For three innings Saturday, it was if Mikayla Kekoa was playing for Kohala High’s softball team, not just coaching.
Kekoa left the Cowgirls in 2019 as their most decorated athlete, and she was a freshman contributor at Hope International, an NAIA program in Fullerton. Calif., before the pandemic took its course.
“That changed everything,” she said.
Kekoa returned home, and not even three years removed from high school said she “was ready to give back to the community that helped me.”
That endeavor continued last weekend as she made her BIIF coaching debut against Kamehameha. It was 3-1 Kohala before the eight-time BIIF Division II champion Warriors got going and won 14-4 in five innings.
The Cowgirls held promise of their own two years ago before coronavirus concerns ended the season prematurely. That team had seven seniors and promising freshman Jaylah Kekoa, her younger sister. This season, Mikayla said, Kohala is much more inexperienced, and features just two seniors: Anela Cazimero and Ayesha Isabel.
“We’re definitely building this year,” Kekua said, “but I think I’m pretty patient.”
Jaylah Kekoa is attending Honokaa High and isn’t playing softball this season, Mikayla said, but she’s hopeful Jaylah will return to the Cowgirls next season.
The Cowgirls play Tuesday at Pahoa in a contest that will mark the Daggers’ opener.
During her high school days, about the only goal that eluded the three-sport standout was dethroning Kamehameha. She pitched Kohala to its first state runner-up finish as a senior – winning BIIF POY – to cap a career in which every program the 2019 HHSAA Hall of Honor selection touched reached a new gold standard.
Kekoa led Kohala to its first BIIF D-II volleyball title in 2018 and was selected as the league’s Player of the Year, and for good measure she was a freshman starter on the 2016 girls basketball team that reached the state semifinals and placed fourth, its highest finish since the D-II tourney began in 2004.
“Winning that volleyball title and reaching the state final in softball, that really meant a lot,” Kekoa said.
Saturday
Kealakehe 6, Hilo 2: Mia Joaquin delivered in the circle and in the batter’s box for the Waveriders. The senior earned the win and delivered some run support of her own early, recording a two-run homer in the bottom of the first inning to give Kealakehe an early lead.