Lahela Rosario’s introduction to water polo involved a funny story, she recalled, which is to say people were more apt to be laughing at her than with her initially.
After paddling for Kamehameha as a freshman in 2015, Rosario figured she head to dryer ground. Why try out for water polo, she thought, considering her inauspicious debut to the sport a year earlier.
“One of the seniors, Pua Wong, told me that I needed to sign up for water polo,” Rosario said, “but I just brushed it off because all I remember about water polo was when I was in the eighth grade and my physical education teacher introduced it to us, and I was the worst one out there and I couldn’t even stay afloat.”
However, one of the underlying keys to the Warriors’ dynasty is they all seem get by with a little help from their friends.
In this case, Kaiao Shine had other ideas in store for Rosario.
“(She) signed me up, handed me the slip that explained how there was a preseason practice schedule, and said that I was going,” Rosario said. “I even tried to get out of it by saying I didn’t have a ride, and Kaiao quickly said, ‘I’ll pick you up. You’re going.’
“Next thing I knew, I was not only on the team picking my cap number, I was a starter. Without Kaiao, I would not be the person I am today. Shout out to her, my tita twin.”
Aggressive, tough and a can-do attitude are certainly words the would describe Rosario in the pool as a four-year starter for Kamehameha, and she capped her career by helping the Warriors reclaim the BIIF title after a one-year snafu, and the two-meter player was selected as the BIIF player of the year.
Kamehameha claimed four of the seven spots on the all-league team, with juniors Emma Kanoa and Aubrey Carter and sophomore goalkeeper Nani Spaar also getting selected.
“I think I was more proud for the three of them than I was of myself becoming the BIIF Player of the Year,” the Cal Baptist-bound Rosario said. “They deserve it.
“My team is the best group of women I have ever worked with. They mean the world to me, and I will always love my ‘drowning polo’ family.”
Kealakehe’s Maiana Villegas and Hannah Tomlinson, a pair of seniors who helped the Waveriders finish BIIF runner-up and reach the HHSAA tournament for the second consecutive year, also made the first team along with Konawaena junior Jalen Gambee.
Kamehameha’s Dan Lyons was named coach of the year.
Lyons, who pulled triple duty during the school year in coaching football, swimming and water polo, estimated the heavy-duty Rosario led the Warriors in just about everything in 2018 – goals, assists, minutes played, drawing exclusion fouls, inspirational talks, you name it.
“She maybe wasn’t the best swimmer in the world when she started (as a freshman), but she knew she needed to get better and she didn’t stop until she did,” Lyons said.
“We like to play a lot of players, but Lahela sometimes never left the pool,” he said. “It kind of became a joke that when I made substitutions, I’d say, ‘OK, everyone out of the pool but Lahela.’
“She put us on her back.”
As a sophomore, the Warriors were challenged for the first time in seven years, but Rosario scored the game-winning goal in sudden death overtime as Kamehameha survived Hawaii Prep to maintain its dynasty.
By Warriors’ standards, 2017 was a blight. Kamehameha’s reign was ended by Kealakehe in the league semifinals, but now it just appears as a blip on the radar after Rosario and Co. gave the program its first unbeaten BIIF season since 2014 and won a match at states to reach the semifinals for the first time in seven years.
Nothing that happened in the pool this past season, however, ranks as Rosario’s proudest accomplishment.
Another one of the underlying keys that’s helped the Warriors claim eight titles in nine seasons is they pay everything forward.
Wong and Shine once helped out Rosario, who in turn lent encouragement this past season to sophomore Abby Andrade.
“(She) was working really hard during one of the drills, and I remember at the end I told her that I love how hard she works and I love how she never gives up,” Rosario said, “and she turned to me and she told me, ‘You encourage me to work hard and you always believe in me, and I want to be a great leader like you one day.’
“I think that was the moment that I knew I was doing my job as a leader and that moment will forever be a part of me.”
Rosario will be reunited with Wong, a former co-player of the year, on the water polo team at Cal Baptist in Riverside, Calif., where she plans to study journalism and new media on academic scholarships.
Lyons told Rosario that playing on the West Coast will be more of a challenge than if she chose to play elsewhere, but water polo has taught her a thing or two about handling obstacles.
Rosario was once wary of the shallow BIIF waters, but now she’s ready to dive head-first into the deep blue of NCAA Division I.
“The biggest life lessons I learned from the game of water polo are a split between two quotes Coach Dan always says,” she said. “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take, and if youʻre not making mistakes, youʻre probably doing something wrong. Doers make mistakes.”
All-BIIF
First team
Hannah Tomlinson Kealakehe 12
Maiana Villegas Kealakehe 12
Emma Kanoa Kamehameha 11
Aubrey Carter Kamehameha 11
Lahela Rosario Kamehameha 12
Jalen Gambee Konawaena 11
Nani Spaar Kamehameha 10
Player of the year
Lahela Rosario Kamehameha 12
Coach of year
Dan Lyons Kamehameha
Honorable mention
Name School Grade
Sarah Houser HPA 12
Kaiao Shine Kamehameha 12
Kukui Haumea Kamehameha 12
Cassidy Farias Kamehameha 11
Faith West Keaau 12
Jaelyn Estabillo Hilo 12
Santana Lopes Hilo 12
Jazmine Early Waiakea 12
Kaitlyn Tengan Waiakea 12
Summer Cassidy Waiakea 12
Reina Kuwaye-Tamanaha Waiakea 12
Goalkeeper
Kona Resetnikov Kealakehe 10
Ala Taylor HPA 11
Laurie McGrath Hilo 11