Lady Knights Preparing For ‘Big D’
By Jack Danilewicz
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If Jeff McKeown has his way, his Castle girls basketball team won’t have to wait long to have the opportunity to acclimate themselves to Division I-caliber basketball.
The Knights meet Sacred Hearts at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the first round of the Mililani Pre-Season Tournament in a matchup tailor-made for his team, he said.
“The No. 1 goal of the preseason was to schedule teams that would pressure us the way teams in Division I are going to. That’s what the Mililani tournament is all about. Sacred Hearts presses, so we’ll get all that from them.”
The Knights will play a seven-game preseason schedule this season, with games vs. Nanakuli (Dec. 1 at home), at Kaiser (Dec. 20), and Kaimuki (Dec. 23 at home) also on the horizon in addition to the three games they are guaranteed of playing in Mililani. Castle, which is coming off an 8-8 season in 2007-08, has spent the last four years in Division II, but the return of a handful of veterans, especially in the post, should help ease the transition of moving up.
“These kids all have great attitudes, and I feel good about our size - especially since we’ll be moving to Division I,” said McKeown, who led Castle to the semifinals of the OIA’s DII Tournament last season.
“In past years, we haven’t always had teams that were physically ready to compete right away. Our strength this year will be with our forwards.”
Much of the optimism in the post revolves around Leisha Li’ili’i, a 5-foot-10 sophomore who earned Second Team All-League honors in a vote of OIA White Conference coaches at the completion of her freshman season.
“She was our best post player as a freshman, and she’ll be one of our scorers,” said McKeown, who is entering his 11th season as the Castle coach.“We’ll play her inside and outside. She has a real soft touch, so we can put her outside if we want to go big. She’ll also have to be an inside presence for us. She’s very strong defensively and in her rebounding.”
The Knights also bring an experienced back court with juniors Nicole Aberilla and Brandee Sasaki in the fold. Both are third-year varsity players and have seen a lot of minutes in their careers.
“Nicole was one of our starting forwards last year, and she was undersized there, so she’s moving to guard,” McKeown said of Aberilla. “She can play four positions, so she gives us a lot of flexibility. She has natural scoring ability, and she’s one of our smartest basketball players.
“Brandee is one of our hardest workers,” McKeown added of Sasaki.“She’s an excellent defender and one of our better shooters.”
McKeown is also looking for big seasons from seniors Kree Espinda and Ashley Ballesteros. Both were reserves whose roles figure to expand this year. “We’re looking for both of them to contribute in positive ways this season.”
Its five returnees aside, the team’s supporting cast will be young with five sophomores and a pair of freshmen rounding out the roster.
The Knights also play games on Friday and Saturday. Game times and matchups for those days will be determined by the results of Thursday’s first-round games. Castle opens its regular season Dec. 30 at Roosevelt.
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