Hi everyone,
My name is Conner Koga and I am the President of the Hawaii Pickleball Club at the University of Hawaiʻi. Our team is currently trying to raise funds to attend the 2026 Collegiate National Championships in Georgia.
About a year and a half ago, we started the Hawaii Pickleball Club with the goal of building a competitive collegiate program and representing Hawaiʻi on the national stage. Since then, we have competed in tournaments all across the West Coast, including San Diego, Las Vegas, Arizona, and Silicon Valley.
Most of these trips have been entirely out of pocket for our players, as the University of Hawaiʻi does not currently provide funding for our travel. Despite the financial challenges, our team has continued to compete and improve.
Our players work extremely hard every day balancing schoolwork and training, always putting academics first while dedicating countless hours to practicing and improving at pickleball. Being student-athletes requires discipline and commitment, and our team takes pride in representing both our university and our education.
This year, we actually qualified for all three national championship events, but unfortunately we were unable to attend the first two due to travel costs and distance. Our last opportunity to compete at the largest collegiate pickleball tournament of the year is the upcoming National Championship in Georgia, which will feature over 125 schools and more than 700 student athletes from across the country.
At our most recent tournament in Silicon Valley, our team placed 3rd out of 25 colleges and earned a national bid to the championship.
This opportunity means a lot to us because we want to represent the State of Hawaiʻi and show the rest of the nation who we are. Our goal is to proudly represent our islands, our university, and the growing pickleball community back home.
We are humbly asking for any amount of support or donation to help make this trip possible. Traveling from Hawaiʻi is extremely expensive, and every contribution helps bring our team one step closer to competing at Nationals.