Chargers Have Talent Despite Losing Experienced Players
By Jack Danilewicz
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Pearl City senior Keani Hueu prepares to throw to first base.
Photo by Byron Lee, staff photographer.
The by-product of winning a state championship is coming back the following season to find yourself the highlight on every team’s schedule.
“It’s a normal thing to have a bull’s-eye on your back,” Pearl City head softball coach Keoke Behic said. “If we take our lumps early, hopefully in the end we can bite everyone. We don’t have to be No. 1 overnight. We want to hit our potential at the end of the season.”
The bulk of Pearl City’s 2006 team may have moved on to college, but expectations will always be high for the Chargers, whose winning tradition is now firmly in place. Success, after all, breeds success. Early on, the Chargers must overcome their inexperience, having lost eight seniors as well as a pair of projected starters who have since transferred to other programs. But Pearl City’s level of talent is noteworthy once again, which has made for an enjoyable pre-season for Behic and his coaching staff.
“Last year, we didn’t have to teach much - (the bulk of) those girls had been with us for four years,” said Behic, whose team opens Oahu Interscholastic Association Western Division play at home against Campbell at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.
“We just had to motivate them to keep working hard and to work on our skills. Because this team is so green, we’ve really gone back to fundamentals, so the staff has had to work a little bit harder.When the kids come to the office every day with a good attitude, it helps.”
Behic will build his current team around junior pitcher/third baseman Lauren Fujisaki, senior pitch-er/third baseman Allycia Watanabe, and senior shortstop Kiana Mendiola.
“Lauren is probably our best player right now,“Behic said of Fujisaki, who will be Pearl City’s lead-off batter in the order.“She’s come a long way. She’s the proverbial leader by example. She’s one of the hardest workers I’ve been around. She brings a good attitude to practice every day, and its contagious.
“Allycia is a bulldog - she’s competitive,” he added. “She really wants to win. Kiana is probably our fastest player. She was a center-fielder last year, but she’s forced to play a little infield this year. If she has a good year, we’re going to be successful.”
With underclassmen filling out the Charger roster, the pitching of Fujisaki and Watanabe figures to be especially important for Behic’s team. While one is on the mound, the other will play at third base.
“Pitching(-wise), we’re OK, and that will be a big plus for us,“Behic said. “To have experience there is big. Everywhere else we’re young, but we’ll get a lot better. We have some really good freshmen that have come in. We’ll just have to work hard. Our strength is our perseverance. We’ve taken a few lumps in our pre-season games, but the girls have continued to work and have fun, and that’s the key to our growing as a team.”
Behic is hoping the difficult schedule Pearl City faced in its pre-season will pay dividends down the road. The Chargers competed in the Kalaheo and Mililani tournaments earlier this month where they faced some of the best teams in the state. In Campbell, the Chargers will face one of the toughest tasks yet, to hear Behic tell it.
“They’re probably slated to be (rated) No. 1 in the West,” he said of Campbell. “They have a really good team and one of the best coaching staffs in the state.That usually spells trouble for everyone else. There are a lot of good teams out there, but Campbell and Mililani would have to be the favorites.
“We’ll be in the middle of the mix.”
Following Wednesday’s game with Campbell at home, the Chargers play their first regular-season road game at 1 p.m. Saturday at Aiea.
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