U.S. Championship 7-5.

Alex Pedi, general manager of the Waipio Big City Diner, had ordered banners that said Big City Diner "Welcomes Our Hometown Heroes," and "Congratulates our Waipio Little League Champions."

"They put us on the map in the world," Pedi said. "The world knows us as the city above Pearl Harbor. It's great to see that fans in the stadium for the World Series are our guests, our neighbors and friends."

Fans have grumbled that on a national scale, the team is being called Waipahu, the city Waipio is located in.

But City Councilman Nestor Garcia noted that the team is no longer just Waipio's team.

"They're Hawaii's team now," he said.

"It's amazing that a small town like this can represent the whole state," said Larry Takenaka, of Mililani.