Hurricanes Bring Speed, Youth To The Hardwood This Year
By Jack Danilewicz
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Del.icio.us“Playing fast” is a phrase normally associated with football’s spread offense, but if Kapolei’s head boys basketball coach Gary Ellison has his way, the Hurricanes will play at a pace all their own this winter on the hardwood.
“Our strength is our speed - we have a lot of speed,” said Ellison.“We’re going to turn them loose and let them run. We’re going back to being an up-tempo team like a couple of years ago. There’s too much speed to play slow.”
The Hurricanes also are youthful this year, but Ellison has grown used to that. “We’re young again for the third year in a row,” he admitted,“but we have some good talent.”
The first bye on the team’s OIA Red West schedule came on opening night, giving the Hurricanes a couple of extra days to prepare in comparison to their league foes. Ellison’s team will open play at 7 p.m. Thursday at Pearl City, which was promoted to Division I after a solid season under Lionel Villarmia. With that in mind, Ellison is expecting a competitive matchup.
“They’re small like us, but they’re extremely well-coached,” he said. “Their guards are really quick. For us to be able to compete, we have to play our game and control the front court with our post players.”
The Hurricanes are not without veteran leadership, however, as both Jared Milare and Wes Mataafa return after productive seasons last year. “Our success will depend a lot on those two,” Ellison said.“This team feeds off of Jared, and if Wes can play solid every night, we’ll be that much better.”
Mataafa, now a junior, will play the power forward spot this year.“He’s going to be a really good player this year - he actually grew a couple of inches, so he’s up to 6-foot-3 now.”
The Hurricanes also return senior lettermen in small forward Devyn Knight and post player Kapua Awong. “Devyn has really, really improved. He worked his way into the starting lineup last year, and he has a lot more confidence on the court now. He’s a hard worker who has come a long way.
“Strength alone will get Kapua through,” he added. “He’s more stout now, and he’s developed a mid-range jump shot.”
Ellison also is excited about sophomores Curtis Tavares, Ka’eo Soares, Joshua Wills and Zachery Reeves, who transferred from California in the off-season. All four should play significant roles.
“Right now it’s a matter of getting guys to play together and to understand each other,” Ellison explained. “We also need to block out better (on the defensive end) - we harp on it every day in practice - and limit the other team’s second chances.”
On the heels of Thursday’s game at Pearl City, the Hurricanes will play three of their next four games at home versus Campbell Dec. 11, Mililani Dec. 13 and Radford Dec. 22. A road date with Leilehua Dec.15 is included in that stretch.
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