Aiea Has A Month For V-ball Play
By Jack Danilewicz
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Del.icio.usAs is the case outside of the volleyball arena,Aiea High’s Randolph Bautista lives a pretty mobile existence when on the court.
“We pretty much have him going all over the place,” Aiea head coach Erin Okamoto Coker said.“He’s our go-to person, a very coachable kid who can play any position,which is what we’d like him to do. He has a lot of other talents, too, so he’s not just a volleyball player.He was just in a play,he’s in band, and he was part of the Brown Bags to Stardom (competition).”
Bautista also will be in a leading role with Aiea’s volleyball team.
Besides his athleticism, Bautista is something of a rarity for Na Ali’i as one of the taller players in the OIA West Conference at 6-foot-1.
“He can play in the middle, and he can also set the ball,” added Okamoto Coker of Bautista, who enters his third season as a team captain. “We’ll play him at setter because it’s better for him. I don’t know if he’ll play in college, but he’s been accepted already to Arizona State.”
For their part, Na Ali’i are hoping for a season not unlike 2006 and 2007,years when Aiea made appearances in the state tournament. Last year, Aiea finished 3-9 in the OIA Red West. Much of that group has completed eligibility,leaving Na Ali’i “green.”
The good news is that a handful of underclassmen came in well-seasoned from Hawaii’s surging club scene. Among the projected impact players are sophomore Joshua Paulo and freshman Dylan Yukitomo. Both will be used as setters along with Bautista as Okamoto-Coker moves to a three-setter scheme.
“Those three we’ll count on to handle most of the balls,” she said. “It’s a big load on Randy. There’s a lot of pressure, but he’s been OK with it so far.
“Joshua and Dylan play year-round, so they bring a little more court sense (than the average newcomer). Joshua is in his second year with me,and he’s grown a bit.Dylan has played since he was a little kid, and he has a lot of court sense.”
Junior Lyle Sarmiento also returns to the lineup as defensive specialist and should play a key role for a team that will lack height at the net. “He’s played two years here, so he understands what I want from him on the court. He needs to be a little more defensive, but his hitting is coming around.”
Strong defensive play always has been trademark of Okamoto Coker’s teams at Aiea, as well as at her other coaching stops, which include McKinley, University High and Hawaii Baptist Academy. On that note, it all begins with passing, she said.
“We work three-fourths of our practice time on passing. We can’t do anything about our height, but we can do something about our hitting.”
Aiea, which opened its OIA season late last week with a match versus Leilehua, meets Campbell and Kapolei in successive games on Wednesday at Campbell. The Hurricanes are a bit of a mystery to Aiea, but the team did play Campbell during preseason, losing to them.
“They have a big squad and a lot of kids who seem to play year-round,“she said of Campbell.“Their whole team is very athletic. They’re short, but they can all jump.”
Na Ali’i's entire regular season will cover just under a month. The top six teams from both the OIA’s East and West Divisions make the league’s post-season tournament next month.
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