Healthy Nakata Back On Kailua Team For State Playoffs
By Jack Danilewicz
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Del.icio.usKailua forward Tiffany Nakata has been through more than most her age over the past nine months. It’s perhaps a credit to her that no one would ever know it. A promising junior, she didn’t touch a soccer ball for six months while she recovered from surgery to reconstruct her injured ACL.
Two weeks after she was given the OK to play, in November, Nakata had progressed more than had been previously thought.
“To come back from an injury like that and become a force again in just six months is tremendous,” Kailua coach Wil Kimura said.“It’s frustrating to come back from an injury like that. She’s worked really hard.”
As the Surfriders prepare for this week’s Girls’ State Soccer Championships, Nakata is poised to again have an impact for her team. Her offensive output was critical during their regular season, when a rash of injuries decimated the lineup.
“She carried our offense during that time,” said Kimura, who is in his 17th season as Kailua’s head soccer coach.“Within a couple of weeks she was back in full force. Having lost most of her sophomore year, she changed her game. She plays an excellent game now, and she’s made a big difference for us.”
Pairings for the state tournament, which takes place Wednesday through Saturday at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park, were to be announced over the weekend. This week will mark Kailua’s 10th state tournament appearance under Kimura and its first in Division II. The Surfriders have been in the midst of an 11-day layoff between their win (3-0) over Waianae in the OIA DII title game Jan. 24 and their first-round game on Wednesday. In order to keep his team sharp, Kimura had set up a scrimmage over the weekend with neighboring Kalaheo.
“We were a little worried about losing our edge,” he explained.
Indeed, the girls have been largely flawless to date, rolling to an 8-0 record, so any stoppage would seem a threat to squash the momentum neatly built up over the past eight weeks. For their part, the Surfriders would seem ideally suited to the post-season, having yielded only two goals through their eight regular games. Offensively, they tallied 35 goals.
“You see a lot of one- and two-goal games in the state tournament, so defense makes a big difference,” said Kimura, who noted they have been practicing shoot-outs daily. “We have some good team speed, and we have a good goalie in Halissia Luhan-Hanawahine, who talks a lot to our defense. Most of our girls there (on the defensive side) are fast, and that helps. Waianae had two excellent forwards, and they did a good job on both.”
In addition to Nakata and Luhan-Hanawahine, the Surfriders also feature impact players in Taylor Mihara, Tiffany Pereza, Ashley Kanoho, Caitlin Hooker, and sisters Sierra and Cheyenne Kadooka.
Although the pairings hadn’t been announced as of late last week, Kimura and his team know they’ll be part of a first-rate field that also will include defending DII champion Kamehameha-Big Island, Pac Five and Kauai High School, among others.
“I don’t think any of our girls have been to the state tournament before, so they’re all excited,“he said. “I’ve told them that it’s a different story from the regular season. Everybody is pumped up at the state tournament and probably hitting their peak. Every game will be tough, especially defensively. It comes down to who takes advantage of opportunities, and it’s better to be lucky sometimes than good. If the ball bounces your way, it could mean the difference between winning and losing.”
The Surfriders’ highest finish at a state tournament came in 1995 when they made the semi-finals, losing 1-0 to eventual state champion Kamehameha.
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