Hawaii-Select Ready To Play Through For Summer Trip

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Iolani’s Jamie Smith shoots for the
hoop. Smith is on Chico Furtado’s
Hawaii-Select All-Star Girls
Basketball Team, which is aiming
for the national summer
tournament in Las Vegas. Photo
by Byron Lee, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Trips to Las Vegas have been a cause for celebration for Chico Furtado and his Hawaii-Select all-star girls basketball teams in recent years.

In 2004 and 2005 Furtado and Co. captured the Vision Sports National Tournament before finishing as runner-up in 2006. Should this year’s edition be in the mix for the 2007 Vision Sports (the July 22-26 “The Main Event”) championship next month, the veteran coach will likely look back on a competitive schedule as a contributing factor.

This week the public can catch its first glimpse of Hawaii-Select, when they take part in the Kalaheo Girls Summer League. They were to play Iolani II Tuesday and Radford on Thursday. Both games begin at 4 p.m. in Kalaheo gym. Hawaii-Select will tune up for the nationals with games against Iolani II, Kamehameha, Radford, Pearl City, Kalaheo and Kahuku, among others.

Hawaii-Select returns five key players from last year in Jamie Smith (Iolani/Kailua), Diana Zane (Roosevelt), Britni Ronolo (Moanalua), Pualei Furtado (Kamehameha/Kahaluu) and Kyllie Sato (McKinley).

Smith was one of the ILH’s top performers this spring, leading Iolani to a league title and a state tournament berth.Furtado and Sato are entering their third summer with Hawaii-Select. Lindsey Wong (Kamehameha), Kylle Roy (Kamehameha), Rhani Kaneaiakala

(Kamehameha), Natasha Helsham (Aiea), Kanisha Bello (Kamehameha-Hawaii), Ta Nitra Byrd (Radford) and Chanel Hirata (Iolani) complete the roster.

“We have good balance,“Furtado said.“Diana and Lindsey will be our two point guards, while Ta Nitra gives us some size inside, and Rhani is a pretty tough kid. Chanel and Pualei were two of the better 3-point shooters in the ILH this (spring) season, and both Natasha and Kanisha are very athletic.

“We have some size and some quickness, but this team is relatively young, so we’ll lean on Jamie as much as we can.We’re trying to use her more at the three-spot (position) because that’s where colleges would like her to play. Offensively, we run the flex(-motion offense) so she’ll get her opportunities.”

While Hawaii-Select’s won-lost record has been impressive through the years, Furtado sees the trip as a social outlet as well.

“One of the things we stress is the opportunity to make friends.It gives them a chance to meet kids they normally wouldn’t be able to meet because they play for a different (school) team.Teams that mesh personally and socially have a better opportunity to mesh on the basketball floor.”

As in past years,Furtado has relied on former college players to scrimmage against Hawaii-Select to better prepare them for the nationals. Former UH standouts Nani Cockett and Michele Gabriel are among the players who have returned to help. Both will also serve as assistant coaches for Hawaii-Select in addition to Dave Furtado.

“Those scrimmages are invaluable for the girls to have a chance to play against that kind of size and quickness,” the coach said. “Our practices and scrimmages have been very good so far.”