Mililani Trojan Girls Outsized But Brimming With Talent
By Jack Danilewicz
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If the Mililani girls volleyball team is to be undone, it will come from without rather than from within, to hear first-year varsity head coach Val Crabbe tell it.
“I’ve always believed that rally scoring doesn’t reflect the level of talent of a team, but it reflects who makes the least amount of errors,” said Crabbe, the Trojans’junior varsity head coach as well as a varsity assistant for the past three seasons. “The goal is always to eliminate the errors that we make.We don’t want the other team making points off of our errors.”
As in past years, under Crabbe’s predecessors, Mililani chose the ultra-competitive route in its recently completed preseason, playing in a number of tournaments that enabled them to play Kahuku, Punahou, Moanalua and a handful of established programs from California.
“(It’s) all the people we want to be playing with at the end,“she said. “It gave us a good assessment of where we want to be. All of them were really big, so we’re outsized a lot.We average 5-3 or 5-4 compared to 5-9 and 5-10 like some of the people we’ve been playing.”
The Trojans, who opened their OIA Western Division season with a win over Leilehua on Aug. 26, play key matches this week at Campbell on Tuesday and at Radford on Thursday. Both begin at approximately 6 p.m. While each conference school will play every opponent twice, a quick start on the road would be a big boost for the Trojans.
Mililani is counting on a corps of six seniors - Candace Soares, Nalani I (pronounced “eye”), Mariah Choo, Tiare Barroga, Misha Vidad and Oli Freitas - to lead the way early on.
“Candace is a co-captain and great outside hitter,” Crabbe noted of Soares, who was named 2007 OIA West Player of the Year. “(Nalani) is making a comeback her senior year after tearing her ACL in the spring of 2006 playing club. (Choo) is a great server and communicator. (Barroga) is tough on defense on the back court. (Vidad) is tough on defense in the back court and a communicator. (Freitas) with her tall and skinny frame, will control the net.”
Juniors Janine Orosco, Nicole Namoca, Kelsie Cornelio, Pomai Grube-Hose, Jenna Wakatake and Dayna Meikle round out the team.
“Our big emphasis is there is no ‘I’ in team,“she said.“Individually, we have a lot of talent. The thing we need to work on is communication with one another.That’s been our downfall. We can lose a whole run of points because nobody talked. Communication is a key.”
Although the Trojans prepare specifically for each opponent, the emphasis is more on themselves than the opposition. “We’re a good team when everyone is clicking at the same time.A lot of times (in preseason), we’d have one doing well and another who wasn’t.”
Having been the JV coach the past three years, Crabbe has coached the majority of the players in the program before, contributing to a smooth transition into the head varsity job.
“I feel privileged to be coaching them,” she said.
Mililani will play Campbell again Sept. 18 at home as part of the OIA West’s second round. The Trojans’ second-round matchup with Pearl City is set for Sept.25 at home.
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