Facing Tourney w/ Injuries, Illness
By Jack Danilewicz
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Del.icio.usShould the Aiea girls soccer team end a three-year drought and make a much-anticipated trip to the 2009 state tournament, they will know they’ve taken the long, hard route. Indeed, with traditional powers Pearl City, Mililani and Kapolei among their first three opponents, Na Ali’i have definitely played one of the OIA Red West’s more demanding schedules.
Of more concern to Aiea head coach Wanette Shirafuji of late, however, has been her team’s injury report rather than the brutal schedule.
“The majority of the team has been facing injury or illness the past few weeks,“Shirafuji said.“It’s hard. If one gets sick, it slowly spreads.”
The girls took a 1-2 record into last weekend, having recorded a win over Waialua (3-0) to go with losses to Pearl City (2-0) and Kapolei (4-0). When healthy and at full strength, Aiea has a seasoned team with 15 of 19 players from last year. Ten of the 15 holdovers also are seniors.
“A lot of them know the game we play now,” said Shirafuji, a former player at Aiea as well as University of Hawaii, who is in her third year as head coach.“The girls get along really well, which adds to their strengths.”
To date, they’ve relied on their four captains - forward Jacquie Watkins, junior mid-fielder Marissa Fukuhara, senior defenders Brianna DeGuzman and Alyssa Ni’i. Watkins was selected as a First Team All-Star by the OIA Red West coaches last year, while Fukuhara earned Second Team honors. Aiea finished 6-6 in league play in 2007-08. “Jacquie is our goal-scorer,” Shirafuji said.“She’s our most experienced player. She always pushes hard and sets a good example for her teammates to follow. She plays with a lot of passion, and she’s very aggressive and doesn’t back down.
“Marissa is very consistent in the middle,” she added. “She’s one of our quarterbacks. She makes passes connect and communicates well with the girls. The biggest thing is that she is consistent. You can count on her to hold down the middle. Those two - Jacquie and Marissa - really hold us up on offense and defense.”
DeGuzman will help anchor the Aiea defense, meanwhile, along with junior Natalie Fukuhara, who is the twin sister of Marissa.
“Brianna is a solid stopper,” Shirafuji said.“Because she also has a strong leg, she gets some scoring opportunities, too.
“Natalie helps organize our defense in the back,” she added. “She’s constantly communicating with the girls. Although she’s a junior, she’s also one of our leaders.”
Among Na Ali’i's priorities lately has been tightening its defense, according to Shirafuji, whose assistant coaching staff includes former Aiea standouts Joelle Sugai, Ambree Ako and Michelle Toyama.
“Our offense is a little stronger right now,” she said.“Defensively, we’re trying to get there. Hopefully, we can get the whole team up to speed. We see spurts of us making things happen. We need to be more consistent with that.”
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