Oahu Kraken

Several Kraken ladies attended the Youth Impact Program run by the Rainbow Wahine at UH the past two weeks. Two of them won the award for best basketball player in their group and took home new basketballs. Congratulations Sophia….and Sophia! 😃

Great job A Team!!

Menehune Sports Foundation

Menehune Youth Basketball League

Season 24
Schedules/Results/Stats are posted:
www.MenehuneBasketball.com

Mahalo for your support!

Good evening! We have more good news! God continues to graciously open doors for us. We are 98% sure we will receive a formal invite to participate in the 10-team Lutheran School Sports League in basketball (this year) and volleyball (beginning next year) for our elementary and middle school kids. It will be so wonderful to let our GRADE SCHOOL kids play in leagues with a little more soul and continuity to them than club leagues during the Spring. Below is the schedule for what we know now, but there may be some changes. What this really means is that we need more young ladies to play basketball...our boys teams are doing great! More to follow on our participation in PAL etc., but we will make sure that we keep a home for all of our players.

6th Grade and Under Basketball Jan-Feb (Boys and Girls)
8th Grade and Under Basketball Feb-May (Boys and Girls)

6th Grade and Under Volleyball Aug-Sept (starts 2025-2026)
8th Grade and Under Volleyball Oct-Nov (starts 2025-2026)

This weekend was a tough one, but for those who've been with Kraken for two years...not completely a new one. We had to split our 14U team into a A and B because we had so many boys. The teams played each other Friday and B Team was behind 40-2 at halftime. Then on Saturday our 8U team played NexGen and lost 57-0. Yep. 57-0. There were some defeated kids, some tears and frustration. But this is just the beginning. Due to the nature of our organization, we often have to "grow our own" and develop kids without much experience.

Our first varsity team was ANNIHILATED every game in their first competitive club season...see some of the scores in the picture. Our "OG" 12U boys endured a MISERABLE first season. That same varsity team won a playoff game in club last year, won their school league outright and won a silver ball at nationals. That 12U team is now at the 14U level and is competitive locally and also won a silver ball at nationals. Our overall goal at Kraken is to develop Christian character...and that means we persevere. If we have teams that are struggling, it just means we ROLL UP OUR SLEEVES and get to work. We are confident that with hard work and consistent coaching....it will get better and the journey and the improvement are worth it.

We hope to meet more members of the homeschool community this Saturday. If you are interested in volleyball, basketball, cross country or soccer as part of a school league please come talk to us!

We are looking forward to seeing you at the Homeschool Resource Fair on Saturday, June 29.
Over 30 vendors are registered and eager to share information on their services, classes, clubs in the performing arts, sports, academics, and more.
It's also a wonderful opportunity to meet other homeschoolers!

The Oahu Kraken got some great news last week! Homeschool Nationals is once again going to allow us to enter our teams for a mere $100 per team. We appreciate their generosity and hope this will be an impetus for us to once again get multiple teams into Nationals again this year! For all our homeschool families we hope you pencil in mid-March for Nationals!

Last month we had an opportunity to reflect on God's goodness to our organization during the 2023-2024 season at our annual banquet. It was also great to see all the kids looking so spiffy instead of in basketball clothes. Our children are a heritage of the LORD and we are grateful for every moment we have with them. Congratulations to all our coaches, players and parents for a great season!

There is sooo much to say about this team. They left all their size in Hawaii and repeatedly took on teams with tons of height, length, strength and big benches. Due to their lack of size they played coyote ball all week..they were everywhere on defense and were extremely opportunistic. And they walked away with the Silver Ball in the A bracket and ended the tournament with a convincing win over the KC East Lions. Each of them contributed, so something about each of them.

Benaiah - showed up big in the Gold ball and silver ball games with shooting and leadership after a rough start. Also regularly provided some sharp-shooting for the varsity team.

Gabe - gutted things out against bigs that had 20-30 pounds on him. Regularly made slippery plays around the basket that showed his improved basketball IQ. Helped us a ton in the high post and on the boards.

Ezekiel - constant effort, speed and toughness made him our glue guy. He tipped rebounds to other players, surprised presses with his speed and just kept trying.

Kyle - probably our tournament MVP with constant hustle, great hands and ruthless attacks on the rim. No one wanted to guard him or be guarded by him. I would guess Kyle averaged 16 points a game and gave us the tournament highlight with an incredible ankle-breaking splash.

Matt - (not pictured) defended like his life depended on it. We never had to worry about our defense suffering when Matt came in. He hustled, knew his assignments and regularly knocked the ball loose. Way to go Matt!

Noah - gave us phenomenal minutes on defense and gave us a huge 5 points in the first half of our last game. He gave us great options against traps because he is starting to handle the ball so well.

Zeke - just incredible toughness and smarts. He took beatings every game because of the size of our opponents but that didn’t stop him
from delivering consistent shooting, superb ball-handling and great basketball IQ. He has made us a different (and far smarter) team.

Great job Kraken 14U boys!!!

Varsity about to start

14U boys’ game starting in 5 minutes

Here are all the players, parents and coaches at Evangel University after the boys varsity gold ball game. Both boys varsity and 14U will be taking home silver balls. Pictures forthcoming. Thank you to all the families who sacrificed your time and money to make this happen!

Today's Results....tough day!

Girls 12U Team USA beat Dallas 33-28. These girls have beaten some of the best 12U teams in the country and proudly feature 3 Kraken girls!

Boys 14U Lost to MHSAA Team II 46-42 in the Silver Ball.

Girls 16U lost to the Columbus Hawks.

Boys Varsity lost their gold ball game in a nailbiter. They played sooo hard!

Tomorrow (all times CST):

Girls 12U Team USA plays NOAH at 8 am
Girls JV plays TBD at 9 am
Boys 14U plays KC East Lions II at 245 PM for 3rd place in the silver ball series.
Boys Varsity plays Butternut at 515 for the silverball bracket championship.

5 min till start time for boys’ varsity

The varsity boys will be starting in about 20 minutes and will be playing for a gold ball.

Todays Results:

Boys Varsity beat EVAC II 61-52 to advance to their B Bracket Gold Ball Game.

Girls 16U beat the Fort Smith Patriots to advance to their Copper Bracket semi-final game.

Boys 14U lost to the OKC Knights 51-30, thus earning the Silver Ball for their A bracket. They will move into the Silver Ball bracket with the chance for another trophy if they can win on Thursday and Friday.

Tomorrow's Games (all times CST):
1010 AM - Girls 12U Team USA (with 3x 12U Kraken Girls) vs. Rush (MO).

145 PM - Boys 14U vs. Dallas HSAA Team II in Silver Ball bracket.

245 PM - JV Girls vs. Columbus Hawks (IN) in Copper Semi-final.

515 PM - Varsity D3B 4B GOLD BALL GAME!!! vs. SWLA Knights (LA).

March 12 Results:

Boys Varsity beat Team USA Purple 44-38

Girls JV lost to Lighthouse Chargers 56-26

Boys 14U beat Upper Cumberland Rams 35-29

Tomorrow:
Boys Varsity will play in the B Bracket Gold Ball Semi-Final vs. EVAC II at 515 PM (CST)

Girls JV will play Fort Smith Patriots in the girls 16U Copper Bracket at 620 PM (CST)

Boys 14U play for the A bracket Gold Ball vs. OKC Knights at 515 PM (CST).

Todays results at Nationals:

Boys Varsity lost 63-31 to Lighthouse

Boys 14U beat Saline Warriors 50-30

4 games tomorrow starting at 8 am CST!

Varsity boys play at 3:50 CST; 10:50 Hawaiian

Warmup day in the books! Thanks to the KC Metro Mavs for hosting us for three games. Results below:

Boys Varsity Lost 67-34
Girls JV Lost 53-40
Boys 14U Won 50-40

It was a great night of sports and fellowship and we are very grateful to Mavs for letting us acclimate before the tournament starts Monday!

Metro Mavs with Oahu Kraken after 14U game. Thank you Mavs!!

We will go live in two hours from Diamond B Sports with our varsity boys nationals warmup game vs KC Metro Mavs, who secured a Division 1 berth at Nationals. Exciting to kick this thing off!!