Updates On Kahuku Basketball, Volleyball, Football Teams
Should girls basketball continue its upward mobility next season, Kahuku second-year head coach Scott De Silva will likely look back on the spring and summer months as a key to the process.
That wasn’t the case last season, as De Silva had a late start after being hired. Even so, the team pressed on and was one of the better stories in prep hoops in February, winning four of its last five to finish third at the Division I state tournament. The lone loss in that stretch was to eventual state champion Konawaena.
As they begin to prepare for summer leagues in the coming days, hopes are understandably high, and De Silva is more settled.
“Hopefully we can move further along,” said De Silva, whose team finished 15-5 overall. “As the season went along last year, we saw what could have been if we’d had the summer together. Most of the returnees know our system now.”
Kahuku’s lone returning starter is point guard Fia Tailele-Latu, so the lineup will have a far different look when it officially begins the season in November.
“A lot of role players from last year will be playing big minutes next year. With the success we had last year, we have a lot of girls who want to play a bigger role. It’s now a matter for them of how they’re going to do that.”
Kahuku will practice approximately three weeks before summer league play, with action in leagues at both Radford and Kalaheo.
Girls volleyball coach
Nine years after helping lead the girls volleyball team to a state championship, Camilla Ah-Hoy will try to lead it to another one from the sideline. Ah-Hoy was recently named head girls varsity coach, said athletic director Gillian Yamagata.
Ah-Hoy followed her all-star prep career with the Red Raiders (she was also pivotal in basketball) by attending Oregon State University, where she was a four-year starter.
Despite her background, she never envisioned coaching until she began helping at OSU’s clinics for kids.
“That’s when I fell in love with coaching, I think,” she said. “It also made me a better player because when you are telling people to do something, you’d better be doing it right yourself.”
Camilla has since coached at BYU-Hawaii as an assistant the past two seasons. Her mother, Mona, coached her during her prep days and is also a BYUH assistant in addition to running North Shore Volleyball.
Red Raiders to play Punahou in opener
The football team will host Punahou in week one of the 2012 prep season in a rematch of last November’s state title game, which was won by the Red Raiders. The game will be either Aug. 17 or 18. The schedule also includes games with Kailua (at home Aug. 31 or Sept. 1), McKinley (Sept. 7 or 8), Castle (away, Sept. 14 or 15), Kaimuki (Sept. 21 or 22), Farrington (Sept. 28 or 29) and Moanalua (away, Oct. 5 or 6). Sites of McKinley, Kaimuki and Farrington games still to be determined.
