Concerns are raised from time to time that kids born and raised in Hawaii don't get enough opportunities to see stories about kids who look and talk like they do. Honolulu Theatre for Youth's production of “;The Three Year Swim Club”; addresses those concerns in the best possible way, with a true story about a group of plantation kids who trained for the Olympics in an irrigation ditch.

Soichi Sakamoto formed the group on Maui in 1937. Within a year the team was dominating island swim meets. In 1939 it won the national Amateur Athletic Union title.

And in 1948 a former team member won a gold medal in the Olympic Games.

Given that HTY focuses on youth, it is not surprising that the story is about the experiences of four representative kids rather than Sakamoto and his experiences coaching the team. HTY cast members Moses Goods (Bill Smith), Maile Holck (Fujiki “;Fudge”; Katsutani), Junior Tesoro (Kiyoshi “;Keo”; Nakama) and the actor currently known as Q (Takashi “;Halo”; Hirose), share the role of Sakamoto—passing dark glasses, a straw hat, a clipboard and whistle between them from one scene to the next.

The story is as much about the dramatic possibilities to be found in the clash of characters as about the process of becoming championship swimmers. The character types are familiar and their interaction consistently entertaining.

Tesoro plays the little guy who has to work harder at everything in order to excel.

Q balances malice and comic relief as the loud bully and self-styled ladies' man—a legend, perhaps, in his own mind. A joke about someone mispronouncing “;Hah-lo”; as “;Hay-lo”; got a big laugh from the audience last weekend.

Goods is the new kid in town, fresh from Honolulu and easily cowed, who learns to stand up for himself and eventually becomes a championship swimmer.

Holck is the female athlete who must deal with her family's disapproval while keeping Halo in his proper place during team practices.

Director Harry Wong III makes good use of H. Bart McGeehon's lighting and Jonathan Clarke Sypert's choreography to suggest the experience of swimming, whether while training in the fast-flowing water of an irrigation ditch or in competition at the Waikiki Natatorium. Credit McGeehon as well with a striking set that combines a representative row of cane stalks with the banks of the ditch.