Monday - day off
Monday - Boys Int Red Soccer vs Pac-5
On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of seeing one of the best young softball pitchers in the ILH, if not the state. Keiki Carlos is a 7th grader on the Mid-Pacific Intermediate softball time. Wow! I was looking forward to a good, competitive game with our Intermediate Black team. Our Black team is solid. They played well all season and have a lot of talent. I was truly shocked to see them shut down the way they were. Keiki Carlos, a name to remember for all you softball fans. The final score, 8-1 for Mid-Pacific. The Owls truly deserve the Intermediate ILH Championship this year.
On Wednesday, it was the highly anticipated match up between the Iolani Varsity softball team and St. Francis. St. Francis was in first place with 2 losses, while Iolani was in second with 3 losses. A week ago, after Iolani had been dominated by Punahou, the prospects for a state berth looked bleak. But, after a rebound win over Kamehameha and an upset win by Punahou over St. Francis, Iolani was still hanging around. If the Raiders could somehow beat St. Francis, they would be in a tie for first. This was a huge game!
batters off balance all day. And when they did connect (which they did a few times) for a good hit, the Raider outfield was able to run it down. And the Raider bats sizzled on this day, led by Jana Tokuhama who was 4-4. Final score was 7-0. This game certainly put me in a good mood! Thank you, girls.:)
On Thursday, I moved over to Punahou to cover the Iolani JV Softball team as they played Punahou. The Raiders are having a superb season, only losing once, and currently atop the ILH JV ranks. The Puns are struggling, but Iolani-Punahou matches in any sport are almost always worth the price of admission, so I tend to give them priority when making my schedule.
On Monday, it was the always fun Intermediate Black vs Red Boys Soccer game. The weather was iffy at best. Off and on rain. Dark. I took photos from the comfort of the stands. The photos weren't too bad considering the conditions. The game, 1-1. Good game between two even teams. I was glad it ended in a tie.
revisited the Intermediate Black Softball team as they took on the stronger of the two Punahou teams, Punahou Blue. The Blacks earned an 8-6 win over a good team, setting up the biggest game of the season on Tuesday against Mid-Pac for the intermediate championship. Big game folks! I'll be there!
On Wednesday, the Varsity Softball team ran into a hot pitcher and fell to Punahou, 4-0. BUT, the Raiders bounced back to beat Kamehameha on Saturday to stay in the STATES race with St. Francis, who also lost to Punahou, who has become the hot team of late. This Wednesday the Lady Raiders get their chance against St. Francis at Kamamalu Park. Another huge game for the Lady Raiders!
the Varsity Girls Soccer team fall to Punahou, 1-0 in a VERY physical game on a penalty shot. How physical? In my opinion, the Punahou team pushed past the limit of the rules. It seemed to these old eyes that at least some of the Punahou players were playing the body too much and not the ball. The violence in this game really took away from the beauty of the game. Tough loss.
On Friday, it was the Varsity Boys Soccer team's turn to take on Punahou. Both teams played well and within the rules. This was good soccer and fun to watch, but was marred by an injury (concussion) to goalie Scott Kawakami with a few minutes to go in the game. Punahou came away with the win, 2-1.
marathon Saturday as it was back to Punahou to see the JV Boys Soccer team take on Punahou Gold. The Raiders had many chances in this one, especially in the first half, but had trouble finding the back of the net. Loss, 2-1.
Then it was back to Iolani to catch 3 basketball games in a row.
making clutch play after clutch play to win 44-40 in the first overtime period. I have to tell you, I was so exhausted by this point and then to face overtime! But, this was one great game and a big win for the Raiders!
Monday - Day Off
Monday - Boys Int Soccer - Black vs Red
I was able to get the compressed ball in a few volleyball shots this year. I "sort of" got one in softball. This is the first time I've been able to do it with soccer. Soccer is particularly difficult because your subject is usually pretty far away. To get the timing and focus just right is particularly satisfying.
Last Wednesday, I caught the varsity boys basketball team at the Merv Lopes Basketball tournament at King Armory. The Raiders played El Toro who went out to a big lead, but the Raiders never gave up and took the lead going into the last few minutes. Unfortunately, the last few minutes didn't go our way which resulted in a 55-52 loss. King Armory has a nice basketball court but the lights, ugh... definitely not designed with non-flash photography in mind.
On Thursday, it was over to Kapiolani Park to see our Intermediate Red Boys Soccer team face Punahou Gold. This was a good game between 2 evenly matched teams. One defensive breakdown cost us the game as Punahou took it, 1-0.
Saturday, it was time for boys wrestling at the Iolani Invitational Wrestling Tournament. There were 20 teams involved, some from the mainland, some from the ILH, and a bunch from the OIA. Ponderosa beat Rim of the World in the finals. Punahou beat Iolani for 3rd place. Our Raiders showed, though, that they could compete with the mainland teams, losing to Rim of the World in a very close match. I took 3000 photos of this tournament! Please take a look.
Wednesday - Boys Varsity Soccer
still out there competing. On Tuesday, I went to the Intermediate Red Softball game vs. Kamehameha White. Our red team is made of mostly 7th graders, some of whom have never played the game before this year. The Kamehameha team was big, strong and experienced. This was a recipe for a blowout, but it didn't happen as our Lady Raiders refused to give up and kept it pretty close for a 4-1 loss.
Wednesday, it was our JV Boys soccer team vs. Punahou Gold. I knew our JV team was good and I expected the Punahou Gold team to be good, and I was right. This was a super game, maybe not if you want to see lots of goals, but if you want to see good soccer this is your type of game. The Raiders dominated the first half but could only score 1 goal. The Puns dominated the second half but could only score 1 goal. Great game. 1-1 tie.
Blue team. But, I ended up driving around so much that day it made more sense to cover the Boys JV Basketball game at the Kalaheo Tournament. Sorry Reds, I'll try to make it up to you. The basketball game ended up being sort of a downer as our JV's had one of those flat nights. It might have had something to do with the fact that Mililani was a real tough team. Mililani took that game, 56-46.
Friday was the opener for the Boys Varsity Soccer team. The opponent was MPI who they had beat handily in the preseason. MPI, though, made a huge adjustment by going into a defensive shell. This made it tough to score but the Raiders figured out a way to win it, 1-0.
tournament. I heard they played much better on Friday for a win against Radford. On Saturday, they were a completely different team than Thursday. They were intense, they hit their shots, they had lots of steals and breakaways - they were very, very good. Chalk up a big 54-33 win over Punahou Blue.
Wednesday - Varsity Boys Basketball at Merv Lopes Tournament
I did five events this past Friday and Saturday. Friday afternoon it was the big Iolani-Punahou intermediate boys tennis match. Every year it seems to come down to these 2 schools (same on the girls side), so this was a big match. It was very close, as usual, but Punahou pulled the match out with a 3-2 win.
Saturday was a very busy day. First, it was over to Crane Park for the Varsity Softball game against Sacred Hearts. The varsity lost their first game of the season previously this week, so this was an important game if we were to regain the early season momentum. It turned out to be a very good game and a 7-4 win for the Lady Raiders.
hustle over to Iolani for the varsity girls soccer game against Pac-5. This was the first game of the regular season for the varsity so I was very excited about seeing how they looked this year. They look good! They completely dominated and earned a 3-1 victory.
know that Kamehameha won. Punahou had a pretty difficult routine but had a lot of trouble executing. Iolani's routine was less difficult, but to this untrained eye, I thought they executed it close to perfect, so I wouldn't be surprised if Iolani placed second. My guess is that Word of Life placed fourth.
Monday - day off
Monday it was intermediate tennis as the Lady Raiders took on University. University is just starting with tennis this year, as is Island Pacific who was the opponent on Thursday. Both matches were not competitive as the Lady Raiders sat down some of their starters and still won convincingly. It was 5-0 and 5-0 for the Lady Raiders.
Tuesday it was an all Iolani softball game as the Intermediate Blacks took on the Reds. The Reds are made up of mostly 7th graders, while the Blacks are mostly 8th graders. The Blacks are one of the better teams in the league this year. I was hoping the Reds could make a game of it but the Blacks went out to a 10-0 lead before Nani Tanaguchi hit a booming 2 run home run to at least avoid a shutout.
about a 6 week layoff. The JV boys team took on a good St. Louis team. Both teams showed great intensity with the Raiders holding an advantage in field position and ball control. This eventually paid off in a 2-0 win.
Pac-5, again, that hit pay dirt. The Raiders couldn't get their offense going as multiple offside penalties conspired to limit the scoring opportunities. It ended 2-0 in favor of Pac-5.
Monday - Girls Intermediate Tennis vs University
On Wednesday, I had a chance to see the Varsity Softball team play again and jumped at the opportunity. This time it was against a very sharp Pac-5 team who I believe was also undefeated going into the game. Both teams were on their game defensively, as superb play after play kept the game scoreless all the way until the 5th. The Lady Raiders then caught fire and were able to win 4-1, but this was really a hard-fought, nail-biter type win.
Intermediate Tennis team see if they could keep their win streak going. This match wasn't going to be easy as 3 starters had other school commitments that kept them from the match. Coach Allison did some major juggling which, in the end, worked out well. But this victory was far from easy. The final score was 3-1 with the 3rd doubles match having 
to be called due to darkness.
A word about my scheduling just so you know what I'm thinking. I know I've been giving priority to softball and I will be giving softball priority again this week. The softball games are regular season games, so even though soccer and basketball are starting up, I understand their games to be pre-season. My philosophy is to give regular season games priority even if I'm neglecting other teams I haven't covered. Once the regular seasons start I will give priority to teams I haven't covered as much, so I hope it evens out as much as possible.
