Waiakea dismisses team
By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Pearl City's Tracie Mura heads ball away from Mililani's Erin Tagami in the first half at Pearl City.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser |
Warriors coach Jay Bartholomew said last night his team will play tonight's Big Island Interscholastic Federation season opener against St. Joseph with eight players from the junior varsity. The JV now has seven players.
Bartholomew said he suspected alcohol use and confronted the players. After they confirmed his suspicion, Bartholomew said he reported the incident to the school administration, which then issued the dismissal earlier in the week.
Bartholomew said because there are varying degrees of the violations, parents are appealing the dismissals with the school. A meeting with principal Ron Furukawa is set for Wednesday. Bartholomew said the parents believe some sort of punishment is warranted, but do not think all of the players should be treated the same because of the degrees of their involvement.
"The problem we have is these are good kids," Bartholomew said. "This is the best group I've ever had. They made a mistake, and they owned up to it and took responsibility for it. There's a large variance as far as participation (of the violations) from top to bottom. The feeling of the parents is not to punish everybody equally."
Bartholomew added if the appeals fail with the school administration, appeals can be filed with the district superintendent.
Bartholomew said the incident was private. He said nobody was injured or arrested and that there was no public nuisance.
"It was just a suspicion on my part," Bartholomew said. "I could've easily swept this under the rug, but I chose to do the right thing. The players chose to do the right thing by being responsible and honest. They deserve that respect."
He said the players knew by admitting their guilt there was going to be some form of punishment for violating rules in athletic department handbooks issued to athletes. But he admits the players did not think the punishment would be this severe.
The players also have been suspended from school for three days, and are not allowed to participate in school activities for 60 days, Bartholomew said.
The eight players from the JV are six sophomores and two freshmen, Bartholomew said. Asked if he could supplement the team with players who were cut earlier, he said it would be too hard for them to get up to speed with the players already on the team.
The dismissals are a major blow to the Warriors, considered contenders for the BIIF title and two of the league's state tournament berths. Waiakea was 8-4 in preseason.
This is the second major incident involving high school athletes in recent months. Last month, Iolani forfeited two Interscholastic League of Honolulu boys' soccer matches as part of self-imposed sanctions by the school. The players violated school policy.
GIRLS SOCCER
Pearl City, Mililani tie: For the defending state champion Mililani High School girls soccer team, the new year means dealing in life "A.M." or "After Mele."
Likewise for Pearl City, 2003 represents life "A.C." or "After Carmen."
Mele French and Carmen Calpo graduated last summer after each scored more than 60 career goals for Mililani and Pearl City, respectively. Both teams must now find other ways to put the ball in the net, which has proven difficult as evidenced by last night's 0-0 tie in O'ahu Interscholastic Association Western Division action at the Chargers' field.
Pearl City (4-0-1) still leads the West with 13 points, and Mililani (3-0-1) is right behind with 10.
"We don't have Mele, which means our offense has to be from everybody," Trojans coach James Uson said. "If everybody contributes, then we can have a good night. We have to be more team-oriented. All-around, we played pretty well tonight, but if we had Mele's speed, we might have scored. Of course, you could say the same thing about them and Carmen."
Yesterday, Mililani finished with six shots, Pearl City had four.
French played for the University of Oregon last fall, and Calpo started for UH and tied a school freshman record with six assists.
"When you lose that kind of player, it's going to affect your offense," Pearl City co-coach Frank Baumholtz said. "But that's what graduation is all about. We have to be more balanced and passing-oriented, but tonight was the worst game we played all year. We're really young — six starters tonight were sophomores or freshmen — and I think they were a little nervous. We were too hyper, banging the ball around and booming it when we should have been passing. But we've got time to work on it."
Mililani has no such luxury, as the Trojans face 'Aiea (4-0-0) on Tuesday and Leilehua (4-0-0) on Friday.
"The girls make (Pearl City) their big game because of the rivalry, but for me it's 'Aiea because they always give us problems," Uson said. "We have to get past them."
BOYS BASKETBALL
KING KEKAULIKE 51, LANA'I 32: RJ Selten scored 14 points and Brett Christensen 10 to lead King Kekaulike past Lana'i in Maui Interscholastic League game at Lana'i City.
King Kekaulike 19 9 13 10—51
LAna'i 7 13 6 6—32
High scorers: King Kekaulike—R.J. Selten 14, Brett Christensen 10. Lana'i—Johnson Alcantara 8.
SOFTBALL
BALDWIN 6, LANA'I 0: Baldwin's Sabrina Alesna-Mindoro struck out nine and allowed two hits in seven innings as the host Bears shut out the Pinelasses.
Jenna Mailou's triple scored two runs to complete a five-run sixth inning for the Bears.
Gaby Ozoa was 2-for-3 to lead Lana'i.
Lanai 000 000 0—0 2 2
Baldwin 000 105 x—6 8 0
Jerri Sauatea and Ana Alboro. Sabrina Alesna-Mindoro. and Jenna Mailou. WP—Alesna-Mindoro. LP— Jerri Sauatea.
Leading hitters: Lana'i—Gaby Ozoa 2-3. Baldwin—Faaalii Patolo 2-3; Angela Larose triple, 2 RBIs; Mailou 2-3, 3 RBIs.
