Saturday Briefing

By Kathy Hansberry

For many years, the holiday season has been synonymous with our ongoing community commitment in support of the University of Hawaii’s Athletics, particularly our titled sponsored men’s basketball tournament — the Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic. This past holiday season was no different.

Hawaii battles it out at the net against Colorado State

The 45th annual Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic, held on December 27-30, 2008, is the longest running, eight-team pre-season collegiate basketball tournament in the country. Over the years, the University of Hawaii’s Men’s Basketball team has played host to a long list of dynamic teams, many of them gladly leaving the cold mainland winter weather behind and traveling great distances to be a part of this historic tourney. This past tournament brought much excitement with teams from Colorado, Colorado State, Buffalo, George Washington, Coppin State, Pepperdine, and Vermont adding their names to the Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic tradition.

High energy was felt at the Stan Sheriff Center on the opening night of this four-day play-off, as Hawaii faced Colorado State, but a victory was not meant to be, as the Rainbow Warriors fell short against the Rams. However, all was not lost. The Warriors fought hard and redeemed themselves by walking away with the consolation bracket trophy, with subsequent wins against George Washington and Pepperdine.

The University of Hawaii’s Rainbow Warriors Men’s Basketball team

In the tournament’s championship game, it was the Buffalo Bulls battling it out with the Colorado State Rams. Buffalo’s relentless talent was unmatched, as they defeated Colorado State and took home the championship title.

front l to r: Keris Hayashida, Allyson and Gavin Ijima, Kathy Hansberry, Ellie Agustin, and Aitogi Totemese middle l to r: Sam Hoffman, Kevin Wong, Heather Doeringer, Nancy Daniels, Ellen Isidro, Lorry Ijima-Sato, and UH staff member Walter Figueira back l to r: UH staff member Stan Cadinha, Scott Sato, David Carey, Burton Kong, Danny Wang, and radio personality and UH emcee Billy V

As part of the tradition, Outrigger’s President and CEO David Carey presented the trophies to the winning teams, along with the All Tournament and Most Valuable Player awards.

As always, this tourney would not have been possible without the hard work of the Marketing/Sales Team and the many volunteers from our various Outrigger ‘ohana. Mahalo to all of you for your enthusiastic support.