Chaminade to Add Men’s Baseball and Women’s Beach Volleyball to Athletics Program

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SOFTBALL

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VOLLEYBALL

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Learn more about Chaminade’s Athletics program.

Chaminade University announced it will add Men’s Baseball and Women’s Beach Volleyball to its Athletics offerings for the 2023–2024 academic year.

After an absence of more than 40 years, Chaminade Baseball will join the Pacific West Conference. In addition, Chaminade will become one of only two schools in the PacWest and one of three Division II institutions in the West Region to field teams in Beach Volleyball.

“We are incredibly excited to welcome these sports to Chaminade University starting in 2023, the first new additions in 17 years,” said President Lynn Babington, Ph.D. “Athletics are an important part of the spirit of our campus, and the addition of these new teams will help us to attract even more students interested in excelling in both athletics and academics.”

CHAMINADE MEN’S BASEBALL

Chaminade University last fielded an intercollegiate baseball in 1980. In its inaugural season, the Silverswords finished 20-6 and earned a berth in the NAIA District II playoffs. However, due to budgetary restrictions, the program dropped to club level status in 1981 before disbanding altogether the following year. Chad Konishi was recently named head coach.

CHAMINADE WOMEN’S BEACH VOLLEYBALL

Chaminade has fielded beach volleyball as an exhibition sport since Spring 2013, playing various Division I schools over the years. Because the conference does not sponsor the sport and the NCAA does not separate beach volleyball into its traditional divisions (I, II, III), Chaminade will compete as an independent and be eligible for national championships at the same level as other high-profile programs. Current women’s volleyball indoor coach Kahala Kabalis Hoke will serve as the head coach of beach volleyball.

Added Chaminade University Director of Athletics Tom Buning, Ed.D., “This Chaminade University of Honolulu initiative reinforces the cocurricular value of our Silversword athletics to the campus experience. This decision aligns with the university’s mission to serve and educate the local community, which has an abundant source of talented interscholastic athletes who deserve the opportunity to compete at the collegiate level while earning a degree and staying close to home.”

Both baseball and beach volleyball will begin competition in the spring of 2024, raising the number of intercollegiate programs at Chaminade to 12.