For these middle school students from Northern California coming to Hawaii was a dream come true.

“About three years ago we planned to come to Hawaii so we've spent the last three years mentally preparing to come here,” Coach Jason Guiducci said.

They collected money on their own, flew from Vallejo, California...and on their second day here the news came.

“A parent called me at 4am Hawaii time, roused me out of my bed and said you know ATA went bankrupt, they canceled all your flights and since that point in time we have been scrambling trying to find a way home,” Guiducci said.

“It’s been like frustrating cause we been like you know we raised enough money to get our plane ticket,” wrestler Monica Leones said.

Monica's parents both went home after they heard about ATA's untimely departure.

“Kind of sad, like depressed cause I wanted them to watch me like motivate me,” Leones said.

Parents weren't the only ones leaving...

“We had a set number of chaperones and several bailed out once they heard what was going on,” Guiducci said.

What started as a group of 25 is now 17...9 of them competing at the USGWA wrestling tournament held at Moanalua High School.

“We kind of use it as motivation to like help us wrestle harder we want to take it out on these girls,” wrestler Raquel Torres said.

Once Hawaiian Airlines announced they would be adding flights to San Francisco on Monday, a few parents and a coach spent the entire day Saturday at the airport hoping to book a seat on the flights.

“It took parents and coaches to basically charge it on their credit card and take a leap of faith that somehow we are going to re-coupe those losses,” Guiducci said.

At a cost of $329 a person multiplied by 17 people...the loss comes out to more than $5,000

“It feels good like theirs nothing to worry about anymore,” Torres said.

The team was originally scheduled to leave Sunday, if all goes as planned they should head home on Monday…just in time for the state championship wrestling tournament.