Hawaii Rainbow Wahine

Hawaii Rainbow Wahine

Rainbow Wahine is the official nickname applied to all women's sports teams at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UH). The school joined the Big West Conference in July 2012, leaving behind the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), where it had been a member since 1979. However, this marked a return to a former conference home for the UH women. The Rainbow Wahine had joined the Big West in 1984, when the conference was known as the Pacific Coast Athletic Association; even though the WAC began sponsoring women's sports in 1990, UH did not move its women's teams into the WAC until 1996. While most Rainbow Wahine teams compete in the Big West, three sports not sponsored by the Big West have other conference homes. Teams in swimming and diving (considered a single sport by the NCAA) and indoor track and field moved from the WAC to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (the Big West does not sponsor swimming and diving, and only sponsors outdoor track and field). The school's two sailing teams—one coed, and the other all-female—remain in the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference (note that sailing is not an NCAA sport).