A New Lineup Has Chargers Looking To The Future
By Jack Danilewicz
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS | Share
Del.icio.us
|
In Hawaii prep softball, champions are crowned at the end of the season and not in the beginning, as Pearl City coach Keoke Behic knows first-hand,
“Our vision for this team is to be peaking when it counts - at playoff time,“said Behic, who led Pearl City to the state title in 2006.“We’ll be young - we have a lot of promising freshmen and sophomores who will be very significant for us. If we can continue to improve, we should have some exciting games and open up some eyes.”
To date, the most pleasant sight within the program has been that of infielder Sanoe Aina, who transferred back to Pearl City last fall from Word of Life where she’d spent her junior season. She played for the Chargers as a freshman and sophomore.With Aina in the fold, along with senior pitcher/infielder Lauren Fujisaki, Behic expects his team to have rock solid leadership.
“Having Sanoe back is huge for the team; she’s a coach on the field. She fills a large void for us, and she’s a leader. The girls respond to her - they know she was on our state championship team.
“Her competitiveness is her strength,” he added. “In a zero-to-zero game, you want her on your side because she’ll come up with the game-winning run and she’ll never let a ball past her (on defense).”
Aina is currently managing “a chronic shoulder injury,“according to Behic, but she figures to be in the lineup at 10 a.m. Saturday when the team hosts Castle in their preseason finale. Fujisaki enters the season as Pearl City’s No. 1 pitcher, meanwhile. One of its most versatile players, Behic is hopeful the Chargers can take advantage of her skills in the field by developing another ace on his roster, but she’s the likely starter for their March 11 OIA Red West season opener at home versus Kapolei.
“We’re definitely a better team when Lauren doesn’t pitch, because she’s an accountable defensive player,” Behic said of Fujisaki. “Since 2000, when I came to Pearl City, Lauren is the hardest-working athlete I’ve ever coached. She never takes a day off - she goes 100 percent at everything she does.You can’t teach that.”
Beyond the twosome, the Chargers will have a very different team on the field for the third season in a row. Last year, following the graduation of several key seniors from the 2006 state title team, Pearl City lost several other projected starters for various reasons.
“Our make-up is totally different from last year,“said Behic,whose team struggled to a 1-11 season last winter. “We have only two players back from last year’s roster.”
Indeed, 11 of the 16 current members are first- or second-year players (four freshmen, seven sophomores) with only five upper-classmen on the roster.
The notion of playing younger players became even more appealing for Behic and other coaches in the softball community this academic year,with the JV season moving to winter and the varsity moving from winter to spring. The new guidelines mean that players who have just finished their JV season in the winter months can now move right into varsity softball in the spring of the same year, giving them what amounts to an additional season by the time they complete their eligibility.
“We’re going to get better softball now. Players will be competing at a higher level, and I think you’ll see more parity in the East and the West with the JV and varsity playing in different seasons.”
For the present,holding the score down remains a priority.“The key will be how well we pitch. In high school, pitching is half of the battle. Offensively, we have the ability to execute well. We don’t have a ‘lights-out’ hitter or one with ‘lightening speed,’ but they do execute the small stuff,like laying down a bunt or executing a hit and run. I’m really pleased right now with our fundamentals, offensively. That will be huge for us.”
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS
Most Recent Comment(s):
