Photo by Nohea Lee
Closing the Book: No. 10 Kohala (17-3, 11-1 BIIF)
> vs. Top 10: 1-2 (1.000)
> Top 10 wins: WAIK
> Top 10 losses: HPA, HPA
> Non-Top 10 losses: HIL
> Home: 6-0
> Away: 6-1
> Neutral: 5-2
> Playoffs: 1-1
> HHSAA D-II: 3-0
The nets are still championship clean.
At Kohala High School, trophies and basketballs and photos are aging and rustic. The latest triumph, the Cowboys’ first state title in boys basketball, means they’ll get to put their hard-earned trophy someplace with high visibility soon.
“They got all the balls from back to Bradley Estabilio (in the 1980s),” Coach Kihei Kapeliela said. “The trophies, the pictures are all in the library. It’s not on display, but they’re going to build one now that we have our first state championship.”
Kapeliela was an assistant under Don Fernandez for a dozen years before becoming head coach before the 2019-20 season. With a relatively young, but seasoned and skilled team, the Cowboys lost to Hilo to begin preseason, then ran off wins over Seabury Hall, Baldwin and Farrington at Baldwin’s tournament.
Kohala won its first 10 games in the Big Island Interscholastic Federation regular season, posting wins over D-I Hilo (70-67 OT), Konawaena (58-44) before losing at Hawaii Prep. Then came a win over D-I Waiakea (44-41) to close the regular season.
In the BIIF playoffs, HPA had Kohala’s number again to capture the Division II title. The Cowboys regrouped and rolled through the D-II state tourney with wins over Kauai (68-64), McKinley (45-27) and Roosevelt (51-48) for the crown.
The televised state final between Kohala and Roosevelt may have been the most physical, uptempo D-II title game in history. More than ever, fans across the state took to social media to congratulate the Cowboys on their gritty, clutch performance.
Coach Kapeliela chatted about a most memorable season on Monday.
This season was ________.
Kapeliela: “Amazing. How everyone believed. I know a lot of coaches talk to their teams. Our guys, even at the end of the bench, everybody bought in on what we asked. One of them was my son. They didn’t get a lot of minutes, but one of my favorite pictures is them being into the game and cheering for their teammates on the court. That’s what it’s all about.”
This season was the movie ________.
Kapeliela: “Hoosiers, probably. We talked about it. The night before we went to the gym, Stan Sheriff, we’d been there before, but the ones who never been there, we walked around. It’s country boys, playing in a big gym like that.”
Review: Starters and key rotation/role players
O’shen Cazimero, 20 ppg, voted No. 10 All-State Fab 15, 5-9, So.
Kapeliela: “He is a leader on and off the court. Every drill at practice. Doesn’t matter if it’s a guard drill or big man drill. He wants to be the best rebounder, best ball handler, the best at everything. The competitiveness. He leads by example. Every drill, he wants to be first. He got a lot stronger in the offseason. His dad, Reeve, my assistant coach, had him workout before school and after school. On Sundays, work out in Kona with (Coach James Nishimura). The strength is really what improved. Last year, he got banged up a lot going to the basket. We told him, you can’t wait until you’re a senior to battle with the big guys. The good thing about it is he’s still young. He still makes mistakes because of the youth, so the more he plays, the more he’ll master the little things. Improving mentally and physically, everything runs through him, so he’ll learn to be more efficient.”
Jeffrey Francisco, 5-6, Jr.
Kapeliela: “He’s a spark plug off our bench. He plays starter minutes, but we like to bring him off the bench. He’s got the mid-range jumper. That’s his shot. He hustles a lot and plays a lot bigger. He doesn’t back down to anybody. He takes the challenge. He works at Takata Store part-time, There’s no school now, so he’s working there full-time.”
Molonai Emeliano, 10 ppg, 5-10, Jr.
Kapeliela: “He’s like the dad, Kalei, an undersized big man. He improved his jumper, his free throws. At one point of the season, because he was knocking shots down, he went away from what his role was. Toward the end, he went back to scoring and rebounding down low. We had a good talk. For us to win, he needed to do his job and he totally understood that. He worked hard. I won’t tell him not to shoot, but we needed him to rebound and play defense. He does all the dirty work, always hitting the ground, just like Kalei. I’d like him to get taller. I just want him to keep working hard, probably work on his offense even more. Get those 12-, 15-foot jumpers down.”
Moses Emeliano, 5-8, Jr.
Kapeliela: “Moses is Keone’s son. This guy, his hustle. He can run all 32 minutes and pressure the ball from one end to the other end and he doesn’t get tired. He’s our main defensive player. It doesn’t matter the size (difference). We played Seabury Hall and their guy, Mason, Moses shut him down. Baldwin, they have a high scorer, the (MIL) player of the year, and Moses kept him quiet all night. When we played McKinley, (Frank) Camacho scored six points on him in the first quarter, then he had just four the rest of the game. He kept Drake (Watanabe) down to seven going into the fourth quarter. At practice, Moses and O’shen going up against each other, that’s something to see. Sometimes, we have to stop practice. Pahoa had a 6-6 guy, and we put Moses on him. It doesn’t matter. He likes the challenge. He likes to hunt and fish, so he only plays during the basketball season. If he was as serious as O’shen, who knows how good he could be. That’s the one thing he could work on, is his shooting and build his confidence in it. Guys who see the games know how important his defense is to our team.
“Championship game Molonai and Moses missed layups, but they ran back and stopped the other team’s plays. A lot of people never really noticed that.
Koby Agbayani, 5-6, So.
Kapeliela: “Koby is like one of the smartest players. Being as small as he is, he deflects and tips so many balls, gets in the passing lanes, creates traffic, just unbelievable. Great vision, never complains and he’s humble. He has a high IQ. What he can improve on is his confidence. He just needs more reps and he’ll get more confident in his shot. He plays so hard on defense, sometimes it hurts him on offense.”
Elijah Antonio, 5-8, Sr.
Kapeliela: “Elijah our one senior who started. High IQ. Talented, can handle the ball, he can shoot and has great vision, but he didn’t have the work ethic until the end of his fourth year. He had a chance to do more. He was a great teammate. He just played his role. We were guard heavy, so he played more underneath. That got him more playing time because he knows the game, he knows all the positions.”
Zhane Ellazar-Ching, 5-9, Jr.
Kapeliela: “The guy’s a super athlete. He’s a football player, a running back. He’s fast, probably the fastest on the team. When it’s a full-on sprint, he can beat O’shen by a hair. He can almost dunk, a freak-of-nature athlete. This was his first year of varsity. We wanted to him to play varsity last year (as a sophomore), but he wanted to play JV. Defensively, he’s going to be another weapon for us.”
La‘akea Kauka, 5-11, So.
Kapeliela: “We went to Las Vegas last summer, and him and Elijah were going to be the 4-man in our starting five. Elijah beat him out because he has a little more experience and confidence. Laakea grew so much, five or six inches (in the offseason). Next year, we’re looking at him as being a starter. Hopefully, he’ll work out in the offseason. He can shoot and he has great timing on his blocks and rebounds. I told Lawrence have him eat plenty and lift. Up in Vegas he was killing it up there, but for some reason, he lost confidence back home. If he gives us what I think he can give us next year, we should be in pretty good shape. When we do shooting drills, he’s our best shooter.”
Did the rotation change?
Kapeliela: “Not really. We tried mixing up Jeffrey, who’s more of an offensive player, or Koby. Koby and O’shen play together so much, they know each other. We stuck with the same starting five pretty much all year, and we finished games small. Four guards and Molonai.”
What or who surprised you most?
Kapeliela: “I think our bench surprised me most. Our 9, 10, 11 guys on the bench. They pushed our starters. They were key for us. All these years, we had nine players and had a hard time going five on five at practice. They were like our scout team. They knew their job was getting our starters ready. They weren’t down about getting playing time. If you have one guy who’s mad at the world about not playing, and that can ruin the team. It’s hard, with our guards who can play a lot of minutes, to rotate a lot of people. I just hate not playing people, but we need the bodies at practice. They were key. All the starters knew, we always praise the guys who don’t get their names in the paper, don’t get the pictures.”
What were the most adverse challenges?
Kapeliela: “We had some key injuries at certain times of the season. O’shen had shin splints at the beginning of the season, so we rested him a couple of games. It’s crazy how an injury like that affects the team. It forced everybody else to step up, but you forget how one special player like that changes the team. We have an awesome athletic trainer (Robin Marquez). He gave the boys this little pep talk before we went to states and it touched all the boys. It was crazy. I was surprised at how much they actually absorbed that, especially after the loss to HPA (in the BIIF Division II final). He shared some life lesson stories. It was pretty cool.
“Practicing, the facilities, there was an issue with the court after they finished (renovating). And we had to fight for time in the (Parks and Recreation) gym at Kamehameha Park. No matter what, our guys wanted to practice. They didn’t want a day off, and they would plan to shoot around, so wound up practicing anyway.”
What was the peak? What was the low?
Kapeliela: “The low was pretty much the loss to HPA. It was a bummer, but the look in their eyes, they wanted it bad. I knew that they were more pissed off than hurt. They wanted to jump back on the court and play. It was a two-week break between BIIFs and states. We were undefeated until we lost to HPA in the regular season, a lot of close games that we pulled out. We didn’t panic. We tried to win one quarter at a time throughout the season, but losing to HPA twice, that was a low.
“The high was the state championship. When Molonai was about to shoot his free throw to ice the game, I turned to Reeve, ‘Holy crap, we’re going to do this.’ The look on our guys’ faces, it was just crazy. That’s why we do it. I still can’t believe it.”
What will you miss about this group?
Kapeliela: “The practices, it was like a family. They hang out together. They go to the beach. There’s a group text, and it’s 12:30 in the morning and they’re texting. I have to work the next morning, and I have to tell them, go sleep. It’s a brotherhood. They stick together in and out of season. They were friends and now they’re like brothers. Life lessons, not just basketball.”
What are you anticipating for offseason and next season?
Kapeliela: “We’re usually in Randy (Apele)’s NJB League (in Hilo) right now, but it’s cancelled. We play in the men’s league here (in Kohala) in the summer. Our travel plans for this summer, it doesn’t look too good. We’ll have offseason training and get ready for next season. We might go back to Maui, Baldwin’s tournament in preseason. Other than that, a tournament at Waiakea and Keaau.
“Kauka’s No. 2 kid is going to be a freshman coming up. Landon Kauka. He’s a shooter. Lawrence has our NSP feeder program going strong. That makes our job a lot easier. In the past, on the JV, we had kids who never touched a ball in their life. But Kauka’s players are coming in. They won their last eight games last year. This year, we only have three seniors graduating, and we had four or five sophomores on the JV, so tryouts are going to be interesting next year. I told the returnees, every year is different. Nothing is guaranteed for next year if one of the JV players beats you out. We only have 12 uniforms.
“We practice as much as we can in the summer with our club (NSP).
Any shoutouts?
Kapeliela: “I do more of the x’s and o’s. Coach Reeve runs the practices, pretty much, all our conditioning. He runs the subs during the games. His younger brother, Mo, was the JV (head) coach this year.
“Also, I want to give props to Coach Don and Coach James (Marquez). They were the varsity coaches. Don was the head coach and James was the No. 1 assistant. They helped me to become the coach I am.”
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