Posted on: Wednesday, November 13, 2002
NOTEBOOK
Taft volleyball honors memory of Waipahu's Siaosi
By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer
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The Hawai'i Homegrown Report appears every Wednesday. If you know of any Hawai'i athletes at Mainland colleges, give us their names, high schools, colleges and sports. We'll check them out. • e-mail: dennis@lava.net or sports@honoluluadvertiser.com • Dennis Anderson's fax: 808-236-4195 • phone: On O'ahu 236-3654 or toll-free off O'ahu (888) 236-3654 |
Taft College women's volleyball No. 12, once worn by Waipahu High graduate Joanne Siaosi, will be retired tonight in ceremonies at the community college gym in Taft, Calif.
Siaosi was killed in a car accident in a rainstorm on March 25, 1991, when she was driving from Taft to Los Angeles International Airport to fly home for Easter vacation.
Siaosi had come to Taft unheralded and overweight in 1990, coach Kanoe Bandy recalled yesterday. "She lost 25 pounds and worked her way into the starting lineup at setter. She made the most dramatic improvement."
Bandy, a Hawai'i native who has been Taft's coach since 1987, said that Siaosi's death made her realize, for the first time, "that I love my players. You get used to them coming and going and, until we lost Joanne, I didn't know how much they meant to me."
"Since then, I coach with an incredible passion that I have for the game and my players that I didn't have before. It changed me and made me a better coach, and now I tell them how I feel about them every chance I get."
FOOTBALL
• Menlo (Calif.) Miller needs 54 yards against Chapman in Menlo's final game this week to become the first player in Oaks' history as a four-year college to rush for 1,000 yards in a season.
He has 946 yards on 196 carries this season (4.8 average per carry, 105.1 yards per game) and career totals of 1,531 yards (a school record) on 331 carries for two years.
SWIMMING
• U. of San Diego Swart won all three events she entered in a dual meet against UCLA Saturday, breaking the school record for the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10 minutes, 13.69 seconds and taking another 45/100ths of a second off the 200 breaststroke record she set the week before with a time of 2:19.21. Both are personal bests.
Swart also won the 200 individual medley in 2:06.03.
SOFTBALL
• Ventura (Calif.) JC Savusa concentrated on basketball last season, playing a backup role on a state championship team, but said, "Softball is my first love."
After a successful fall season, including a three-run home run against Riverside, she decided to give up hoops. "It was tough telling the coach that I wasn't going to play, but I had to do what was best for me," Savusa said.
Savusa was first-team all-state and the Interscholastic League of Honolulu basketball scoring champion in 2000.
Both coaches lobbied Savusa to play their sport. Basketball coach Ned Mircetic said, "She could have a great year." Softball coach Susan Johnson said her sport "is the key to her future. I can send her anywhere."
BASEBALL
• Pacific (Ore.) MEN'S BASKETBALL
Kevin Calloway (Radford '01) is on the junior varsity roster after spending last year in the academy's prep school.
Junior Duane Miller (Wai'anae '99) broke his own school single-game record with 186 yards rushing as the Oaks upset Pacific Lutheran, 32-29, in overtime Saturday.
At this rate, freshman Ashley Swart (Kaiser '02) will hold every school record by midseason.
Softball has won the battle with basketball for the heart, mind and considerable talents of Jade Savusa (Mid-Pacific '00 of 'Ewa Beach).
Kyle Yanabu (Mid-Pacific '01), second-team all-state outfielder two seasons ago, has transferred from University of Washington, where he did not play, to Pacific University in Oregon, where nine players on the fall roster were from Hawai'i.
• Air Force Academy (Colo.)
