Posted on: Tuesday, December 17, 2002

OIA WEST BOYS
Pearl City dominates honors list

Advertiser Staff

Outside hitter Kalei Ka'ana'ana and coach Reid Shigemasa led Pearl City to a 9-1 regular-season record and share of the West championship. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Last season, the Pearl City High School boys volleyball team featured The Man Who Could Fly, Allison Dupont.

This season, Chargers senior Kalei Ka'ana'ana did not have Dupont's spectacular 43-inch vertical leap, but he did enough important things to match Dupont's feat of being named O'ahu Interscholastic Association Western Division Player of the Year.

Ka'ana'ana, a 6-foot outside hitter, was the steadying force who helped Pearl City to a 9-1 regular-season record and a share of the West championship.

"In the West, I thought he was the most consistent player throughout the year," Chargers coach Reid Shigemasa said. "He had good outside hitting and defense, his passing was awesome and he had a good jump serve that threw other teams off-balance. Other players might have been more spectacular, but if I had to choose our MVP, it would be him."

Ka'ana'ana is joined on the West first team by three teammates — senior outside hitter Kapena Wong, senior opposite Jonathan Charette and senior setter Christopher Kaneko. Others selected to the first team are Leilehua senior middle blocker/outside hitter Michael Newmeyer II, Mililani senior outside hitter/setter Ryan Gonzales, Campbell senior middle blocker Gary Ramirez and Leilehua backrow specialist Stephen Gascon.

Shigemasa, in his ninth and final season guiding Pearl City, was named Coach of the Year.