Chargers Rise To The Occasion Despite Rash Of Injuries
By Jack Danilewicz
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In the degree-of-difficulty category, the Pearl City girls soccer team has perhaps no peer this season. If anything, the Chargers, who took a 7-2-2 record into their OIA Red West regular-season finale versus Campbell last weekend, have spent more time monitoring injury reports of their own team than scouting reports on their opponents.
By the end of last weekend, five Chargers will have undergone season-ending knee surgeries.
“To be without six starters - four of whom missed the whole (regular) season - we’ve never had that happen before,” said Frank Baumholtz, who is co-head coach with Tracee Kono.“Every time a kid falls down, I’m thinking,‘Let’s hope she gets back up.’
“We haven’t done any conditioning in a month. They’re all having to play 80 minutes. There’s very little sub time. The kids know there’s no one to take their place, and they’ve been working their butts off and staying competitive.”
The silver lining amid this unforeseen adversity has been the team’s ability to close out games, often in dramatic fashion. They entered the weekend having gone 5-1-1 over their last seven encounters and had held the opposition without a goal in six of their first 10 games, despite their depleted roster.
The Chargers also limited the opposition to only one goal in three other games. Both losses came to Mililani, which had wrapped up the West crown with over a week to play in the regular season.
“Each game, someone plays their best game ever,” Baumholtz said.“Somebody always rises to the occasion. The most gratifying thing is how they’re hanging together.”
Baumholtz moved one player up from JV in recent weeks and expected to move one to three more this week as Pearl City prepares for OIA Tournament play. The Chargers entered the weekend a game behind Kapolei in the race for second in the West, which would assure them a first-round bye.
“It’s critical to get that bye,” he said.“That would give us a chance to watch our opponent the day before (Pearl City’s second-round game).”
Not to mention an extra day to solidify his team’s cohesiveness. As they enter post-season, Baumholtz talked of his team’s need “to play together. Most of our kids are good players. Like in most sports, if you play together even 50 percent of the time, you’ll win. Sometimes you wait all game to have a rush where you put five passes together.”
The Chargers’ revamped roster includes Angelica Carrillo, Nicole Kahunahana, Myra Yamamoto, Kelsie Ng, Makenzie Maurer, Tiffany Klein, Ashley Colis, Casey- Lynn Casuga, Alyssa Nagai, Dayna Domingo, Lyndsey Watanabe, Shannon Takai, Christina Saturnio, Kristen Nakasone, Kristy Iwahashi and Ashley Daida.
Tobi Kaneshiro, Bethany Gallarde, Lorial Rosado, Jillian Seminara and Ariel Colis will all miss the post-season with injuries. Among the position shifts prompted by the loss of five starters was Daida’s move from forward to defensive side.
“She’s done real well, there,” Baumholtz said.“She’s been playing the whole game.”
Pairings for the OIA Tournament were to be finalized over the weekend. The top five finishers in the OIA post-season earn the league’s berths to the State Soccer Championships, which will run Feb/ 4-7 at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park.
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