Aunty Janelle Pascua is Honokaa’s friendly face, who bleeds Dragon green and is all over the place when it comes to BIIF sports.
She can be seen on the Honokaa boys and girls basketball staffs, or working the gate or concession stand for football and on the volleyball bench, where she spent the last 15 years as the girls volleyball assistant.
Pascua has been a cheerleader for three of her daughters Chelsea Requelman (2011 Honokaa graduate), Kayla Requelman (2015), and Karly Requelman (2018), who all played volleyball, basketball, and softball.
Chelsea and Karly Requelman are Honokaa assistants while Kayla Requelman is a senior on the UH-Hilo softball team.
The family connection is on its last link with son Justin Requelman, a freshman, who’ll play football, basketball, and baseball.
Pascua is now Honokaa’s girls volleyball coach and hasn’t cut back from her beehive of activities. Under former coach Mike Fernandez, she was a fundraiser, cook and worker for the concession stand, and administration clerk, ordering T-shirts and doing this and that and all sorts of other stuff.
“There’s a little more responsibility, but it’s the same thing with Mike’s philosophy,” she said. “My philosophy is to play as a team. Volleyball is a sport where you’ve got to communicate a lot on the court. The past year, the kids were kind of quiet.
“We’ve been doing a lot of bonding. I want the girls to be comfortable no matter who we put in and be able to adjust to what’s going on.”
Pascua is a 1989 Laupahoehoe graduate. As a Seasider, she was all over the place. She competed in volleyball, cross county, track, bowling, swimming, basketball, and softball.
For softball, she played under coach Cliff Lukzen, whose daughter and Pascua alternated at pitcher and catcher.
Years later, she joined the Honokaa girls basketball staff under former coach James Lukzen, Cliff’s nephew.
“I try to give back because the school did a lot for my kids,” she said. “Being around the kids keeps me going. I live in Honokaa. I work at the county gym. There are a lot of good people there. I bleed Dragon green.
“I used to drive all my kids from Honokaa to Hilo to play in RBI. Chelsea was 12 years old and with the Waiakea Pirates. Then it was Kayla and Karly. I could be a part-owner of a gas station.”
It’s almost a prerequisite to have a sense of humor among the Honokaa coaching staffs. Boys basketball coach Jayme Carvalho is one of leading comedians in the BIIF.
There are so many family connections among the Honokaa ranks. Carvalho’s brother is Justyn Carvalho, whose daughter Destynee is a senior setter.
“Off the court, I call her Aunty. On the court, I call her coach, out of respect,” Destynee said. “We’re used to her. What I like about her is she’s straight up.”
It could be a season of change. Konawaena is the four-time defending BIIF Division II champion, but the Wildcats graduated three senior starters.
Honokaa last won a BIIF championship in 2005 and last qualified for the HHSAA tournament in 2016.
Carvalho and senior middle Piikea Purdy will serve as the anchors and leaders on a team with six seniors but a bright future.
A whopping 43 players, a record number, turned out for varsity and junior varsity tryouts.
“Our philosophy is we don’t like to cut anyone from the JV,” said Pascua, already preparing to put on her administrator hat and order more T-shirts. “It’s a regrouping year for us. We’ve got a lot of young girls.”
Senior Elena Chong will start at middle, and 6-foot-2 Kea Carson is a junior project. She’s relatively new to the sport but Pascua envisions her potential.
Tehani Lindsey and Sherly Acob will see time at libero, and Purdy and junior Sydni Abarcar will be counted on to hammer points from the outside.
Asked what the future looks like for her, the ever-present friendly face of Honokaa had another opportunity to practice her head coaching comedic one-liners.
“I’ll be doing all the cooking,” she said. “And I’ll be at the JV games, too.”