Versatility Is Secret Weapon For Na Ali‘i Volleyball Team
By Jack Danilewicz
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Del.icio.usThe Division II Oahu Interscholastic Association’s boys volleyball regular season may be well past the midway point, but the Aiea boys team still remains a bit of a “mystery team” in the league.
That is all by design, of course. “We play every game different - we try to train our boys to be able to play every position,” says Na Ali’i head coach Erin Okimoto Coker. “We haven’t started with the same lineup for any one game. That makes it harder for the other teams to scout us. They don’t know who’s hot and who’s not, nor do they know who’s playing and who’s not.”
Fresh faces largely make up the Aiea team this fall, having seen most of the members of its 2005 team complete their eligibility at the conclusion of last season. Na Ali’i are trying to regain their form of that year when they claimed the OIA West regular-season title (they finished second to Waipahu in the OIA’s post-season) en route to a third place finish in the Division II state volleyball tournament. Aiea took a 4-2 mark into the weekend, having lost their two games to Waialua and OIA-East member Kalani. Na Ali’i's wins have come against Farrington, Kaiser and Waipahu twice, a good start for a team that is still very much a work in progress, according to Coker.
“There have been lots of challenges, but they’re growing together,” Coker said. “As we go, they’re bonding and playing better and better together. When we lost our second game (of a 25-15, 21-25, 25-20 victory) to Farrington, I told them, ‘all I can ask of you is to play the best you can play. If you do that, you can’t do any more, and we can accept the result.’
“We brought back only two from last year, so it’s a whole new team,” she continued. “We’re very green. We go through our heartaches every game, but they’re hard-working boys. That’s their best quality as a team.”
Senior outside/middle hitter Tili Taitan has provided the bulk of the leadership for Na Ali’i to date.
“He’s one of our captains - he’s the ‘go-to’ person if we find ourselves in a pinch,” Coker said of Taitan. “He has a lot of power, and he settles us down when we get overexcited. He’s our strength, mentally and physically, on the court. And he can play all over. He can also play setter.”
Fellow hitter Keli’i Aleaga, a 6-foot-4-inch junior, has also had a productive season so far for Na Ali’i and should be in the running for all-conference honors by season’s end.
“We play him opposite Tili,” Coker said of Aleaga. “He has the strength and height to be a middle, but we like to put him outside sometimes. For a tall guy, he plays the back row pretty well. His strength is his height, and he’s been learning with every game that he plays.”
Derrick Rabino, a 6-foot senior, has also given Na Ali’i a boost since making the transition from outside hitter to defensive specialist three games into the regular season.
“He’s proved he can do it,” Coker said of the position switch.
As Na Ali’i prepares for this week’s home game against Waianae on Thursday (6 p.m.), the pursuit of cohesiveness continues for Coker’s team.
“Having a team click together is the hard part,” she said. “They all have different personalities, and to get them to think as one isn’t easy. They understand more and more each day, and that’s all you can ask for. Our passing sets up the whole thing, so it (the daily emphasis) is passing, passing and passing. We work a lot on that every practice. We’re still rising toward our peak.”
Coker’s approach of having each player learn all positions has its advantages, she said, especially in a sport that is growing in interest.
“Versatility is our strength,” Coker said. “More and more boys are playing club volleyball, too, so the competition is getting tougher.”
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