Adaptable Pearl City Chargers Take On The Unexpected
By Jack Danilewicz
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS | Share
Del.icio.us
The 2006 Pearl City High School Boys Varsity, Girls
Varsity and JV Girls teams unite in a show of team
spirit. Photo from Dayne Teves.
Pearl City boys volleyball coach Bryson Martin has spent his share of time this season preparing his players for the unexpected. This week, he’s glad he did.
“I always tell the kids on the bench,‘your time is going to come - it just might not be now,’ ” he said.
The Chargers, who won 10 of their last 11 matches entering their regular-season finale last weekend, received a cold dose of reality recently when their stellar middle blocker Karlo Rarangol was lost for the rest of the season to a broken leg suffered in a non-volleyball-related incident. But to hear Martin tell it, Rarangol’s supporting cast still has plenty of firepower to compensate for his loss.
“This is the time to step up,” Martin said.“We’ve hit a bump in the road, but we have people coming in who are excited to play. A lot of the kids took it hard, but I told them to look at our team as a whole. We just have to get into the mind-set of working harder now.”
For their part, the Chargers passed their first test since Rarangol’s injury with flying colors in a 25-19, 25-16 win over Campbell last Tuesday. In the previous week, Pearl City had turned in perhaps its most complete performance of the year when it beat Leilehua 25-18, 25-13 on Oct. 12 before a statewide TV audience, avenging an earlier loss to the Mules in the process.
“We were feeling very good about ourselves,“Martin said. “We have to get back to that machinelike play.”
That contest with Leilehua had also seen Pearl City reap the benefits of some fine-tuning to its lineup as Zach Sharp had settled comfortably into the middle blocker spot, enabling senior outside hitter Donovan Nieves to excel at his more natural position of outside hitter.
“That opened everything up for us,” Martin said of the shift. “He (Sharp) had done an awesome job there when Karlo was away on a trip, so we kept him there when he got back. We may have to re-work our lineup.”
Pairings for the Oahu Interscholastic Association’s post-season tournament, which begins Thursday with first-round action, were to be announced over the weekend, pending last Saturday’s late results. The Chargers were hoping to secure the top seed from the Western Division, meaning they would only need to win one game in the OIA Tournament to receive a berth in the upcoming Nissan boys state volleyball championships (Nov. 8-11). Even without the services of Rarangol, based on its regular season, the Chargers figure to be one of the favorites.
The Chargers will rely on senior libero Michael Tanouye, Jonathan Fukui (“He can jump out of the gym”) and brothers Camren and Reid Nebrija.
“Those guys are stepping it up,” Martin said.
As the team prepares for the post-season, the focus is as much on mental preparation as X’s and O’s.
“Skill-wise, we can put out,” Martin said.“The key is our (level of) motivation and confidence. I’ve been seeing more of that fire that I’ve been looking for lately.We have to have the same energy at all times regardless of the score. We’ve had our up-and-down moments.”
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS
Most Recent Comment(s):
