Chyler Imai thought it was just one of Jennie Fernandez’s playful jokes. Chyler Imai thought it was just one of Jennie Fernandez’s playful jokes. ADVERTISING Fernandez coaches Imai on a Nonaz Volleyball Club 18-and-under club team, and at a team
Chyler Imai thought it was just one of Jennie Fernandez’s playful jokes.
Fernandez coaches Imai on a Nonaz Volleyball Club 18-and-under club team, and at a team practice in early March she told the Kohala senior Western New Mexico was prepared to offer Imai a volleyball scholarship.
Imai wasn’t buying it.
But Fernandez pressed on, giving Imai specific details about the offer.
Then Imai realized this was no joke.
“I was speechless,’’ Imai said. “I was so happy I couldn’t believe it. It took me a while to believe it.”
Today at CSC Cafe in Kapaau, Imai and her Nonaz Volleyball Club teammate, Waiakea senior Kiersa Pakani-Tsukiyama, will sign National Letters of Intent to play women’s volleyball at Western New Mexico, a Division II school that competes in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
The scholarships will cover between 75 and 80 percent of tuition and room and board costs for both players.
“I feel very excited and really honored to have this opportunity,’’ Pakani-Tsukiyama said. “It’s all thanks to my coaches, my mom, (Christine Pakani), and the players I played for.”
Some of those coaches include Waiakea High mentors Ecko Osorio, Chris Leonard and Clayton Morante, and respected Na Wahine O Hilo club volleyball coach Daniel Aina.
Imai will head to Silver City, N.M., wanting to play well for Fernandez.
“She pretty much was there for me,’’ said Imai, who plans on majoring in dental hygiene. “I have to thank her a lot. If it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t have this opportunity. I really want to make her proud.”
Imai, a major contributor on the Cowgirls’ volleyball, girls basketball and softball teams, said no other schools had expressed interest in her.
Pakani-Tsukiyama said a handful of Division II schools and junior colleges requested game tape, but none of them made offers.
However, while Pakani-Tsukiyama, Imai and the rest of the Nonaz Volleyball Club team competed in the Las Vegas Classic — an elite club volleyball tournament that featured more than 200 teams and attracted a host of college scouts — from Feb. 18-20, Fernandez was thinking about her players’ future in college. She had been in contact with one of her former players, 2009 Hawaii Prep graduate Ziona Verhulsdonk, now a right-side hitter with the Mustangs, and Western New Mexico coach Jim Callender.
Callender saw Imai and Pakani-Tsukiyama play in the showcase tournament, and in mid-March he gave them scholarship offers.
Imai spent the next week discussing her future with her parents, Clinton and Cheryl, but she pretty much knew she wouldn’t turn down Callender’s offer.
“I actually didn’t think I was going to get anything,’’ Imai said. “I couldn’t help but to take it.”
Recently, Imai has pitched her Kohala softball team to the top of the BIIF Division II West Hawaii standings.
In the fall, she earned first-team All-BIIF Red Division honors as a setter for a Kohala team that fell to eventual BIIF Division II champion HPA in the league semifinals and finished 12-4.
Pakani-Tsukiyama’s Warriors had a similar fate, falling in the semis to Kamehameha-Hawaii in a tough five-game match, ending a season in which Pakani-Tsukiyama received first-team All-BIIF Blue Division honors as an outside hitter.
Callender has plans for making both players defensive specialists or liberos.
Neither has been to New Mexico, but knowing other Big Islanders on the Mustangs will make adjusting to life on the mainland easier.
Besides Verhulsdonk, 2010 Waiakea graduate Kassie Kagawa also attends Western New Mexico.
“It means a lot, and it’s going to help me feel more comfortable playing on the team,’’ Pakani-Tsukiyama said. “It will benefit me and my friends a lot.’’
