Enthusiastic Mustangs Ready To Kick Things Up Vs. Kailua
By Jack Danilewicz
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While Kalaheo’s preseason game at 1 p.m. Saturday at neighboring Kailua will no doubt be a welcome matchup for the community, bragging rights will take a backseat to staying the course and developing cohesiveness amongst his lineup, to hear Mustang coach John Nakagawa tell it.
As was the case last year, Kalaheo is in Division I and Kailua currently in Division II, so the schools won’t meet in an official game this season.
“I wouldn’t want to put too much emphasis on it - it’s only preseason - but both teams should enjoy this,” Nakagawa said.“Many of them are friends and were teammates together on other teams. We’re testing the waters right now in our preseason games and not paying too much attention to the results, building team chemistry and establishing the team mentality and philosophy - especially this year because we’ll be young. So we’re going back to fundamentals and fitness now.”
Kalaheo had a stellar season in 2008-09, winning the OIA East Division (with a 10-3-2 record) en route to its second state tournament appearance in four years. As in past seasons, Nakagawa enjoys the process of bringing a team along.
“The benefits come later on,” he said. “It always takes us into the (regular) season - at least a few games - before we notice that (team chemistry) happening.”
Ten of Kalaheo’s 21 players are underclassmen, so Nagakawa describes his team as “in transition.”. One thing for certain is its commitment to making teams go the long, hard route to score against it.
“There’s always a focus on that (defense). There will be games when you’re just not on, offensively. You can always put the kind of effort out to play nose-to-the-grindstone defense.”
On that note, Nakagawa has liked his team’s energy at practice.“Right from tryouts, what’s impressed us has been their enthusiasm and work rate,” he said.“They’ve showed up every day ready to go. We haven’t had to remind them about working hard.
“Enthusiasm comes from the fact that this is a young team. We have the core group of upperclassmen who are providing stability. We’re trying to meld that together with the underclassmen, and it’s been enjoyable so far.”
Kalaheo gave up a league-low 11 goals in 12 games last year and was fourth overall in the OIA behind Leilehua, Mililani and Aiea. It was tied with Moanalua for third in the East in scoring last year with 19 tallies in 12 contests. Nakagawa hopes his offense will come as the season goes. “As it progresses, the offense clicks. It takes time to develop consistency on offense. Consistency is the key word. You have to be consistently good.”
Kalaheo’s OIA Red East season begins Dec. 9 at Roosevelt, in a highly-anticipated meeting. The Rough Riders finished second to Kalaheo in the league last year at 7-2-3.
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