HILO — Entering the ninth season as UH-Hilo women’s soccer coach, Gene Okamura welcomes his largest incoming class with 16 newcomers set to join the Vulcans in just under a month’s time. The 2024 recruiting class is comprised of three freshmen, two sophomores, eight juniors and three fifth-year seniors. The newcomers are products of Texas, Wisconsin, Utah, New Mexico, Kentucky and California (11).
Pre-transfer destinations include four from Division-I schools and six from across Division-II institutions — including one from a Pacific West Conference school after code 6.2.1 was recently abolished to eliminate the one-year-residence requirement for intra-conference transfers.
“We are very excited to welcome this talented recruiting class to our program this fall,” Okamura said. “This is one of our deepest and most talented recruiting classes in my time here. This recruiting class will come in and contribute to our success and elevate the overall standard of our program.
We can’t wait to see how these players impact our program during their time here.” Okamura replaces 10 departures from a season ago — eight to graduation/exhausted eligibility — many of whom walked away as two-time PacWest Conference Champions from 2021 and 2022. This year’s squad sports 15 seniors, 12 juniors, two sophomores and four freshmen.
UH-Hilo will have a 17-match regular-season slate that gets started Sept. 4 with a home exhibition against HPU. Shea Christiansen DEF | 5’5 | 5T.