St. Francis Troubadours are true troopers

By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer

An afternoon rain shower, common in Manoa Valley, left the St. Francis School volleyball team's practice facility surrounded with small puddles on Friday.

If St. Francis repeats its phenomenal success of 2000, a lot will depend on the play of senior Liz Narkon, the Troubadours' 6-foot all-state middle blocker/outside hitter. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

"The dome leaks," Maskell said, referring to the tentlike structure that covers a modest asphalt court.

Because of this, the team actually has four regular practice sites: On Mondays and Tuesdays, it's the First Chinese Church of Christ gym across from McKinley High School; on Wednesdays, it's the Central YMCA; on Thursdays and Saturdays, it's Holy Nativity Church in 'Aina Haina, and on Fridays, it's the leaky campus dome.

"We had to hustle up to get those sites reserved," Maskell said. "We don't have the facilities that the big schools have, but the girls are real good about it."

The nomadic Troubadours were good enough last year to end up playing on Hawai'i's premier court, at 10,225-seat Stan Sheriff Center. Once there, only a defeat to perennial power Punahou prevented St. Francis from winning its first-ever state championship in any sport.

Three starters from that team are back, led by all-state middle blocker/outside hitter Liz Narkon. If the Troubadours are going to make a similar run through the ILH schedule and state tournament this fall, Narkon will be a central figure, just as she has for the past three years.

"She's strong, she hits the ball very hard," Maskell said. "She also has great court vision, and she's surprisingly quick. But the best thing about her is, she listens. She's a 4.0 (GPA) student, she has a good attitude and she's a leader. Her work ethic is second to none."

Narkon, a 6-foot senior, grew up as a soccer player and never played volleyball until "they dragged me out for it" in the seventh grade. She has become proficient enough to attract scholarship offers from colleges such as Fresno State, UNLV, Northern Arizona, St. Mary's (Calif.) and Sacramento State.

"I'm taking four recruiting trips," Narkon said. "I'll go on those and then decide."

In the meantime, she is focused on helping St. Francis return to the state tournament. Setter Jonni Brown and outside hitter Jenae Barona join Narkon as returning starters, but the Troubadours must absorb the graduation of 10 seniors.

"We have a lot of young players, half the team is sophomores," Maskell said. "But we have a lot of potential."

Narkon agreed.

"One good thing about us," she said, "is we work hard."

Narkon sets the tone, spending an extra half hour or 45 minutes with teammates after every practice working on her game or lifting weights. She has drawn inspiration from her brother Mark, an Eastern Oregon football player and former standout lineman at St. Louis.

"A lot of coaches said he was too small, that you gotta be big to play offensive line," Narkon said. "But he never gave up, and he would always lift after practice. Sometimes, we couldn't get him to come home. And look — he made all-state."

That type of success story is similar to the one St. Francis wrote last year. The school has 426 students in grades 6-12, about one-fourth the amount at Punahou and Kamehameha. Yet the Troubadours shocked fans by winning the ILH first-round championship, then knocked off Moanalua, St. Joseph, Kaua'i and Hilo in the state tournament before falling to the Buffanblu.

Punahou's title was its fourth; St. Francis was making its first state appearance.

"It was a good experience, everybody was rooting for us," Narkon said. "I guess it was a big thing, but I didn't think about it too much. We had a lot of confidence. From the beginning of the season, our goal was to go to states, and we used each game to better ourselves. We jelled as a team.

"Our goal this year is to go down that road again."

Maskell said last year's dream season was more than a good experience for his players.

"It raised the morale of the school," he said. "We had a lot of incoming freshmen who wanted to play volleyball and basketball, and we had 60 girls try out for varsity and JV, and 45 for intermediate — more than we've ever had."

Last year's success means the Troubadours probably will no longer be taken lightly or overlooked by opponents. But the disadvantages — and the rain — will not go away soon.

"Small schools like us are always going to be the underdog," Maskell said.

That doesn't bother Narkon.

"We would like to have our own gym, but that's fine," she said. "We just make the best out of it."

DINKS: The ILH boys volleyball season begins Saturday with six matches. The ILH girls season begins on Sept. 7, with St. Francis facing Iolani in an early showdown. . . . The O'ahu Interscholastic Association begins play with Western Division matches on Sept. 13 and Eastern Division matches on Sept. 15.