Soichi Sakamoto was a 6th grade science teacher at Puunene School and even though he didn't have much experience with swimming, he established the Three-Year Swim Club in 1937 for the children of poor sugar plantation workers. The goal was to qualify for the Olympics within 3 years. They did reach that goal but sadly the Olympics were cancelled that years due to WWII. Despite missing the Olympics that year, many of the students went on to find great success in swimming.
Lacking a pool, Sakamoto had his students train in irrigation ditches like the one you'll see here, swimming against the current as a form of resistance training.
Today the Puunene school you see here is used as a department of education administrative building. The old boys locker room is a wonderful little used book store called Maui Friends of the Library back behind the school. They are usually open Tuesday-Saturday selling books for a quarter with proceeds going to Maui's public libraries and their programs.
If you're interesed in learning more about the history of this area and learning about the talented, resilient kids of the 3 year swim club, you can read about it in the book "The Three Year Swim Club" by Julia Checkoway