Transfers Nutter, Marsom Bulk Up Bulldog Hoops Team
By Jack Danilewicz
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS | Share
Del.icio.us
|
With veterans Ryan Kakitani, David Taulung and Desmond Tautofi back in the fold, Kaimuki High School has been talked of as a favorite in the OIA for 2009 since the moment last basketball season ended.
Just to show that the rich do, indeed, get richer - at least in athletic circles - Bulldog coach Kelly Grant revealed last week that transfers Jason Nutter (Roosevelt) and Trendt Marsom (Mililani) also have joined the Kaimuki varsity program.
The Bulldogs are in the final weeks of conditioning in preparation for their first practice Dec. 1, which will officially kick off the season. Only five days later - on Dec. 6 - they open pre-season play with a game at Pearl City.
“Jason played with a lot of our kids on a traveling team with the Boys & Girls Club, so he’s familiar with them,” Grant said. “It’s not a major adjustment for him. Trendt’s a terror. I remember him from when he was in eighth grade. He’ll definitely be an asset.”
Kaimuki is coming off a 4-6 season in 2008 after having delivered the school’s first state title in 11 years in March of 2007. The team also won back-to-back OIA titles in 2006 and 2007, so it has plenty of tradition to call on.
Grant liked commitment from his team in the off-season. “We have 14 or 15 kids who are basketball-first,” he said. “They can get burned out, so I left weight training optional this year, and most of them came anyway.”
In Kakitani, Taulung and Tautofi, Grant already had a solid nucleus back before Nutter and Marsom transferred. Kakitani and Taulung both were enjoying stellar seasons last year when injuries caught up with them at post-season time.
“Ryan’s our most dependable kid,” Grant said. “He was tearing it up, so it was a major setback for our team when he got hurt. He scored 30, 24 and 22 points in his last three games before getting hurt. He’s an outstanding outside shooter, a good ball-handler, an excellent defender, and his decision-making is second to none.
“David sparks the team with his play-making abilities. He’s also a good ball-handler and usually an excellent decision-maker.” Tautofi is a 6-2 post player and one of the team’s top athletes, having been a key component of the Bulldog football team this fall.
“He brings a presence - he’s our mainstay in the middle,” Grant said of Tautofi. “Being a lefty can only benefit us. When we won the state, we had four lefties and, to me, it causes havoc. They’re hard to defend. He has the arms of a guy who is 6-10, and he has excellent hands and strong moves to the basket.”
Grant will spend the upcoming weeks fine-tuning his approach as he prepares for the new season. Kaimuki will play 13 preseason games, highlighted by a first-round game against Tutman City, Okla., at the Iolani Classic next month.
“We’re extremely guard-oriented, so we might run and play up tempo and some full-court, man-to-man. The transfers change the dynamics of the team. I’ll be meeting with the coaches to ponder the situation. I like that we have a lot of different options.
“This is a close-knit group. They hang around outside of school, and they know how to play with each other, so, hopefully this pays off.”
Under the OIA’s new guidelines, the prep basketball preseason now will last a mere month instead of the six weeks it covered in the past, but you won’t hear any complaints from Grant - at least not this year.
“To me, it helps,” he said. “We have a veteran team, and the kids already know my system, so it won’t take us too long to get into things.”
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS
Most Recent Comment(s):
