This year has seen the isle’s Hawaiian immersion schools get representation in BIIF sports.
During the spring, Kanu O Ka‘Aina and Ka ‘Umeke Ka‘eo both debuted boys’ volleyball teams in BIIF DII — and this fall, the schools are continuing to expand their athletics by adding girls’ volleyball teams.
Ka Umeke and Kanu will field varsity teams in DII, and Ke Kula O Ehunuikaimalino (Ehunui) will enter a JV team.
For Ka Umeke, representation in BIIF sports has been long awaited. The school’s first incarnation was as part of Keaukaha Elementary school in the late 1980s — and since then, it has undergone numerous evolutions, including a brief shutdown of its high school in 2016.
Now that its high school has been back in operation for several years, Ka Umeke is finally entering the realm of BIIF sports.
So far, Umeke athletics have been a hit with the school’s ‘ohana. The boys’ volleyball team pulled off three regular-season wins last season, and never failed to attract a large and passionate crowd of supporters.
The new girls’ volleyball team’s small but hungry roster of seven players and a team manager has been training all summer under coach Blossom ‘Uilani’ Evans.
A Hilo HS graduate, Evans helped coach the Vikings from 2008 to 2013 before moving to club volleyball to coach the 10U through high school age groups.
“We’re from Keaukaha, so this is a very good thing for us,” she said. “Because now, we get to open up. I shared this with the girls as well, they didn’t have the opportunity to play high school — ‘oh, I have to transfer.’ They had to play for Hilo High. They didn’t have the chances there, so to have this available for the girls and boys here now is immaculate. I’m so happy that I got the opportunity to coach Ka Umeke and help this get started.”
Ka Umeke will also host several games this season, which will be played at Keaukaha’s Kawananakoa Gym.
Though the roster lacks depth, its players do not lack experience.
“Four of them have experience and three do not at all,” Evans said. “But, I have nothing about them not knowing how to play. They’re wonderful, they receive information and execute with it. It’s unbelievable, it’s really unique.
“We are just building,
building them as individuals. Right now, the hardest part is putting them at individual positions. But they know how to pass, how to serve.”
Junior Kealohia Holomalia is one of the team’s more experienced players, with several years of club volleyball behind her.
“I’m looking forward to new experiences and making connections with these girls,” she said. “We’re all different ages, so we don’t usually interact as much — even though we’re a small school.”
Sophomore Leiala Wailani is another experienced player and an aspiring team leader, who has been playing club volleyball since she was five years old.
“I think we’re a work in progress,” she said. “I think we’re doing pretty good, and we’ve moved on a lot from where we started.
“A personal goal for me is to become the team captain, I really wanna be a leader. I want to be a coach when I’m older, so I want to learn how to improve myself and how I help my teammates. For them, I want to make sure they stay on the team, because we lost a lot of teammates. I want to make sure everybody’s comfortable and we all win as a team.”
Evans’ goals for the team are similar — work on togetherness and team spirit during this initial stage.
“Right now, let’s have fun,” she said. “Let’s work hard as a team. I want to win, we all want to win — but I actually just want them to play, have fun and enjoy this season because this is the first season. Next year, we can make a different goal — but right now, my goal is for them to get along and just play because you never know, we might just make it to states.”
Ka Umeke’s season opener will be an away BIIF DII test against Laupahoehoe PCS at 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
“I’m excited,” Evans said. “This is new, so we are ready for whatever it gives us.”
At 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 9, Ka Umeke will host Christian Liberty Academy for its home opener.
