Hilo High junior Zion Palea, the starting catcher of the Vikings’ baseball team, announced Saturday his intent to play baseball for Chaminade University.
And no, that is not a typo, he is a junior — and will be foregoing his senior year, instead doing summer classes and graduating early in order to join the Silverswords this fall.
“It’s pretty exciting,” Palea said. “it’s just a new experience that’s about to happen, I’m excited for what’s ahead.”
Palea said that a major factor in his decision to choose chaminade was its head coach, Chad Konishi — who also coached the MLB’s Kolten Wong at UH-Manoa.
“My main factor was the coaching,” Palea said. “I’ve known (Konishi) for a little while, and he’s a great coach. I love the way he coaches, and how he brings the team together.”
As a student of the Big Island Wood Bat Academy, Palea trained extensively under the guidance of the Wong family — Kolten, Kean and their father and legendary Hilo coach — Kaha.
Palea’s age is a factor in his ability to join a college team after his junior year, as he is currently 18 going on 19. Palea’s father, Karl, said that because Zion was “late-born” — meaning born in late October, after the cutoff to join the same grade as many other kids born in 2005, but too old for the grade below — his family opted to hold him back a year.
“It gave us the option to do this and pull out of school early,” said Palea’s father. “This gave him the ability to choose the kind of path he was gonna take, and many parents and kids don’t know about that.”
Palea will join a Silverswords squad that just finished its first season after the program was put on hiatus. He will be the first Hilo local to sign to the program fresh out of high school since its return.
However, we won’t be the only Hilo boy there. Waiakea alumnus and former BYU player Safea Villaruz-Mauai will become his teammate.
“It feels awesome,” Palea said. “I never really thought I’d get to play with (Villaruz-Mauai), because he graduated when I was freshman. I never really had an opportunity to play with him, so getting to play with him is really amazing.”
As a Silversword, Palea will share the NCAA Division II Pacific West Conference with his hometown team — UH-Hilo. This will give him the opportunity to play more baseball in Hilo — but, Wong Stadium will no longer be his home field, and he’ll play for the away team on his former home turf.
Palea’s signing comes on the heels of Hilo’s BIIF DI championship victory over Waiakea High, its first in years.
“I was hoping that we’d end it on a good note,” Palea said. “Hopefully we still do good at states, but this was a great way to end the Big Island season.”
Palea said that he aspires to make it to the big league, but is going to major in business at Chaminade in order to broaden his horizons.
