HILO — The transition from fall to winter sports in the BIIF can be a challenging time for winter sports coaches.
In many cases, the coaches are organizing conditioning, starting practice and even competing in pre-season games while waiting for key athletes that are still competing in fall BIIF and state championships to join their squads.
The coaches for two of East Hawaii’s girls basketball teams were facing some of those challenges head-on when the Lady Daggers of Pahoa High faced off against the Vik Queens of Hilo High as part of Hilo’s pre-season girls basketball tournament last Saturday. This gave the paper the opportunity to catch up with both teams and talk story about the upcoming season.
Hilo’s second year coach Fred Collins’ team finished at 6-12 last year, but he feels that in year two the team has a better grasp of his coaching style and will be much more competitive.
“I knew it would take time for them to buy into my system”, he said, and his returning players have. Hilo will rely on seniors Anuhea Ferreira, and Tianna Cabbab and junior Madysin Galima to lead the way while newcomers freshman Kyani Samson and sophomore Wai Krismunando are also expected to make big contributions.
When asked about her game, Ferreira explained that “sharing the ball, working with my teammates, and driving to the basket” were her strengths, and that was evident during the game — as she was the second-leading scorer and attempted eight free throws. Galima, who led all scorers and knocked down a couple 3s, said the team would have to “keep fighting and work together as a group” to be successful in the BIIF this year.
Pahoa’s head coach Kirk Imai is used to success having led his Lady Daggers to a 11-3 record last year, finishing second to Kohala in the BIIF championship and winning the consolation bracket at the HHSAA state finals. Unfortunately, most of the team from last year is gone, replaced by an inexperienced team with a few first time players added to round out the roster. Fortunately for Imai, he does have sophomore Sophia Moniz back to lead the way.
Moniz was a big reason behind last year’s success making the All-BIIF first team in her freshman season and playing for Mufi Hannemann’s Team Aloha.
“A lot is going to be placed on her shoulders of course, but I am looking for her to facilitate more and incorporate her teammates now that everyone knows her name,” Imai said of Moniz.
Moniz welcomes the challenge, and said she plans to bring more energy into the season.
“Since some of our players from last year left, I have taken over as the point guard and have a lot more responsibility,” Moniz said.
Imai will also be looking for contributions and leadership from his two seniors Teysia Tai and Remedy Gonzalez as they look to repeat the success of last year.
The game itself played out much the way that the coaches expected, with Pahoa’s inexperience showing up in the first half where the Lady Daggers had trouble finding a rhythm on offense, while Hilo with a solid returning core and some key newcomers controlled the action on both sides of the court and held a 33-8 lead at the half.
Pahoa made some adjustments at halftime and found the offensive rhythm it lacked early. The Daggers out-scored the Vik Queens 29-25 in the second half, but Hilo managed to hold on to win 58-37.
Galima led all scorers with 16 points with Ferreira adding 15 and Samson 11.
The Lady Daggers were led by Moniz with 15 points and Gonzalez with 13.
See the paper this winter to read coverage on both teams.