Hawaiʻi Pacific Adds Flag Football, Names Kanda Korver Coach

Hawaiʻi Pacific University has named Kanda Korver the first head coach of its new women’s flag football program, filling the top job on a team that will make history before it plays a down. When the Sharks take the field, they will be the first collegiate women’s flag football program in the state of Hawaiʻi. The university announced the hire on July 6, roughly seven weeks after revealing on May 20 that it would add the sport, becoming the first university in the islands to sponsor flag football at the collegiate level.

The launch expands HPU’s NCAA Division II athletics department to 11 women’s sports, alongside six men’s sports and co-ed cheer. The first flag football student-athletes are set to arrive on campus this fall, with practices planned on the field adjacent to Shark Tank ahead of the program’s inaugural season.

A First in the Islands

HPU’s decision plants a college flag on ground that Hawaiʻi’s high schools have been cultivating for years. Flag football already has a deep foundation in the state’s prep ranks, with 24 schools across Division I and Division II sponsoring the sport, and the 2026 HHSAA state championships crowned Moanalua in Division I and Kapolei in Division II this May. Until now, those players had no in-state college program to graduate into.

“This is a great day for HPU and for women’s athletics in Hawaiʻi,” said HPU Executive Director of Athletics Debbie Snell, Ed.D. “Flag football expands opportunities for our female student-athletes and adds even more energy and passion to campus life. We’re proud to be the first university in the state to offer it at the collegiate level.”

The Inaugural Coach

Korver arrives with a coaching resume rooted in the same high school system now feeding the sport. She currently serves as an assistant coach for the varsity girls flag football program at Kamehameha Schools Kapālama, one of the Division I programs in the state tournament, while also coaching intermediate girls soccer. She is the founder of Kore Vibration, an athlete-development organization built around mindset training, team workshops, mentorship, and leadership programming that she says has worked with more than 1,500 athletes, parents, and coaches across Hawaiʻi and the mainland.

Her background reaches well beyond the sideline. Korver previously served as a Senior Program Manager in Global Recruiting Operations at Meta and currently works as Director of Operations for Keiki Coders, an after-school STEM and athlete enrichment program. A graduate of Occidental College, she earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and Spanish with a minor in mathematics, captained the Tigers’ volleyball team, and earned SCIAC All-Academic honors before completing a data analytics certificate through the University of California, Berkeley Extension. As the inaugural head coach, she will oversee recruiting, player development, and preparation for the Sharks’ first season.

Where the Sharks Will Play

HPU is expected to compete in the Pacific West Conference, pending scheduling opportunities, while also exploring matchups against post-high-school leagues, Oʻahu club teams, and PacWest affiliate members. The conference picture is still forming: Menlo College, the first PacWest school to add the sport, is departing for the California Collegiate Athletic Association in 2026-27, leaving HPU among the league’s early adopters as it builds a schedule.

The game the Sharks will play is a seven-on-seven format on an 80-yard by 40-yard field with 10-yard end zones. There is no blocking or tackling; defenders stop plays by pulling a flag from the ball carrier, a structure that rewards speed, route running, and strategy over size. HPU has encouraged prospective student-athletes to apply and identify themselves to admissions as flag football recruits as Korver assembles the roster.

A Sport on the Rise

HPU joins a college movement that has accelerated sharply over the past year. The NCAA added women’s flag football to its Emerging Sports for Women program in January 2026, starting the clock on a pathway that requires 40 varsity sponsors to reach championship status; as many as 60 schools were expected to field varsity teams in the spring 2026 season, and the first NCAA championship is projected for spring 2028. The momentum runs all the way down to the youth level, where 68,847 girls played high school flag football in 2024-25, a 60 percent jump in a single year and a 388 percent increase since the first post-pandemic NFHS survey.

That growth curve points toward Los Angeles, where flag football will make its Olympic debut at the 2028 Summer Games. For a state that has already built one of the most competitive high school scenes in the country, HPU’s program gives Hawaiʻi’s players a reason to stay home, and a coach who knows exactly where they are coming from.