Posted on: Tuesday, May 14, 2002

HIGH SCHOOLS
Losing their marbles while winning titles

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

The six girls who have played together since the seventh grade are: (front row) Katie Flanagan and Robin Cornuelle; (back row) Daya Mau, Meagan Fawcett, coach Ken Smith, Anne Richardson and Kristin Simunovich. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

One marble at a time, Punahou's remarkable girls' water polo team worked to achieve its greatest season ever.

Each day after practice, the Punahou girls gathered on the pool deck around a bucket of marbles given to them by coach Ken Smith.

Smith wanted these girls, six of whom have been teammates for six years, to strive for more than merely winning the school's sixth straight Interscholastic League of Honolulu championship.

He said he wanted them to "become the best they are capable of becoming in three areas: mind, body and spirit."

Smith told the girls not to settle for being "successful," but to "focus on trying to be excellent in everything they do, in the pool and out of the pool, as athletes, as students, and in community service."

"It was a concept they embraced," he said.

Each day Smith picked several girls to hold that day's marble after practice and talk about whether they had made progress toward their goals. After they talked and passed the marble around the group, it was dropped into a second bucket.

The next day, another marble.

"Everyone took turns holding the marble and talking about that day's practice, what they liked or didn't like," said senior Anne Richardson. "Freshmen got to give their say, it helped bond our team. Those were really special times."

For community service, the girls served at the Salvation Army's annual Thanksgiving dinner at Blaisdell Center and made overnight kits with shampoo and toiletry items for women at a domestic violence shelter.

Their team grade-point average was 3.4 (a strong B-plus) and two earned nearly straight A's.

"We were all hard workers, but we didn't have our goals set," said Richardson, a two-time ILH Player of the Year. "The coaches put excellence out there as something for us to reach for. After that, we all gave 110 percent at every practice, trying to reach excellence."

Punahou dominated the ILH season, going 8-0 and usually winning by 10 goals or more. The scores against Iolani, the second-best team, were 17-3, 13-4 and 15-4.

Including a spring break trip to Oregon, Punahou went 16-2.

Smith said it is "definitely the most talented team we've had."

Seniors Richardson, goalkeeper Meagan Fawcett and Katie Flanagan, a member of a USA Water Polo youth team last year, have accepted invitations to play at UCLA, the 2001 NCAA champion and runner-up this year.

Daya Mau, who also started for Punahou's state runner-up volleyball team last fall, is headed to Arizona State; ILH swimming sprint champion Kristin Simunovich to Dartmouth and Robin Cornuelle to Middlebury in Vermont.

They are the six who have been in Smith's program since seventh grade.

"This team has been the center of my life for the last six years," Richardson said. "The whole process from seventh grade has been amazing, having teammates like I've had and having Ken bring you up and realizing how competitive it gets when you get to the academy (high school)."

Smith recounts: "I've looked forward to each and every practice. It's rare that this much talent, combined with outstanding work ethic and positive attitude, comes along. That's what makes them so special."

Now he will start rebuilding, one marble at a time.