If these words were spoken by anyone else involved in BIIF boys basketball Thursday, they might be dismissed as coach-speak: “We’ll take the preseason to get better and hopefully we play our best basketball when it counts.”
But when Donny Awa speaks, everyone has to listen.
He spoke a similar theme early last season as a youthful Wildcats squad tried to find its way, which was in stark contrast to the previous two veteran Konawaena squads, who already were working on their HHSAA credentials. Yet, even with an entire new cast last season, the Wildcats found their chemistry, got healthy and joined the previous two to become BIIF Division I champion.
“I think we’re kind of in the middle this season,” Awa said. “We return a lot, last year was all new faces, but we’re still on the young side.”
Entering his 13th season, the team that could win him his sixth league championship is like none that have come before it because of its depth.
“I’ve had previous teams where I knew who my first five were,” Awa said. “Some had a really good five and then it dropped off.
“When we match up in practice, I don’t have a first five yet. I just match up similar players and we go at it. You never know who is going to win one day to the next.”
The biggest loss from last season is senior Cameron Howes, a quick guard who will concentrate on playing college football. A second starter from last season, Kevin Medeiros, graduated.
“When we needed a basket (Cameron) was fearless,” Awa said. “I don’t think we have that guy that can do that.”
What he does have is balance and plenty of candidates to step.
Locked in a close game Thursday with Honokaa in the fourth quarter at the Cardinal Basketball Classic, Awa was comfortable enough to sub in five fresh players in a contest the Wildcats won 59-54.
Point guard could be broken down to sophomore Austin Ewing as 1A and junior Na’ea-Kaiya Lele’iwi as 1B, but even that might not be fair.
“I’ve had (Austin) in basketball since he was five, he’s family,” Awa said. “He’s bigger and faster than last year. He still needs to find pace. Everything is 100 mph.
“Lele’iwi is very steady with the ball and one of my better on-ball defenders.”
The Wildcats are ripe with wing players, including senior Kupono Kane, junior Austin Akau and sophomores Hauoli Akau and Kaanoi Kelekolio-Rivera.
After losing the lead to the Dragons on a 3-pointer by Jonathan Charbonneau at the buzzer to end the third quarter, Akau made two free throws to tie the game at 52-52 and made a running layup to put his team ahead, and Ewing’s putback off his own miss salted the game away.
Honokaa was playing its 12th preseason game, falling to 6-6, and coach Jayme Carvalho hoped to catch the Wildcats off-guard in what was their preseason opener.
“Everybody (on Konawaena) is on the same page, and good things happen at the end of the game when you have that,” Carvalho said. “They’re very active and they put the ball down and put good pressure on us. That’s what I wanted to do to them being their first game.”
Konawaena will get stronger in the post when senior forward Ryan Malone returns from injury. Awa said his consistency made him the team’s best player in practice, and he expects him to play when the Wildcats open the regular season Dec. 21 at home against Laupahoehoe.
“Dennis Rodman with a little bit of offense,” Awa said. “He gets all the rebounds.”
Malone and Reyson Ching, now a junior forward/center, returned to the lineup last year to help spur the threepeat.
If the Wildcats are going to make it four in a row, Awa would like to see his team get tougher, though sophomore forward Kelson Cacoulidis, fresh off a season on the gridiron, will help in that department.
“Medeiros was my charge guy last year,” Awa said. “Who is going to take that role now?”
If the season plays out like last season, he’ll find a player to step up somewhere along the way.
“I don’t think we’re as good as we’re going to get,” Awa said. “We don’t have excuses in the BIIF. We’re as good as anybody.”