Kailua Softball Team’s Got Talent - And Plenty Of It
By Jack Danilewicz
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Quality has always been emphasized over quantity when Kailua softball coach Bernard Victor assembles a pitching staff. This season, they have both.
“We have four pitchers who are all reliable,“said Victor, whose team opens March 11 at home against Moanalua. “That’s a good thing. When you have more than one, you can make a change. If one goes down, we can put in the next one. I can’t remember ever having this many.”
Even so, they’ve had a limited lineup lately with seven projected players rejoining Victor and Co. Monday, since they were on the basketball team through last weekend’s state tournament.
While that gives Kailua a late start compared to some other OIA members, the benefit has been a chance for Victor’s underclassmen to add to their playing time. Kailua competed in the prestigious Mililani preseason tourney two weeks ago where they saw some of the state’s top teams.
“Right now, we’re playing with a lot of young ones, and it’s been good to see them improving. That was the nice thing about the Mililani tournament. We kind of grew up. Some of the girls haven’t played varsity softball before, and the ball comes in a lot faster. I think we were intimidated a little when we played Campbell in our first game, but we got a lot better with our bats. We became more aggressive, and the girls came away with a lot more confidence. I told them that we have to improve each day and not go backward.”
They are coming off a 12-5 season that included an appearance in the state tournament. Kailua has won six OIA titles under Victor as well as state championships in 1995, ‘96, ‘97 and 2003. Whether or not they’ll be in contention again may depend on their keeping the score down.“If you have good pitching,” he said,“you’ll be in the game That’s 90 percent of the game right there.”
Leading the way is senior Krista Dumandan, who split time on the mound last year with the since-departed Ashley Hopfe. Dumandan is a four-year player in the program, although she wasn’t used as a pitcher her freshman year.
“She’s a hard worker in and out of school,” Victor said of Dumandan, who carries a 4.0 grade-point average. “She has a small frame, but she throws everything real well. She has a lot of movement on her ball.”
Victor also expects big things from sophomores Jaelleen Johnson and Shelby Lolo as well as freshman Johnna-Ann Pedro. All figure to see action on the mound.
“Jaelleen is learning how to hit her spots - she had about seven strikeouts in her last outing (against Sacred Hearts),” he said.“We’ll use her a lot. Shelby has good speed, too, and she’s quick. She’s a strong girl. Johnna-Ann pitches really well for a freshman, and she can play every position. At Mililani, she played shortstop, third(base), catcher and pitcher, and she can handle them all. She was really impressive.”
Should Kailua’s defense and pitching perform as in past years, the fate of the season could hinge on their offensive output.
“We’ve been working a lot on our batting. Defensively, we’ll be all right, so we’ll need to score some runs.”
Kailua’s schedule figures to be among the toughest in the OIA East Red. Following their opener against Moanalua and its pitching ace, Sarah Robinson, they play Kalaheo March 14 and Castle March 18.
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