Team Kekela makes history as first Hawaii club to win adidas national basketball title

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – In a historic victory for Hawaii club basketball, Team Kekela has secured the state’s first-ever adidas 3Stripes Gold 17U National Championship.

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The 3Stripes Gold tournament has quickly become one of the country’s premier showcases, featuring top high school recruits from around the nation and drawing numerous Division I college coaches in attendance.

The Hawaii all-star team advanced out of a regional tournament in California to seal a spot in the national bracket.

“We had played in two prior sessions on the Gold Circuit, lost a couple of games there, really tight games,” said Team Kekela 17U head coach Ryan Hirata. “Before heading out to the third session, we really didn’t have any idea of how we would perform. We just wanted to go up there and compete as hard as we could.”

True to its name — Kekela means to reach high and excel — the team answered the call. Playing through intense July heat in South Carolina, the squad defeated Indiana’s EG10 all-star team to secure the national title.

Kekela’s roster is stacked with some of Hawaii’s best young talent, including Punahou School star and tournament MVP Tanoa Scanlan, Kahuku High School state champion Ronin Naihe, and Iolani School senior Declan Beckette.

“Obviously we all play for different school teams, so it took us a while to kind of get adjusted to one another,” Beckette said. “But over time we all kind of settled into roles and we really understood what everyone did best. And I think that’s what made our team so strong is we kind of played off each other’s strengths and we were able to do that at a high level.”

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For Saint Louis School junior and Kekela point guard Zion Lefotu, basketball success runs in the family. His sisters, Lily and Jovi, both starred on the court at Iolani and University of Hawaii at Manoa.

“Growing up, my sisters, they set the bar really high, super high,” Lefotu said. “Seeing them training, how much they trained, how frequently and how hard it was, it was eye-opening. It’s cool that we won that. No other team has done that before.”

The team sees this victory as a massive win for Hawaii prep basketball, sending a message to the rest of the country about the level of talent residing in the islands.

“Every team, every court that we played on, there were scorekeepers and referees asking us, ‘Hey, where are you guys from?’ And we had to tell them we were from Hawaii. They were like, ‘Man, you guys are good,’” Hirata said.

“The fact that we’re able to step away from the tournament and close the doors with the West Region championship and with the national championship, it just proves that Hawaii is back on the map when you talk about basketball,” he said.

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