Basketball Team Comes Together as a Family

The Kalani High School Boys Varsity Basketball Team finished with 12 wins and 15 losses overall and 6 wins and 8 losses during league play. This year’s basketball team contained 6 seniors, 7 juniors, 3 sophomores, and 1 freshman.

This year’s basketball team was very different because there was only 1 four year player out of the 6 seniors, There were 6 transfers/different players, and there was a new coaching staff at the varsity level. The coaching staff included head coach Nathan Davis, assistant coach Everette Frye, assistant coach Noa Hussey, and assistant coach  Joe Yuen. The managers for this season were Christian Salas and Kanehe Nishimura.

At one point during the season the team had a 10 game losing streak. The whole team had to learn how to be resilient and come back into the season as a family.  They ended that streak with a thriller win at Farrington. The score for the game against Farrington was 47-45. After the win at Farrington, they went on to have 3 wins and 1 loss in the rest of the games during the regular season. The last game of the regular season was against Roosevelt. They beat Roosevelt 64-50. Since it was the last game of the regular season, there was a senior night to honor the seniors. This year’s seniors were: Kobe Ikari, Miles Hannon, Akea Tolentino, John Lam, Sione Vea-Kava, and Jeffrey Wood. During senior night, the seniors get honored, receive leis, and take their last shot on the home court. Jeffrey Wood said, “I was really sad on the senior night because it was going to be our last home game in front of the crowd but was really excited to just have fun.” Head coach Nathan Davis said, “All seniors are exciting, none are boring. A lot has strong personalities.”

After the regular season there is the OIA tournament and then the State Tournament. The basketball team got to the OIA tournament championship after beating Waialua and Aiea. Then they faced against Roosevelt in the championship. The championship game was the game of the season. It came down to the final shot to determine the OIA DII champion. But the last shot did not go in the Falcons favor. They became the runner up in the OIA tournament. Coach Davis stated, “Being involved in a triple overtime game was my best memory because even though it was a loss, it was still exciting. But they also got an opportunity to play in the state tournament.” Their first game in the state tournament was against the number one seed in the tournament, Saint Francis which the Falcons lost to 50-33. The next game that they played in the state tournament was against St. Joseph which they won 50-48. The last game that they played in the state tournament was against Roosevelt and they won 47-31 at the Stan Sheriff Center. The Falcons placed 5th in the DII State tournament.

After the season was over Coach Davis said, “You can have too much talent and having 6 transfers is very difficult but the team was very resilient to overcome that new chemistry.” Jared Ki a sophomore center said, “ I learned sometimes it’s hard to win or lose a game with a team that works hard everyday.”

Good job to the Boys Varsity Basketball on a good season. Good luck next season!