Sabers Face Stiff Opposition After Move To Division II
By Jack Danilewicz
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Del.icio.usHis team may have moved down from Division I to Division II in the off-season, but when Campbell head girls basketball coach Nathan Macadangdang sizes up the Sabers’ schedule, he sees little relief in sight.
“When you look up and down our (DII) schedule, you have a lot of tough teams there,” he said.“We think we can be real competitive. We have decent size, and we have more athleticism than we’ve had in past years. Experience is what we lack.”
Teams moving down a Division have fared well traditionally in Hawaii prep sports and, not surprisingly, the Sabers have found themselves repeatedly mentioned as a pre-season favorite by opposing coaches within their new Oahu Interscholastic Association White Conference format.
“Being picked as one of the top teams puts us on notice,” Macadangdang said. “It’s a challenge to see if we can live up to those expectations. It means we’ll all have to work a little harder.”
Campbell opened its Oahu Interscholastic Association White Conference season in impressive fashion last Wednesday with a 40-36 win over Castle and had another key game set for last Friday against Kaiser, which also moved down to Division II. This week, the Sabers play Waialua at home Tuesday and at McKinley Friday in games that could help determine the outcome of the league race. (Both games begin around 6:30 p.m.)
Like the Sabers, McKinley is also considered among the favorites in the White, while Waialua boasts one of the top players in the league in forward Chelsey Ramirez.
“It should be a tough week for us,” Macadangdang said.“Waialua is a good shooting team, and they’re well-disciplined.”
For their part, the Sabers are relying on a core of talented underclassmen. Six-foot center Jenny Sweeney is the only returning starter and the only senior. She scored a team-high 12 points against Castle last week.
“She’s consistent,” Macadangdang said.“She does all the stuff you want down low. She’s still working through an injury, and that’s hampered her progress, but she had one of her better games against Castle.”
An up-and-coming supporting cast has revolved around junior Aloha Dias-Kekahuna and sophomores Oli Kila and Vai Confer to date. Confer missed both games last week with an injury, but Macadangdang expected her to receive medical clearance in time to return to the lineup this week.
“Having her out put us in a little bind, but we played through it,” he said. “She’s very versatile. She can play anywhere from the point (guard position) to the post.
“The upside with Oli is that she has great potential,” he added. “She doesn’t play like a sophomore. She’s very coachable, and she fits in great with our juniors and seniors. Aloha is deceptively quick, and she plays great defense. She can do anything you ask her to do.”
Campbell went 3-6 opposite a tough pre-season schedule that featured games with East powers Roosevelt, Kalaheo and Farrington. The Sabers, who finished 3-7 in Division I last spring, also traveled to Maui for a pre-season tournament and played in the Mililani Pre-Season Tournament.
“We like to play the teams from the East,” the coach said.“We take our lumps sometimes, but it gives us good experience. We really haven’t found our identity yet, although we had a decent pre-season.
“When we’ve controlled the ball and minimized our mistakes, we’ve been okay. The turnovers have really hurt us. We have to execute and have (some) ball control because we’re not good enough to recover from turning the ball over too much.”
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