Na Alii Bowling Team Takes First In State Championships

Wednesday - November 22, 2006
By Jack Danilewicz
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If any evidence was needed to drive home the notion that the Aiea girls bowling team’s visit to Kauai was strictly a business trip, it came in the form of their quick departure afterward for the Billy-Tees Hawaii State Bowling Championships last week.

“We got our trophy at 3:30 and left Kauai at 5,” laughed Na Ali’i coach Isaac Avilla, whose team won its second state title in three years on Nov. 10. “We’ll have a celebration this week.”

While Na Ali’i's memorable season ended as planned, there was no direct line to the title, according to Avilla. Aiea trailed Hawaii Baptist Academy by 83 pins after the first day of competition, and Avilla found a somber group when his team gathered for dinner at the local Taco Bell. A former football standout at McKinley during his own high school days, Avilla realized that pep talks can hardly be restricted to football and basketball, a sport he also coaches at Aiea.


“I told them we could go home now or we could wake up the following morning and rise to the occasion,” he said. “We hadn’t bowled up to our potential on Thursday, and the kids were down. I explained that, No. 1, we needed to change our attitude. We needed a more positive spirit, and we needed to bowl at a better tempo. We needed less thinking and more doing. I told them that although some of them had been with us when we won it before (in 2004), these types of opportunities don’t come around that often, and that you never know when you’re going to be this close again. They didn’t dwell (on Thursday); they persevered.”

While he didn’t impose a bed check for his team, Avilla did talk to them “about getting a good night’s rest.” “We’re up here for one purpose, and that’s to bowl. Kids can get distracted (easily) and we needed to focus. As of 10 o’clock, there were no more cell phones (in use).”

Aiea’s renewed focus paid dividends immediately. After the first game on Friday, Na Ali’i had overtaken HBA by 67 points and never looked back, recording a final tabulation of 7,444 to the Eagles’ 7,233. Pearl City finished third with a total of 7,187.


Na Ali’i boasted a pair of medalists in Lianne Deeter (seventh; 1,561 pins) and Holly Somera (1,497; 14th) while also receiving strong performances from Ashley Primacio (17th), Adrienne Pang (26th) and Darcy Oyama (37th). Shelsey Lonso also made the trip and served as an alternate.

Deeter, Somera and Primacio all figured prominently in Aiea’s 2004 state title.

Avilla credited Deeter with a steady performance that helped to pave the way for Na Ali’i in this year’s finals.

“She was a leader by example just by bowling good games,” Avilla said of Deeter. “She kind of kept us alive.”

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