Castle Girls Soccer Team Eyes The OIA East Red Title
By Jack Danilewicz
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Del.icio.usOne in a series of prep soccer previews.
Style points are nice, but they don’t necessarily win championships. With that in mind, Castle girls soccer coach Mark Kane likes the workmanlike mentality of his 2007-08 team.
“We won’t have any high-profile players, but, overall, on balance, we’ll have a stronger team,” said Kane, whose Knights opened pre-season camp Oct. 22. “We have a returning player at every position except for at keeper, and that’s a big plus for us. They all know the system, they all know each other and they’re all good workers. They just have to put all things together.”
The Knights are hoping to be in the mix in the Oahu Interscholastic Association East Red title hunt this season after a 3-6-3 finish last year and will play a competitive pre-season schedule to get ready. This week, they play games at home against Pac Five at 6 p.m. Wednesday and Iolani at 9 a.m. Saturday.
Those encounters figure to help the team work at revamping a defense that lost all but one starter from last year as well as standout goalkeeper Sarah Phromisiri, who yielded just nine goals last season. Only Red East Champion Kalani gave up fewer goals (six).
“It is a hard position to fill, but we’re trying to develop a few girls,” said Kane on the loss of Phromisiri to graduation.
Sophomore Karly Takushi will be in net for the Knights against both Pac Five and Iolani. “It will be the first time she’ll be playing goalie on a regular basis,“Kane said, “but she has good hands and she’s quick. She’s also a pretty decent field player as most goalies are.”
The return of senior sweeper Johnelle Franks is big for the Knights, who will look to her as a coach on the field, according to Kane.“She’ll be running the back,” he said of Franks, the lone returnee to the defense. “It’s a big job (we have) of rebuilding the defense, and she’ll be real helpful.”
They’re also counting on a solid season from Briana Wong, Shelby Furtado, Aili MacDonald and Tiffany Kishida.
Wong missed most of her junior year last time with a torn ACL and hasn’t practiced yet, but she’s expected to return to action soon - a big boost for a team that struggled to score goals last year.
“She’s very fast with a high skill level,” Kane said.
Kishida “had a real good showing in the summer,“he added.“She looks like she has all of the tools - she’s our best distributor in the middle of the field.”
MacDonald was to compete in the state cross country championships over the weekend and will likely join the soccer team this week. “She has a strong leg and very good endurance,” Kane said.
Despite a seasoned group of returnees, depth will be a concern. The last two years Castle has been without a JV team because of low numbers, but the school will field one this season. The varsity roster numbers just 18 for the present.
“It will be good to have a JV team in place (again) as a feeder for our varsity program. Most of our (varsity) girls will be playing the whole game, so we definitely have a depth problem.
“Defense will be a big question mark early in the season. If we can pick up our game there quickly, we’ll be fine.”
Castle opens the season Nov. 24 against Moanalua at home.
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