HHSAA volleyball: Hilo’s Comilla crafts sweep against Kahuku

KEAAU — Bradley Comilla didn’t start playing volleyball until he was a Hilo freshman, but he’s made up for lost time, and bloomed into a big-time hammer, creating nice memories along the way.

The 6-foot-2 senior outside hitter pounded 17 kills, and the Vikings cleaned out Kahuku 25-23, 25-18, 25-20 in the first round at the HHSAA Division I tournament on Friday night at Koaia Gym.

It was Hilo’s first state appearance since 2009, and Comilla had a memorable debut. He posted a nifty .346 hitting clip, and compiled eight digs, falling a bit short of a double-double.

“It felt amazing,” said Comilla, who found all types of entertaining ways to smash balls to the floor, getting three kills from the back row. “I just go up and whack the ball to an open space. We played uptempo and usually when we play uptempo we do good.”

His fellow senior Justice Lord also enjoyed himself. The 6-5 senior middle blocker knocked down 10 kills and had a healthy .472 hitting clip for the BIIF runner-up Vikings, who hit .274 as a team.

The Red Raiders, better known as a North Shore football powerhouse, had productive firepower as well. Micha Maiava (13 kills, .435 average), Alaifatu Tito (eight kills, .467) and Spencer Niutupuivaha (four kills, .500) looked like hard-hitting Goliaths.

But every other Red Raider hit negative, and the team finished with a .176 hitting percentage.

What hurt more was their serving. The OIA’s No. 3 team had a whopping 13 service errors, including eight in the second set. Hilo had seven service errors, total.

It felt like the Red Raiders’ momentum ran into stop sign every time it was their turn to serve. On their other first touch, they occasionally fumbled. The Vikings drilled six aces, including three from Trevor Castro. Maikah Tandal had one ace. But Tandal’s bullets turned their ball-control into a wobbly mess.

Anyway, when Comilla was growing up, he played Pop Warner football, so he’s well aware of the other Hilo-Kahuku matchup: Nov. 7 last year at Aloha Stadium, where the Vikings were crossing their fingers and hoping for the school’s most significant upset of all time.

The Viks were leading 10-0 at halftime. The game was broadcast on OC16, and households in East Hawaii were going nuts. Alas, Kahuku, the gridiron factory that annually produces college material, returned to its customary physical brand of smash-mouth football in the second half, and won 20-10.

Since the birth of the state football championship in 1999, every league (ILH, OIA, MIL and KIF) has won a Division I game, except for the BIIF. An upset against the Red Raiders, who last claimed back-to-back state crowns in 2011 and ’12, would have, no doubt, provided the Big Island a proud moment for a lifetime, with no pending expiration date.

How does the gridiron relate to the volleyball court? Well, every tablespoon of motivation helps. And Hilo did beat Kahuku, although in a different sport and a smaller scale of significance.

But nonetheless, it still felt really good to Comilla, who has an interesting fun fact about himself, in a Kevin Bacon six degrees of separation way. (More on that later.)

“The one thing that pushed us was football,” he said. “Hilo went to states and Kahuku beat our football team. We wanted to beat Kahuku.”

The only Viking who will have more sweet dreams than Comilla is senior middle Sione Atuekaho, who was the starting quarterback. Atuekaho clobbered six kills on a .333 hitting percentage, and led his team in big smiles.

Comilla is linked to Bruce Lee, the kung fu artist, through his dad Brad Comilla, a Pearl City High graduate and former volleyball coach of the Chargers.

One of the old Charger’s teammates was Jason Scott Lee, who starred in the movie “Dragon,” playing Bruce Lee. That must have been some good memories playing ball with a future movie star for Brad Comilla, whose son made quite a few of his own in his state debut.