Kalaheo player OK after fall
By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer
Kalaheo High School senior Shantel Marumoto suffered a bruised lower back in Saturday night's basketball victory over Kaiser, but is expected to fully recover after X-rays taken at Castle Medical Center showed no damage.
Marumoto, a 5-foot-4 point guard, took a bad fall after missing a running layup and lay motionless beyond the baseline with 4:56 remaining in the third period. She was attended to by a Kalaheo trainer until emergency medical technicians arrived and she was taken out on a stretcher to an ambulance.
After being treated at Castle, she was released when the X-rays revealed no spinal damage.
"Her whole lower back is pretty sore, but she's starting to slowly move around," Kalaheo coach Chico Furtado said yesterday afternoon.
No foul was called on the play, but Furtado said home video shows there was contact that caused Marumoto to fall awkwardly.
"It definitely was a foul," Furtado said. "She was up in the air and (a Kaiser player) clipped her inside shoulder."
Furtado received a technical foul after saying something to an official while attending to Marumoto, and several minutes later an adult male spectator came down from the bleachers, went onto the court and shoved an official from behind while play was still stopped for the injury.
The referee stumbled but did not fall, and the fan was quickly restrained by another spectator, although he continued to yell at the referee and tried again to confront him.
A special duty police officer then escorted the fan off the court and eventually out of the gym. No arrest was made.
Crew chief Thomas Yoshida said yesterday he filed a report of the incident to the O'ahu Interscholastic Association and will await its response. The official who was pushed did not express an intent to press charges as of late Saturday night, according to police.
OIA basketball coordinator Mel Imai said other than having the fan removed from the gym, the league has no policy to deal with such incidents.
"Normally the school handles those situations," Imai said. "But right now we're in discussions (to create a league policy)."
Several minutes after the incident, two other fans got into a heated verbal exchange, although they were about 40 feet apart and there was no physical confrontation.
After discussion between Yoshida, the special duty policeman, site manager Ryan Hogue, Kalaheo vice principal Karen Kanda and retired Kalaheo athletic director Lee Cashman, the game finally resumed after additional police arrived — some 40 minutes after the original stoppage.
The game was completed without incident and Kalaheo won, 72-57, to earn a share of the OIA Eastern Division title with Kahuku. Separate coin flips today will determine the No. 1 seeds in the East and West — which also ended in a tie between Kapolei and Radford.
Saturday night's incident comes about 11 weeks after one involving a Konawaena boys basketball player attacking a referee. Shortly afterward, a soccer official was threatened by two fans following a girls' state tournament game.
And two years ago, a soccer referee was shoved to the ground by a Baldwin player immediately after a boys' state tournament game.
A bill that would have made it a felony crime to threaten or assault an athletic official will not advance in the Legislature this session, with Senate Majority Leader Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha) saying the measure requires more study.
Although Saturday's game was foul-plagued with the teams combining for 85 free-throw attempts, sportsmanship was not an issue with the players.
"At no time did I feel the players on either side were in any kind of danger," Furtado said. "In fact, I thought they were the most well-behaved people in the whole gym."
Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2456.
