It’s A Whole New Ballgame For Mustang Basketball Team
By Jack Danilewicz
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Del.icio.usWhile February was a memorable month for Kalaheo’s boys basketball program,head coach Chico Furtado doesn’t underestimate the importance of December when it comes to team progress.
Their public unveiling is Dec. 10 when they meet Pearl City in the first round of the three-day Pete Smith Classic. Furtado took some time last week to talk with MidWeek on the eve of the 2009-10 season.
What’s the biggest challenge of coaching at Kalaheo today? The last couple of years we haven’t had the same kind of talent - as far as numbers go - and the level of commitment has been a challenge. In the early ‘90s, we had basketball guys, first and foremost, but the landscape has changed, and we’re getting more multi-sport athletes now. Basketball is something you have to be passionate about. Cheynne (Lishman, ‘07) as an example, was really into basketball, and he carried our team (leader-wise) for the most part.
Who on the Kalaheo team impressed you most coming out of summer? Kona Makaula. He was forced to develop in the summer with Aaron (Fernandez) not with us for summer league, and his confidence came back, shooting the ball. He loves basketball,and he gives us something extra.We’re looking at him to come in with more confidence this year and be a secondary scorer to Aaron.
What will be the focus of your early practices? Teaching - no doubt about it. With a bunch of returnees,you reload and they get most of the reps. This year we’ll have to slow it down,simplify and emphasize fundamentals, both offensively and defensively.
What looks like the strength of your team based on last year and the time you spent with the kids in the summer? The potential of our guard play is our strength. We have decent guard play with Aaron and Kona, so hopefully they can carry us. Both had a lot of minutes last year.
Who on the roster do you see surprising people in 2009-10? It’s a wait-and-see kind of thing.Aaron is a known commodity, so we’ll lean on him - especially as a scorer. Kona, hopefully, will be a surprise because of some of his struggles last year.
Defense has always been Kalaheo’s forte. How do you like your prospects for being a typical Kalaheo team on that end of the floor? We struggled in the summer defensively because of our inexperience. We’ve been a man-to-man team, and that takes a lot of communication and a five-people-against-the-ball mentality. A lot of the kids coming in haven’t played intense defense at the lower levels. Defense is an attitude. If you don’t want to grind it out, you’re going to have an issue.
Last year, you played a lot of games in a short period of time under the OIA’s new double-elimination post-season tournament format.What are your thoughts? My guess is the format is here to stay.As a coach,I don’t like it.You have too many games in too few days, and I think we put the kids at risk for injury. I think we played six games in eight days last year. The NBA does-n’t play six games in eight days.
If you could make one change in the state tournament, what would it be? The venues. I don’t like state tournament games being played at high school sites. They should all be held at either the Blaisdell (Arena) or Stan Sheriff Center, from the first round games to the championship game. We’ve gone away from that, and we need to bring it back to make these things special.
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