Whenever Senior night comes around, there are always the stories of comeback wins, the one they let slip away, the brightest and dimmest moments and all the friendships that can last a lifetime.
Whenever Senior night comes around, there are always the stories of comeback wins, the one they let slip away, the brightest and dimmest moments and all the friendships that can last a lifetime.
These moments, like the one the UH-Hilo women’s basketball team (7-12, 7-9 PacWest) will have Thursday at 5 p.m. at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium against Dixie State (4-18, 4-12 PWC), are all those things, but also something broader and more inclusive.
In a way, the music finally stops after this game. Few of these players will ever play another organized game of basketball outside of adult leagues and such. Parents, like Val and Angela Mancera, face an adjustment just as do their daughters.
“It’s definitely hard to believe this is finally it,” said Val — yes, that’s short for Valentine — Mancera, father of Vanessa who will watch her five other senior teammates complete their careers Thursday. “It’s gone by so fast and it’s been so great to watch her grow and learn and really get into the game.
“You want them to be kids forever,” he said, “but at the same time, we‘re so proud of her, we’re excited to see what she does next.”
Val said Vanessa, out for the end of the season with her third ACL injury, “Played basketball from the time she was big enough to pick up a ball, however old that is.”
He coached her in youth leagues and then coached her at Independence High School in Bakersfield, Calif. His wife Angela is in town for the final home game and Val intends to be here for graduation in May.
It’s not all sad, but they are always bittersweet, these occasions. Whether you are national champions or just a team struggling to keep its head above water, the end changes everything for the sense of team that has been such a part of their lives.
This year’s six seniors — Alexa Jacobs, Lauren Hong, Sydney Mercer, Pilialoha Kailiawa, Asia Smith and Mancera, — are on a team that fell one victory short of a playoff berth a year ago and they still have an outside chance at that elusive goal with four game remaining in the season. But you have to wonder, what if?
What if Jacobs, leading the team with 60 assists at her point guard position this season, hadn’t had two ACL injuries in her time at UHH? What if Mancera had not had three knee injuries in her time here, or what if Lauren Hong, another guard, had not had two knee injuries?
Would this have been a playoff team?
“You can’t focus on that,” said UHH coach David Kaneshiro, “but when I reflect on the things that have happened, I just think of how they have all persevered, they all bought in to our program and they all kept focus.
“That’s the big thing about this group,” he said, “nobody hung their head or complained, they just kept working, no matter what happened.”
For Jacobs, there was a start to a college career, an injury and a restart.
“When she came here, she was just like all freshmen,” Kaneshiro said, “she had a lot to learn on and off the court, but what carried her through buying into the program, through dealing with injuries, through being in a leadership role is her spirit.
“She has always had that,” he said, “a fight in her approach, a toughness you can see in her play, that’s what got her though and I don’t know where we would have been as a team without it.”
That spirit will result in a degree in criminal justice in May, prompting a return visit to the Big Island from her father Brian and stepmother Annette who have been here since last weekend to catch her last couple home games.
“We were excited for her when she said she wanted to come to Hilo,” Brian Jacobs said, “but honestly? Sending your 18-year-old daughter to a place in the middle of the Pacific Ocean was a little, um, unnerving at the time.
“Right now?” he said, “I think it’s pretty clear she made a great decision, she loves it here, she has grown up and she plans to stay here after she graduates, at least for a while. Coming to Hawaii Hilo has been a great thing for her, I can’t imagine a much better college experience, to tell you the truth.”
At the end, if they can take thought with them, they’ll probably do all right joining their next team, wherever that may be.
That spirit will result in a degree in criminal justice in May, prompting a return visit to the Big Island from her father Brian and stepmother Annette who have been here since last weekend to catch her last couple home games.
“We were excited for her when she said she wanted to come to Hilo,” Brian Jacobs said, “but honestly? Sending your 18-year-old daughter to a place in the middle of the Pacific Ocean was a little, um, unnerving at the time.
“Right now?” he said, “I think it’s pretty clear she made a great decision, she loves it here, she has grown up and she plans to stay here after she graduates, at least for a while. Coming to Hawaii Hilo has been a great thing for her, I can’t imagine a much better college experience, to tell you the truth.”
At the end, if they can take thought with them, they’ll probably do all right joining their next team, wherever that may be.