Hand it to Kim, Trojans to be state-tourney ready

By Leila Wai
Advertiser Staff Writer

Mililani's Justin Kim says he wasn't necessarily superstitious in wearing the fingerband in games, but "it worked." Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

"It kept my hands warm, I wanted to do something," said Kim, who wore the gloves for games the rest of the O'ahu Interscholastic Association season. "Now I'm like, 'Who wears gloves, especially in Hawai'i?' "

As strange as Kim's antics may seem, it is his work on the field that gets him noticed.

The two-time Advertiser All-State first-team selection is one of four players who have a chance to be the first to win four Hawai'i high school state soccer championships when the Trojans begin the Ohana Hotels & Resorts Boys Soccer Championships this week.

Mililani, the three-time defending state champions, received the No. 1 seed and a bye into Thursday's quarterfinals. First-round action begins tomorrow.

Kim, midfielder Brent Murakami, defender Paul-Spencer Tojo, and goalkeeper Darren Smith were freshmen on the Mililani team that won the first of its three consecutive state championships in 2001.

"I think because they have experienced the state playoffs, they know how difficult it is mentally and physically," Mililani co-head coach Jeff Yamamoto said. "It helps them bring reality to the other guys. That is what makes a huge difference."

Kim and Murakami saw regular playing time as freshmen, and started as sophomores. Smith, who was an All-State first-team selection last season, and Tojo started as juniors.

"The OIA doesn't have a JV program, which is unfortunate," Yamamoto said. "Because we didn't have a JV program, I pick up the young guys and make an investment.

"Those two guys (Kim and Murakami), they're exceptional players, so they got playing time," he said.

Yamamoto said he picks a handful of freshmen every year who look promising.

"As freshmen, our goal was to win," Murakami said. "Ever since then it has been to repeat.

"That to me isn't a big deal," Murakami said of having the chance to win four in a row. "Every year it's different, it's a different group of guys. Repeating is always the goal."

Punahou won four titles in a row from 1989 to 1992, two in the eight-team format and two in the 12-team format, which was introduced in 1991.

There were no freshmen on the Buffanblu team that won in 1989, according to Punahou coach Bob Clague, who won the championships.

"The thing is, you don't necessarily have the same players," he said. "To them, they want to be successful like the previous year, they don't worry about the four-peat issue. I was more concerned about the team I had at the time. I never worried about it. You create your own pressure."

Punahou had another chance to win four in a row, when it won championships from 1994 to 1996, but lost to Iolani, 1-0, in the 1997 championship game.

"We're just taking every game one at a time, trying to get closer and closer to the final," Kim said. "Everyone is saying we're going to lose, but we're thinking positively. Everyone is feeling confident."

Kim has scaled it down this season, switching to wearing a basketball fingerband on the ring finger of his right hand, which he found on the ground at Makaunulau Community Park, also known as 16 Acres, before this season.

"I just told him whatever it takes to win, I don't care," said Murakami, who has his own superstitious rituals, including eating the same pregame breakfasts and lunches, sitting on the same seat on the bus, and warming up exactly the same way every game.

"You think I'm bad, look at this guy, he's worse," Kim said of Murakami.

The Trojans also bleach their hair during the OIA and state tournaments.

Although Kim said that the gloves and the fingerband aren't necessarily superstitious, he said, "It worked."

Kim was tied for second in the OIA Western Division with nine goals, and contributed in other ways including taking direct and indirect kicks and all throw-ins near the goal.

"Justin is a gifted player, he has good vision, he's very deceiving," Yamamoto said.

During the past four seasons, the Trojans are 54-2-2, with both losses in 2001, the year they entered the state tournament unseeded after coming in second in the OIA tournament.

"Maybe this is a fault of mine, but I think I'm going to win everything. I don't see any other way a coach should look at it," Yamamoto said. "Sometimes it turns out, sometimes it doesn't."

Kim and Murakami said that despite being the three-time defending state champions, there are a lot of people who said they weren't going to win this year, citing Interscholastic League of Honolulu schools Kamehameha and Iolani as main challengers.

"That's what we get for being the previous champs," Murakami said. "I don't like previous champions to win either, I always go for the underdog."

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2457.