2016 University of Hawaii Hilo Men's Soccer
Overall Record: 1-14-1
PWC Record: 0-11-2 (14th)

Vulcans Finish Strong, But Scoreboard Doesn't Reward: The 2016 UHH men's soccer team's final mark shows just one win and a tie on the plus side of the ledger, but that doesn't tell the whole story of a team just missing the taste of success. The hard luck Vulcans began the season with an overtime loss and ended it with a 3-3 tie.

So Close, Yet.....:Included in the list of UHH's near misses were two overtimes losses (Westminster, Academy of Art), two overtime ties (Hawaii Pacific, Holy Names) and four total losses by just one goal. 

Young Vulcans: Hawaii Hilo had just three seniors on its 2016 roster and a large number of freshmen and sophomores saw game action. The graduating group included four-year letterwinners Anthony Novella and Edward Torrison, along with Benjamin Seimers.

Upset Mode: The Vulcans were oh-so-close to knocking off Pacific West Conference upper crust teams Point Loma and Fresno Pacific towards the end of the season. The Vulcans fell to third-place PLNU (8-4-1) by just a single score (3-2) at home, after taking a 2-0 lead, and lost to the Sunbirds (7-4-2) by a 2-1 count on their final road trip of the season.  

Seasoned Youngsters: 13 players who started or saw significant playing time in 2016 are scheduled to return for spring practice in 2017. That includes the teams' top three scorers in Jake Sagami (8 points), Rodrigo Castellanos (six points) and Jonathan Garcia (five points). 

Home Field Advantage: For the first time, UH Hilo called Kamehameha School in Kea'au their home field, playing all seven of their "home" games on the private school's artificial turf, while also enjoying the benefit of full bleachers and a press box.

Familiar Face: First-year head men's and women's coach Gene Okamura was certainly a familiar face to UH Hilo fans, to those at Kamehameha School and to local soccer kids and their parents. Okamura took over the Vulcan coaching duties in 2016, replacing Lance Thompson, who had led the teams for the past three seasons. Okamura, a former standout player for the Vulcans, also served as the lead assistant for both UHH programs under Thompson, while also leading the Kamehameha girls program. He is also the director of coaching for Hawaii Big Rush and the Haaheo Soccer Clubs. A 2006 graduate of Hilo's Waiakea High School, Okamura played on UHH's first-ever men's soccer team in 2006.

Gene's Justifications: "We were a very young and inexperienced team from the outset," Okamura said of his 2016 squad. "It's hard to find a lot of positives during a season like that, but we did fight hard and never gave up, and got tons of playing time and experience for a lot of young players. We had a lot of freshmen and sophomores get quality college soccer minutes. It's a huge adjustment from high school and club soccer to NCAA Division II soccer, even from junior college to here. The year seasoned a lot of players, and I certainly don't expect us to be in this same position in terms of wins and losses a year from now."

History Revealed: 11 seasons of men's soccer history at the University of Hawai`i Hilo is now trackable on the Vulcans website. Go to www.hiloathletics.com, click on men's soccer, and then Additional Links. From there, the following links are available...
All-Time Series History: http://hiloathletics.com/documents/2016/12/22/All_Time_Series.pdf 
All-Time Accolades: http://hiloathletics.com/documents/2016/12/22/Accolades.pdf 
Year-by-Year Records: http://hiloathletics.com/documents/2016/12/22/Men_s_soccer_records.pdf 
Single Season, Career, Match Records: http://hiloathletics.com/documents/2016/12/22/Men_s_soccer_records.pdf