Arkansas
Pair of Hawaii baseball stars find plenty of aloha in Arkansas
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Nearly 4,000 miles away from the islands, two Hawaii prep baseball standouts have settled in nicely at Fayetteville, Arkansas.
In only their first season with the Razorbacks, Nolan Souza and Wehiwa Aloy have instantly become fan favorites.
“You can’t fully experience how loud it gets in there and how many people there is,” Souza said. “When you see it in person, it’s like wow, it’s cool.”
Souza first popped up on Arkansas’ radar while he was still a freshman at Punahou.
While Aloy, a Baldwin grad, transferred to the Razorbacks after one season at Sacramento State.
Both committed site unseen and fell in love with the place.
“Kind of like a smaller community, kinda like back home, everybody is just supportive of each other,” Aloy said. “We’re pretty much treated like superstars over here now that we play for the baseball team. So it’s pretty cool.”
So how is it that two Hawaii players, would end up in the deep south at the same time?
It’s all because of a previous local connection.
Punahou alum and prep baseball coach Rick Nomura spent two seasons in the Razorbacks infield and sold them on the program.
“I was trying to explain to them, the experience you are gonna get there, yes every college is gonna give you a bunch of stuff, but the fans, the coaching staff, the facilities is top notch,” said Nomura, who operates Nomura Academy.
And they’ve wasted no time introducing themselves.
Aloy leads the them in home runs and Souza is top five on the squad in runs batted in and is a former Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week.
“Whenever I I get opportunities to go in, I try to do my best for the team, help us win,” Souza said. “Whether it’s like DH like I have been or whenever I get a chance to play defense, I try to do my best out there too.”
And aspects of Hawaii’s culture have become part of the gameday experience.
Aloy’s walkup music is a tribute to his Maui roots.
“Mine is Country Reggae by Maoli, yeah that’s a banger,” Aloy explained. “They bring like palm trees and stuff, leis, hula skirts, yeah all kine stuff over here.”
As the second ranked team in the country, the powerful pair can play a huge role in Arkansas’ quest for a national championship.
While their collegiate journey is just starting, they hope their play can help local prospects get on the radar of top scouts.
“They might have just thought oh Hawaii is far away, we’re just gonna look at the players we have up here,” Souza said. “I think the more players that play in the SEC, I think it opens their eyes that they might want to go back home and recruit over there too.”
Copyright 2024 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
Rex Nelson
Rex Nelson has been senior editor and columnist at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette since 2017, and he has a biweekly podcast called “Southern Fried.”
After graduating from Ouachita Baptist University in 1981, he was a sportswriter for the Arkansas Democrat for a year before becoming editor of Arkadelphia’s Daily Siftings Herald. He was the youngest editor of a daily in Arkansas at age 23. Rex was then news and sports director at KVRC-KDEL from 1983-1985.
He returned to the Democrat as assistant sports editor in 1985. From 1986-1989, he was its Washington correspondent. He left to be Jackson T. Stephens’ consultant.
Rex became the Democrat-Gazette’s first political editor in 1992, but left in 1996 to join then-Gov. Mike Huckabee’s office. He also served from 2005-09 in the administration of President George W. Bush.
From 2009-2018, he worked stints at the Communications Group, Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities, and Simmons First National Corp.
Dylan Sherman
Dylan Sherman is a business reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He is based in Northwest Arkansas and focuses on Tyson Foods Inc. and the transportation industry. A graduate of the University of Missouri, he has been with the newspaper since 2023.
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