Bulldogs Working Their Way Up To The Top In OIA Soccer
By Jack Danilewicz
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For all its individual playmakers, the Waialua boys soccer team traces its undefeated regular season to its workmanlike mind-set, to hear Bulldogs head coach John Rosa tell it.
“We all work as a team,” he said. “No one here would be where we are today if we hadn’t worked as a team. They’re always motivated. On the bus they’re always singing and cheering and having a fun time. But as a team, they have a different personality when they get on the field. They train hard, and now we’ll have to work twice as hard - especially on our ball skills and our conditioning.”
While Waialua’s regular season was one for the ages, there was little time for reflection last week as the larger goal is still ahead - a trip to the Division II State Soccer Championships. No Waialua boys soccer team has ever advanced to the state tournament before. The Bulldogs’ last outing was on Jan. 21, when they defeated Radford 9-2 in their White finale, giving them an eight-day break before this week’s OIA Tournament. As the league’s top seed, they have a first-round bye and will host either McKinley or Waianae in a second round game Thursday. Waialua must advance to the OIA title game to ensure one of the league’s two berths in the state tourney, which will run Feb. 11-14 at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park.
“It (regular season) hasn’t hit them yet,” Rosa said. “Right now, we’re just taking it one game at a time and not looking ahead, and we’ll go from there.”
In addition to their work ethic, the Bulldogs benefit from their balance, which was much on display at the Radford game, with five different players tallying. All told, Waialua has five players - Kamalei Rosa, Kainoa Rosa,A. J. Hernandez, Anthony Sato and Kahuku transfer Brandon Galapia - among the league’s scoring leaders. Connor Prindle, Kaleo Lopez, Johnny Tago and Xavier Aki round out a strong supporting cast. Rosa has coached a number of his players by way of North Shore Soccer for nearly 10 years.
“That’s a key for us,” he said. “Most have been with me since Day One. We’re a pretty well-rounded team, offensively and defensively. We had quite a few shutouts, so the defense has been pretty solid.”
Heading into this week’s tournament, they had yielded only four goals in 10 games, while scoring an OIA-best 48 goals, offensively, in that span.
“Our speed is a key,” Rosa said. “When you have speed, you can finish (scoring plays on offense), you can defend. We strive to have that - and good ball skills. With speed and good ball skills, you can do anything.”
Rosa gave his team last Thursday off, but it was “back to business on Friday,” he said.
“We’re in a good situation,” he added. “Our kids are healthy.”
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