New Zealand National Junior White Sox Team In Hawaii Heading To World Series In Canada

The New Zealand National Girls Junior White Sox Softball team (photo above) stopped over in Honolulu this past week for some friendship games against teams here in Honolulu. I caught up with the team at Sand Island State Recreation Softball field for two of their games, Hawaii Pearls and the Altima Girls Softball team.

I spoke to Head Coach Venita Kokai and she related that "Hawaii is so beautiful and would love to live here.  This is our first visit to Hawaii.  It's a build up for the New Zealand chain as we are on our way to the 19 and under World Series in Canada.  With the two year turn around of the World Series, we were only able to pick our team as of March 2013 because our season had ended and haven't taken the diamond for about three months."

"As for games back home, due to the weather and snow, everyone is out for the regular season and these games here today are our first games after a big break and a good experience for our girls.  The development teams are selected following the SNZ age group tournaments held in January and are made up of players from throughout New Zealand."  At the end of today's game, awards were shared among each team and the the New Zealand girls performed their traditional "Haka" dance (bottom photo) for the crowd.

Transportation Security Administration "Certificate of Appreciation" Presented to Glennard Williams

Frank “Mike” Abreu, (Deputy Federal Security Director) DFSD along with Dana Chong-Tim, AFSD-LE, Cy Okinaka, AFSD, and Stanford Miyamoto, (Federal Security Director) FSD presented Glennard Williams (photo above) with a Certificate of Appreciation on behalf of the Transportation Security Administration along with a beautiful two sided coin (photo below) for his protection of their TSA Officers from an Disorderly passenger at one of their check points; and for his quick actions, outstanding professionalism in the performance of his duties as a Law Enforcement Officer (LEO).

On Monday,  June 10, 2013,  a male passenger going through HNL Inter-Island Aloha TSA check point refused screening procedures, sat on the floor and started yelling and using profanity, becoming overbearing and disrupting government operation. When officer Glennard Williams stepped in to assist, the passenger became disorderly and threw a punch at Officer Williams.  To protect other passengers as well as TSA personnel at the check point, Williams defended himself and with the help of a fellow officer, both had the passenger under control within minutes until help arrived and the male passenger was taken into custody. "Congratulations" to Glennard Williams Law Enforcement Officer (LEO). for a job well done.

The 2013 Girls and Boys Summer Soccer League - Honolulu, Hawaii

The 2013 Girls and Boys Summer Soccer league began with the first game for Moanalua against PAC5 at Moanalua High School Football field last night.  Family and friends watched as both teams enjoyed the competition and basically had fun amongst each other.  The scored ended with PAC5 2-0 over the Na Menehune.

I spoke to Na Menehune Varsity Girls Head Coach, Nikki Dela Pena about the summer games and she related that there are 12 games and basically these games are just for fun.  "It's just to get some of the new faces and our transitional players that are coming over from our middle school interested in the program and also to keep our returning players active, the one that are traveling and not currently playing any club soccer and make sure our program stays intact.  As for the coming year, we have a handful of returning JV players that are coming back and one or two of the varsity players.  At the varsity level right now, there are a lot of kids traveling now over this summer so most of the varsity girls don't participate in this because of their club commitments which is fine, because it's just for fun and to get some exposure."  For more action photos, "click here."