KEAAU — The music may be old school, but you can’t say Kamehameha water polo coach Dan Lyons is set in his ways. ADVERTISING KEAAU — The music may be old school, but you can’t say Kamehameha water polo coach
KEAAU — The music may be old school, but you can’t say Kamehameha water polo coach Dan Lyons is set in his ways.
The wet-behind-the-ears Warriors came home from Iolani’s preseason tournament last weekend with a hankering for more conditioning, so Lyons decided he’d dive head first into the problem, leading drills from the far lane at Naeole Pool.
“We have a lot of young players, and we have this thing we’ve been talking about: ‘It takes what it takes,”’ Lyons said. “I figured if I’m going to have them do it, I might as well jump in with them.”
The veteran coach hasn’t gone completely soft. It’s still his music — ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin — that blared Thursday during practice.
“I like that he is getting in with us,” senior Alyssa Pelanca said. “We have a lot of new players, and it shows that he wants it, too.”
The Warriors usually get what they want in the BIIF. Last season, Hawaii Prep dealt Kamehameha its first league loss since 2009, but the Warriors still raced to their sixth consecutive title.
Lyons cautions that the Warriors could take more hits to their dominance — if not during Saturday’s opener at home against Kealakehe, then perhaps March 12 when they will face Hawaii Prep and Konawaena short-handed — as the team builds around three players and tries to get 15 underclassmen up to speed.
The Big Three are Katelynn Kubo, a fast-swimming senior who scored more than 20 goals last season and shared co-BIIF Player of the Year, Pelanca and sophomore Lahela Rosario. Kubo will reprise her role fueling the counterattack, while Pelanca and Rosario will play 2-meter (center).
“They can hold their own with anybody,” Lyons said. “Alyssa can be dominant in the state. She’s a big, strong girl who is hard to stop. Lahela is young, but very skilled.
“We will be strong at 2-meter.”
All three players will take part in an Olympic Development Program competition next weekend in Riverside, Calif., and will miss the Warriors’ matches against Ka Makani and Wildcats on March 12 at Kona Community Aquatic Center.
“We just have to fill in the other pieces,” Lyons said.
No pressure, girls, but Lyons said much of how successful the Warriors become hinges on the development of sophomores Seizen Alameda, Kaiao Shine, and Kukui Haumea. In addition, he came away impressed with how goalkeeper Hopoe Sipinga played in the Iolani tournament.
“We have players who have skills, but they don’t know how to use it yet,” said Pelanca, who enters her second season as a starter. “They don’t know the game yet, but once they do, they are going to be good. You can see them learning.”
That learning curve likely means Lyons won’t stop swimming with his team anytime soon.
“I’m so stupid,” he joked.
But, hey, whatever it takes.
“We’re still trying to figure out who we are, but I like what we could be by the end of the season,” he said.
