Trojan Hoops Coach Must Grow Along With Young Team
By Jack Danilewicz
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Ed Gonzales isn’t just preparing his players for the transition from junior varsity basketball to the varsity level. The first-year head varsity coach at Mililani is preparing himself as well.
“It’s also an adjustment for me,” said Gonzales, who has spent the last eight years with the Trojan JV team, five of them as head coach. “The speed and tempo of the game will be much quicker. We have to try to get the boys up to that speed.”
As prep basketball season gets into gear this week, the first official week schools can practice, the Trojans have one of the more interesting programs to track. Only last February, Mililani captured the OIA title under Hiram Akina, who has since departed for Kahuku to coach in the community in which he lives. Of the 13 members of last year’s varsity team, eight completed their eligibility and another two transferred out, leaving only three returnees with varsity experience when Gonzales’ team opened practice Monday.
“I’m excited - it will be a challenge to try and repeat. The boys are up to the task. It’s a matter of getting them to play at the same level as last year.”
Despite the wholesale changes in players and staff, this season hardly figures to be called transitory. Indeed, Gonzales has the advantage of having coached most of his team for better than a year already at the JV level, where Mililani went undefeated last winter en route to winning the league title.
“It’s a new year, and anybody can win it,” he said.“In our league, you have to bring your ‘A’ game every night. It’s a plus that a lot of the kids have played for me as sophomores. They know what I expect and the type of offense and defense we’ll run at the varsity.”
In the team’s three varsity returnees - Reid Pangelinan, Nick Demusis and Bo Keto - Gonzales figures to have a solid foundation to build from. Pangelinan is 6-foot-5, and Keto is 6-3, while Demusis should be one of the taller guards in the OIA at 6-2, having made the switch from forward to a back court spot.
With an eye to the future, Gonzales also sees the talent pool standing steady, the result of large turnouts at tryouts.“One of the advantages of coaching at Mililani is that we get the pick of the litter within our sports because we have lots of kids try out - versus coaching at a school in a smaller community,” said Gonzales, whose staff includes assistant coaches James Paynes and Tracy Lenchanko. “Over the last four years, we’ve had at least 50 kids trying out every year. That’s 35 kids who don’t make the team each year.”
Gonzales’ approach at the varsity level is much as it was as a JV coach, he said.“The philosophy we pushed with the JV is that you practice like you play, you always respect your opponent, defense is No. 1, and that you have to have fun out there.
“We also want them to learn faith in each other. There will always be times when things aren’t going well. Hopefully, you can have the faith to pull out a win.”
The Trojans are in the midst of preparing for next week’s Pete Smith Pre-Season Classic. The tournament, running Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, will take place at Kalaheo High School in Kailua. Mililani will also play a pair of preseason home games against Damien and Waialua Dec. 15 and 22, respectively. An appearance in the Merv Lopes Classic also is set for late December. The Trojans open OIA season Jan. 2 on the road versus Aiea.
Contact Jack Danilewicz at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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