Waialua Soccer Game A Defining Moment For Kailua
By Jack Danilewicz
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The Kailua boys soccer team heard coach Steve Dignam talk about playing great defense all season, and in the OIA post-season tournament, the Surfriders lived that mindset.
“The light bulb went on for them,” said Dignam, who recently led Kailua to its first-ever league title in boys soccer. “Against Waialua (in the semifinals), we probably had our best defensive effort of the season. We’d preached the importance of playing defense. We score a lot of goals, but we give up a lot of goals also.”
Defense plainly carried the team in its run to the title.They beat Waipahu 4-2 in the first-round game before their epic battle with Waialua,which had defeated Kailua for the league championship in 2009. The game went to a shootout before the Surfriders prevailed, 1-0. In the title game, Kailua shut out McKinley 2-0.
But Dignam kept coming back to the Waialua game in recapping the season.First-year goalkeeper Alo Meagher was among boys playing at the top of their game that day.
“He’d never played soccer before in his life, but he worked hard all season with my assistant (coach Kevin Hausch) as far as learning the angles and technique,“Dignam said. “He was fantastic in that (Waialua) shootout. He actually stopped two shots.”
On a team of individual standouts, Dignam wouldn’t underestimate his players’ ability to accept the “team concept.“A longtime employee of KHS, 2009-10 is his first year as head coach. He came from Iolani where he’d been an assistant to his daughter, Lauren, at the intermediate level.
“We’ve preached the one team philosophy here - I absorbed that from my daughter - and all the kids have stepped up,” said Dignam, whose players were to take part in the state soccer championships last week. “Our juniors and seniors are closer than the underclassmen.But on the practice field, they’re really together.Everything that we’ve preached came about in the Waialua game. It was a turning point. The light sort of went on as far as ‘this guy knows what he’s talking about,’” he added with a laugh.
Kailua entered last week’s state tourney with a 9-3 record and managed to stay the course after losing Brandon Taoy, goal-scorer extraordinaire, to injury for the last few games of the season.
“We missed him when he went down, and we actually moved from our 4-4-2 (alignment) to a 3-4-3 with him out,” he said. “He’s good in one-on-one situations and in creating opportunities, but we were still able to score goals.”
Another shift in the playoffs saw Dignam move standout Cheyne Tribbey from midfield to sweeper and senior Trey Tam from sweeper to stopper.
“That strengthened our back line tremendously and was good for us,” he said.
He also praised the play of Patrick Wolfe, the team’s second leading scorer behind Taoy. “He stepped up when Brandon was injured and became a team leader.”
Mark Maeda anchored the defense, meanwhile. “He’s one of our captains,and he did a fantastic job in back all season. He’s done a great job.”
In taking over a team that had made the OIA DII title game a year earlier, developing cohesiveness was a Dignam’s priority when Kailua began practice in November.
“I thought there was some talent there; we wanted to see how we would jell. They’re a determined bunch. They’re also hard-headed at times, but they want to win.
“We always talk about playing fair and hard. There is some monkey business that sometimes comes into high school soccer - like dirty play - and we told them when that happens to be above it and just play Kailua soccer.It’s been a pleasure to coach them.”
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