Recent Waiakea graduates Casi Gacusana and Brianna Ridgway got a nice bonus when they decided to play volleyball at William Penn, an NAIA school in Iowa.
They weren’t a package deal but signed at the same time at the Warriors Gym, and both received recruiting help from Jenny Block, whose daughter Maxine plays at Dakota Wesleyan.
The William Penn Statesmen (same nickname for the men and women’s teams) play the Dakota Wesleyan Tigers on Sept. 10 at the Saint Mary Tournament in Omaha, Neb.
The BIIF reunion tour continues when William Penn hosts the Peru State (Neb.) Bobcats, who feature two recent Pahoa graduates in Jordyn Tagalicod and Shyla Kutzen-Ribordy, on Sept. 24.
William Penn and Peru State are members of the Heart of America Athletic Conference, so they’ll battle every year.
Tagalicod, Kutzen-Ribordy, and Gacusana are all back-row defenders while Ridgway is a 5-foot-7 middle blocker.
Kutzen-Ribordy didn’t play club ball. Tagalicod plays for Kendall and Zelda Kelson’s Keaukaha Cuzins, Gacusana for Jodi Kalawe and Lyndell Lindsey’s Haili Juniors, and Ridgway for Laura Thompson with the Piopio Bears.
The one thing they have in common is help from Aunty Jenny, who’s made it her mission to find BIIF volleyball players college homes.
Count the mother and daughter team of Kim and Casi Gacusana as those thankful for Aunty Jenny’s help.
“I got my scholarship from the help of Aunty Jen, and I couldn’t have done it with the help of my amazing high school and offseason coaches and parents,” said Gacusana, who’ll major in medical biology and wants to become a pediatrician.
There are more scholarship opportunities farther away from the West Coast, where the big-name programs (UH-Manoa, UCLA, Stanford) gobble up the blue-chip recruits.
William Penn University, named after the founder of the province of Pennsylvania, is roughly 4,000 miles away from Hawaii.
“It’s a great opportunity for Casi even if it’s far away from home,” Kim Gacusana said. “Like I tell Casi, Hawaii will always be here but having the opportunity and chance to be away from home may come only once.”
Ridgway played at Hawaii Academy of Arts and Science and Pahoa before spending her senior year at Waiakea due to the lava flow in 2014.
“I did verbally commit to William Penn first, but Casi and I signed at the same time,” said Ridgway, who’ll major in kinesiology. “That’s funny because I consider us a package deal. We both were going to go our separate ways after high school season, but we are now a pair. I am proud that I have Casi. She is a hard worker and pushes me every day to become a better player, student, and person.”