The For Kona From Kona Indoor Soccer Tournament took place at the hockey rink at Old Airport Park over the weekend. A total of 16 teams, comprising of mostly talent from the west side of the Big Island competed in the 7-on-7 event, which helps raise scholarship money for local athletes.
“We got a lot of new faces and that is always good,” said Tony Butindaro, who is with tournament host Holoholo Ministries and is also married to the founder of the event, Summer Butindaro. “The competition is really good this year.”
The tournament was started in 2013 by Summer Butindaro, who is a Kealakehe High School graduate. Because of local interest, the event has grown from an annual event to a biannual one, with a tournament held in the summer and in the winter.
“Summer’s vision for this tournament was to gather the Kona community and get them to unite for one purpose, and that was to encourage young athletes to go to college,” Tony Butindaro said. “Whether that is playing sports in college or just getting off the rock, so to speak, that is what we hope happens here with the money we raise for scholarships.”
For Kona From Kona is usually able to raise enough money for two scholarships per year, but the organizers would like to see that number grow to two scholarships per event.
“We would like to raise enough money for at least two $500 scholarships for each tournament,” Tony Butindaro said. “That’s the plan but sometimes it doesn’t work out like that because of expenses.”
To apply for the scholarship, a person must be a soccer player and a recent high school graduate from a school on the west side of the island. The recipients are named on May 1 of each year. This year’s winners were Kealakehe’s Laukoa Santos and Konawaena’s Logan Takizawa
Other winners of the scholarship include Konawaena’s Taiana Tolleson (2016), Star Chinen (2016), Mikala Fernandez (2015), Rayne Baltero (2014), and Kealakehe’s Keoni Yates (2014)
The For Kona From Kona event is the only soccer tournament on the Big Island to use indoor rules, despite technically taking place outdoors. The area of play is much smaller than a normal soccer pitch and the ball can be played off the hockey rink walls. The only out-of-bounds area is behind the net. Games are played with 20 minute halves.
The tournament is played with three divisions: mixed, men and women. Each division winner is awarded a prize gift certificate.
