For this West O'ahu team of players, coaches and parents, sacrifice has meant more than getting down a bunt to advance a runner.

On the eve of today's U.S. Little League championship game and a chance to advance to tomorrow's Word Series final against the international winner, the entire West O'ahu 'ohana could say they had given it their all to be here.

"Our players worked hard — three-hour practices, six days a week — to enable us to get here, but our players, coaches and parents also stay very relaxed and mellow and that is what helps us to be close and friends off the field," said Tyron Kitashima, the only West O'ahu coach who is not a parent of a player. For the 29-year-old counselor at Salt Lake Elementary School, and his wife, Cheryl, the sacrifice is having to leave their first child, 2-month-old Joshua, at home.

Today, the team will ride a 14-game winning streak that has carried them through a state tournament in Hilo, a Northwest Regional in San Bernadino, Calif., and five games at the Little League World Series.

The team got here with dedication to the demanding work ethic of Coach Layton Aliviado.

And the parents are here through their financial sacrifice, and the kindness of friends here and on the Mainland.

Consider that for parents of any Hawai'i youth baseball team competing in summer qualifying state, regional and World Series play, travel is a nightmare because there's no way to plan beyond the first stop. While the West O'ahu team's travel is booked by Little League, the parents have to fend for themselves.

"The problem is you don't know if the team is going on or back home," said Mack Memea, whose son Michael is the West O'ahu catcher.

Memea, a Navy mechanic who works at Marine Corps Base, Hawai'i, has seen every game the team has played, but it has cost him nearly $7,000. And that's only for Michael. Memea's daughter Desiree won a junior national wrestling championship earlier this month in Fargo, N.D., and the family paid all expenses for that trip.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing for them and we'll find a way to pay for all this," said Memea, who has four children. He had three days to make travel plans to San Bernadino after West O'ahu won the state title in Hilo.

Once the travel plans are set, everyone has to pull together to make the accommodations work.

The West O'ahu parents and relatives are staying at two different houses in Montoursville, near Williamsport, Pa. About 20 of them are occupying six of eight rooms at Carol and Michael Hughes' home, which is serving as West O'ahu's home base and phone calls are now answered with an "aloha."

The parents were close friends before Williamsport but now they're 'ohana, said Torrence, Calif., resident Lorito Aliviado, the former Waipahu High quarterback whose nephew is West O'ahu's coach. Lorito Aliviado has followed the team since they've been on the Mainland.

"It's all family now the way they support each other and their kids," Lorito Aliviado said.

Amy Kam, mother of center-fielder Harrison Kam, said so many people in a big house together, sharing three bathrooms, sleeping quarters, cooking and laundry duties has allowed the parents to bond even more. "It's made us family," Kam said.

Outfielder Zachary Ranit's father, Sam, saw the team play in San Bernadino and returned to Honolulu to tend to his bathroom-kitchen renovation business. Then, his seven sisters in Hawai'i gave him airfare to Williamsport.

"Parents being here is most important to 11- and 12-year-olds," Ranit said. "I had told my son at San Bernadino that we couldn't make it to Williamsport for financial reasons but when he called home, I could kind of hear in his voice that he missed having us there. It's something emotional that becomes a mental thing and playing sports is 90 percent mental.

"It's expensive but parents are really the foundation," Ranit added. "I'm glad I'm here. With any team, if the parents are together, all one, the team is going to be one. Our parents are so close they'd be willing to share the same underwear if they had to."

Like Ranit, some parents could not afford to make the extended trip to Williamsport. But they're all there now.

Stanley Guevara, a corrections officer at Halawa prison, along with Johnny Baniaga and Denise "Poke" Quiday, parents of outfielder-pitcher Quentin Guevara and infielder Sheyne Baniaga, respectively, received airfare to Willamsport from friends, Mark and Teresa Milton.

Guevara, who has four children, was granted vacation with pay by his supervisors. "Seeing my son play on this field is a dream," Guevara said. "I walked into the stadium and felt like a kid."

The West O'ahu group followed their Tuesday night lu'au with another good-luck cookout last night for the boys, who went to Penn State University earlier in the day and met football legend Coach Joe Paterno. The invitation was extended to the team by Radford High graduate Brian Norwood, who is a defensive backs coach for Penn State.

Penn State associate athletic director for football administration Fran Ganter led the tour, joined later by Paterno and Norwood. Also involved was Hawai'i native Dana Anei, PSU's director of multicultural affairs.

Norwood remembered his high school teams playing Waipahu, the alma mater of West O'ahu's head coach Aliviado. Both graduated high school in the early 1980s.

Paterno, 78, said seeing the "guys" from Hawai'i "was a must. For a week, I've been hearing about the Hawaiian team (from Norwood). He wanted to give them helmets, hats. ... It's nice."

As they've done all along, the West O'ahu parents made sure the players were treated to Hawai'i-style grinds.

Last night's menu featured a boneless 40-pound roast donated by friends of the Hughes family, Portuguese sausage brought by Baniaga's parents, tako and kim chee poke courtesy of Rudy Domagsac, a relative of the Aliviados, along with hamburgers, hot dogs and rice.

"With this group, you never have to worry about leftovers," said Greg Rosete of Maui, uncle of outfielder Zachary Rosete.

Another friend of the Hughes family brought in a karaoke machine.

Anyone feeling pressure?

"I don't know but the kids are coloring their hair blonde and doing highlights," Debbie Aliviado said last night. "And somebody's singing karaoke."

Ben Brigandi of the Williamsport (Pa.) Sun-Gazette contributed to this report.