REYNA IWAMOTO, JOSEPHINE LIN, WYATT COKE : STAFF WRITERS
MICHAEL VOSS : CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Moanalua High School freshmen are on fire this fall sports season, dominating the Boys Soft Tennis, Girls Volleyball, Air Riflery, and Cheerleading teams. Usually, most varsity sports teams are comprised of talented juniors and seniors, however, this year, the freshmen proved that they can accomplish just as much, whether on the volleyball court, tennis court, football field, gym floor, or shooting range.
Starting from the top of campus. . .
In the gym, the Moanalua Girls Varsity Volleyball team has also had quite a successful season with it’s sole freshmen player, Allexis Iramina.
For the past eight years, Iramina has been playing volleyball with the Jammers Volleyball Club Hawaii. Now in high school, she has more than earned her spot as the only freshman on the varsity team.
“I had a good feeling that this team was going to be successful. It’s amazing to be a freshman on a varsity team,” Iramina said.
Despite being the only freshmen on the team, Iramina worked well with her upperclassmen teammates. One of the team captains, senior Jaycie Kodama, expressed pride for Iramina and praised her, both on and off the court.
“Allexis is a great player with outstanding athleticism and humbleness. She is a great attribute to our team despite the fact that she’s the youngest. She always brings positivity to our team on and off the court.” Kodama said.
Sharing the gym with the volleyball girls were our varsity cheerleaders, whose performance last year netted them both a state and national title. This year they welcomed three freshmen onto the team, two of whom are twins Abrie and Bailey Prinea.
“I always knew that Moanalua was a great team, so even though most of our team this year is new we still were able to be successful,” Bailey said.
Prior to joining the MoHS cheer squad, Abrie and Bailey gained experience in cheerleading by participating in All Star Cheer at the Aloha Cheer Academy for the past six years. They put that knowledge to the test this year, helping the team through yet another OIA East championship win.
“I’m actually surprised and proud because most of us weren’t on the team last year, and they were very successful,” Abrie said.
Despite being on a team composed of mostly upperclassmen, Abrie and Bailey have created a great relationship with the older and more experienced members of the team.
“The older members care that we are doing well and [we] have a lot of leadership with us,” Bailey said.
As for being on the same team as each other, Abrie says that it has always been that way.
“Cheer is the only sport we’ve done, and we’ve always done it together,” Abrie said.
Down the driveway from the teacher’s parking lot is the soft tennis team.
The MoHS Boys Soft Tennis Team this year consisted of six freshmen and one senior, and majority of the boys were not soft tennis players to begin with. Soft Tennis Head Coach Kyle Kaneshiro explained that he has been the Director of Tennis at Moanalua for 19 years and this was his first season coaching soft tennis.
“When I decided to coach soft tennis this year, I asked all my tennis players if they wanted to play. Five out of the seven boys [on the soft tennis team] have been in my K2TENS programs since they were young kids and they understand my philosophy, so it was an easy transition from regular tennis to soft tennis,” Kaneshiro said.
Freshman Zachary Law is one of the six freshmen on the team and he shared that he started playing tennis at a young age with his twin cousins Austin and Brandon Law, who are also freshmen on the soft tennis team. Despite the team’s early success in the season, Law explained that he only started playing soft tennis this year.
“I have played tennis since about third grade. I started lessons at the K2TENS courts, with Austin and Brandon. Really, I think only two players in our team have played soft tennis before,” Law said.
Kelsen Martinez is another freshman on the team and he explained that he has been playing tennis for about 8 years and like Law, this year is also his first year playing soft tennis.
“Since I'm a freshman, I didn't really know any of the older players, but I've gotten to know them and have become pretty good friends with them...knowing that almost everyone on the team was a freshman except for one senior made me feel really proud of how we did. I know that our team can become successful for the next 3 years,” Martinez said.
The Boys Soft Tennis team had a very successful season, bringing home the title of the Oahu Interscholastic Association (OIA) Eastern Division Champions, winning every head to head match with a score of 15-2, and placing second at OIA Championships.
Law shared his thoughts on the team’s success this past season.
“I am generally surprised, but also glad with our team's success, being made mostly of freshmen. I think our coaches trained us hard and good, and our team was successful thanks to this,” Law said.
Coach Kaneshiro shared that he has worked to instill “I think our success has to do with their discipline, sacrifice, and mental toughness,” Kaneshiro said.
“It’s nice to see Moanalua back on the map for Soft Tennis and these kids have really worked hard this season. I am proud of the whole program,” Kaneshiro said.
Further down from the tennis court, the air riflery team practiced hard for this year’s season. Being another freshman-dominated sport this year, the teams blasted through many obstacles before reaching the state tournament, where both boys and girls teams placed third.
“Overall, the freshmen have a grasp on what we’re trying to teach them,” Boys Varsity Head Coach Bruce Yonesaki said. “The seniors and the upperclassmen have really lead the way to help prepare them for competitions and what our program’s about. So it’s been a good season.”
Among the rookie riflemen came the likes of Aiden Fong and Lexi Tokuda, two freshmen who rose above their peers and became two of the best performing marksmen from the class of 2022.
Tokuda, who joined air riflery following in her brother Mackenzie Tokuda’s footsteps, expressed her enjoyment shooting for the air riflery team.
“[The older team members] teach us a lot of stuff and they’re very welcoming to new people that are coming [onto the team]. They just want us to do our best and I really enjoy that,” Tokuda said.
Fong, who is cousins with veteran air riflemen junior Alec and sophomore Lauren Fong, shared a similar positivity as the team was preparing for the state tournament. “We actually [had] a chance to win another championship again,” Aiden said.
“We have probably one of the youngest teams, if not the youngest team competing,” Yonesaki said. “It’s about experience. For them, if they do what they do, anything can happen. That’s what we try to teach the kids. It’s all about maxing out their own abilities to their potential and whatever the result is is the result. If we do that, we can walk forward whatever the result is with our head high.”
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