‘Raw’ But Skilled Charger VB Team Works On Rebuilding

Inexperience will be the first opponent for the Pearl City girls volleyball team this fall, as it’s in “rebuild” mode, according to head coach Bryan Camello.

As far as skills go, however, the girls have the look of the prototypical Charger team.

“Our freshmen and sophomores are pretty athletic,” said Camello. “They’re just raw and are probably a year or two away (from All-Conference caliber). We’ll have some size and athleticism.”

In his second year at the helm for Pearl City, following a highly successful stint at Roosevelt, Camello led the Chargers to a 5-6 record in his first season. They returned to the practice floor last month to prepare for the season. Fall camp for OIA teams officially begins the first week of August. But summer workouts are even more critical for a young team like Pearl City.

“We know them a lot better now, and they know us a lot better,” said Camello. “There’s a lot more teaching and a lot more learning now on their part. It’s a little slower in the beginning because we are putting in what we want. It’s a process.

“We’ll be counting on underclassmen to step up and fill important roles. We want to be more creative on offense this year and be more scrappy, defensively, and a team that does all of the dirty work. There’s a lot of potential here, and as a staff, we’re really pleased with the progress they’ve made.”

While he will have a young team overall, a trio of veterans in libero McKayla Apo, Tiffany Okinaga and Lexxie Enos are expected to provide leadership.

“We’re looking for McKayla to shore up our back row,” he said. “Tiffany may be one of our most dependable hitters. We’re looking for Lexxie to run our offense.”

Okinaga spent time as a libero last fall before transitioning to an outside hitter position recently.

Pearl City’s public unveiling will take place in the Kamehameha Invitational in early August, where it could play six or seven matches against top-rate competition. The OIA season begins at the end of August.

“We’ll be able to see what we have and go back to work at practice on what we need to work on,” Camello said of the August tournament.

“We’ll have a chance to see what’s broken first. We want to be clicking by mid-season to peak in time for the (OIA) playoffs and the state tournament.”

Email Jack Danilewicz at jackster.1969@yahoo.com