KEAAU – Having played the sport in high school and college, Kelee Shimizu knows good water polo when she sees it.
What she saw out of Waiakea in its first match earlier this season, wasn’t it.
“No one knew what they were doing,” the first-year coach said.
The Warriors weren’t the best team during the regular season – that title belongs to Hawaii Prep – but they may be the team that’s taken the biggest leap heading toward the playoffs. The Warriors clinched a berth Saturday morning with a 15-10 victory against Hilo High at Naeole Pool.
“I just love seeing the improvement,” Shimizu said. “That first game, with COVID, no one really knew the sport. That’s OK, they got an introduction. Seeing from Day 1 until now, it’s like night and day, really.”
A 2017 Waiakea alum, Shimizu won three BIIF swimming gold medals in the distance freestyles and played three seasons of water polo before stops at Santa Barbara City College, where she played both sports, and Cal State East Bay, where she swam, graduating last year.
Back home and working full-time, she wasn’t thinking of coaching until her former swimming coach at Waiakea, Bill Sakovich, gave her a call. The Warriors needed a water polo coach at the last minute to be able to field a team.
“I’m really excited to be back in the aquatics arena,” she said. “I’ve done it my whole life.”
Waiakea (2-3) again relied on its two big scorers to get by the Vikings (1-4), with Grace Nichols scoring seven goals and La‘akea Nakoa-Oness adding six. Later in a 19-6 loss to Kamehameha (4-1), Nichols tacked on five goals, producing the kind effort that prompted Shimizu to reach out to her coach at Santa Barbara, Chuckie Roth.
“I’m proud to say she’s going to play at the same college I did,” Shimizu said. “I told (Coach Roth) she has a lot of potential, if you can guide here the right way and she can go up there and work hard.”
In a semifinal at 3 p.m. Thursday at Naeole Pool, Waiakea will face top-seeded Hawaii Prep (5-0), which beat Keaau 23-2. Lia Craven scored five goals for Ka Makani, which wrapped up an automatic berth to the HHSAA tournament, Grace Tadaki tallied four and Phoebe Wyatt and Ali Wawner each had a hat trick.
In a preview of their semifinal, Kamehameha powered past Kealakehe 12-5, getting hat tricks from Waiahuli Akau, Oliliu Wise and Ka‘iulani Rocha. Kekoa Pintor put home three goals for the Waveriders (3-2). In Kamehameha’s win against Waiakea, Wise scored all six of her team’s first-quarter goals and finished with nine for the match. Akau found the back of the next four times.
Propelled by Maya Oishi (six goals), Xochi Gervais (five) and Awai Waipa (four), Hilo earned its first victory with a 20-13 win against Keaau (0-5). Ailidh Carroll led the Cougars with four goals, while Lexie Prudholm, Taylor Pratt and Janesse Trusdell collected three apiece.
In the loss to Waiakea that started the day, Gervais scored four times and Waipa went for a hat trick.