Trojan Defense Clicking In Water Polo
By Jack Danilewicz
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Del.icio.usMililani head coach Aaron Waldrip doesn’t mind that his water polo team’s best offense is its defense. He buys into the old adage that defense wins championships.
“Defense creates offense and all that other stuff,” said Waldrip, a former standout at Brigham Young-Hawaii and during his prep days in California. “It’s been our main focus since the beginning. We have a lot of size with four members of our starting team, real strong girls. When we run a solid defense, we’re hard to match.”
The Trojans also prove that there is, indeed, strength in numbers. Waldrip has a largely interchangeable team that has depth amongst its 22 players - one of the reasons they took a 4-1 record into last weekend’s OIA showdown with defending league champion Roosevelt. MHS has an open date Wednesday and will return to action Saturday against an opponent still-to-be-determined. Beginning with Saturday’s game, the Trojans have four regular games remaining before the league’s post-season tournament. The top six finishers at the OIA Tournament move on to the state water polo championships later this month MHS seeks a third straight state tournament shot.
“Having a a balanced team is really nice,” admitted Waldrip, who is in his second year as head coach. “They all are great kids, so it’s hard to single out any one player on the starting team. We haven’t had to lean too heavily on any one person. Everyone can pick up the slack and, typically, our defense has been strong.”
Statistics speak to the team’s balance as 12 different players have scored at least once. Senior two-meter defender and outside shooter Kanani Mazzone leads the way with 19 goals. She also has eight assists and eight steals to date.
“She’s a good all-around player - she’s probably our top player at any given position on the team,“he said.“As well as her versatility, she’s a hard worker. She shows up every day with 100 percent effort and with a 100 percent commitment. She goes hard every day, and that’s why she is as good as she is.”
Fellow senior Remi Kimura and juniors Alex Daley and Molly McGuire also are enjoying solid seasons and should figure big down the stretch.
“Alex is by far the fastest one on the team,” Waldrip said of Daley, who has a team-best 20 steals to go with 13 assists. “She’s an incredible defender - good at anticipating - and very, very smart.
“Remi is another solid defender, and she has a bunch of assists. She looks to create for the rest of the team. Molly is really tall with lots of muscle and talent. Next year, she will probably be one of the best hole-sets in the league.”
Mililani was re-focusing last week in the wake of its only loss to date - a 6-4 setback to Leilehua March 24.
“We lost the game because of our defense and because Leilehua did a great job,” said Waldrip, whose team had scored 64 goals, while yielding just 28 through its first five games. “We had a couple of errors that led to at least three of their goals. Defense is always the key. We also have to improve our shooting a bit.
“We made only four of 27 shots against them, and that is an abysmally low percentage,” he added. “We have to correct that. I think it will come down to defense. We should be able to shut people down.”
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