Hilo Trip Is A Bonding Experience
By Jack Danilewicz
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Campbell’s Jayden Delizo takes the
ball past Kalaheo challenger Cody
von Appen. Photo by Byron Lee,
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For the Campbell boys basketball team, the road to the post season passes through the Big Island.
As veteran head coach Bobby Samson’s team prepared for a third straight appearance in the Division I State Basketball Tournament this week, Samson says their success is partly due to cohesiveness developed during their yearly trip to Hilo High School’s pre-season tournament.
“It’s such an important ingredient.We stay at Volcanoes National Park, which is 35 miles away. We choose that destination on purpose. There’s nothing to do there.It’s dark, cold and rainy, so they bond, and the experience they get is really remarkable.”
The players have fed off that momentum ever since. Campbell took a 10-4 record into last Friday’s OIA third-place game with Radford after finishing 8-3 in the West. Last week marked the third straight year that they made the OIA Final Four. (Campbell was league runner-up in 2005.) Only 16-time OIA champion Kalaheo matches that record.
“It’s made believers of the kids and reinforced (for the coaches) that what we’re doing is right,“Samson said. “They’ve bought in, and they’re asking more of themselves. The more times you go (to states), the more times your underclassmen get to go. They get used to it, and the program developed.
“I always felt that if we got this far, we’d have over-achieved. This was really supposed to be a rebuilding year.”
Indeed, the team had a very different look at its first practice in November, having lost five players to graduation or transfers. But returnees Michael McDonald, Mike Makinano and Jayden Delizo have come through, enabling Campbell to remain a factor in the OIA.
Makinano is one of the state’s most capable scorers. A junior, he had one of his best all-around games at the OIA playoff win over Moanalua, tallying 27 points to go with eight rebounds and six assists.
“He’s matured this season. He’s become very well-rounded. Mike (McDonald) often goes unnoticed, but his presence is important to us. He had a big game against Moanalua. Jayden has been stepping it up, too. He’s playing out of position, but he’s really trying hard, and as he goes, we go, too.”
“We’re getting more consistent,” Samson added, noting strong play in the post from Patrick Ward, Rashaad Battle, Terence Tafai and Walter Daniel.“The kids are playing more together, and we’ve been finding the right combinations. It helps that we’ve been finding the basket, too. We had a good shooting game against Moanalua.”
The state tourney runs Tuesday-Friday at Stan Sheriff Center, and pairings were due Sunday.
Campbell has lost only once this season (61-61 to Mililani in overtime Jan. 13) when scoring at least 50 points.
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