Kamehiro Is OIA Player Of The Year

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One benefit of the Kalani High girls basketball team’s extraordinary season this spring is the individual accolades that come after the fact.

Like the Falcons, who repeated as Division II Oahu Interscholastic Association champions, junior Megan Kamehiro also turned in an individual repeat performance of her own. She was recently named the league’s Player of the Year and was the White confer-ence’s only repeat First Team selection from last season. All Stars are chosen by the league coaches.

Kamehiro led Kalani to a 12-1 regular-season mark, and the Falcons defeated Aiea 49-41 in the DII OIA title game. Late last month, she helped lead Kalani to the Hawaiian Airlines Division II state basketball championship, the first state title for the school since its bowling team did the honors in 1994.

She was named to the All Tournament team after averaging 13.2 points and 3.8 steals per game through Kalani’s three state tournament games. In the title game against Kamehameha-Hawaii, she went 8-for-8 from the free throw line.

Kamehiro also made a reputation for herself as one of the state’s top clutch performers, converting key free throws in the closing seconds to victories over both Kaimuki and Castle, the Falcons’ nearest challengers in the White conference this season. She tallied a team-high 18 points in the win over Kaimuki, which was then unbeaten.

Senior teammate Mana Camara was also named to the White’s First Team, while Kacie Gushiken was named to the Honorable Mention team from Kalani.

Kalani coach Darold Imanaka was named co-Coach of the Year in the White along with Aiea’s Mike Yen.

In Division I, Kaiser’s Sharde Pratt was the only repeat selection in the OIA’s Eastern Division. A three-sport standout at the Hawaii Kai school, she provided leadership for a Cougar team that graduated four starters from the 2005 season when Kaiser had finished as the OIA’s runner-up to Kahuku.

Pratt was also a member of the Hawaii Select traveling all-star team that won the Vision Sports National Basketball Tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada last July under Kalaheo coach Chico Furtado.

Five members of the Kaiser team - Keely Bitanga, Amber Nakachi, Chelsy Okuma, Renee Shitanishi and Aja Yamamoto - also received Honorable Mention honors.