Iolani Alumni

Former Iolani basketball standout Liloa Nobriga was named to the 2007 Nevada Prep Report All-Southern Nevada First Team as an outside linebacker for Palo Verde High School in Summerlin (Las Vegas).

Nobriga led the Panthers with 121 total tackles while also recording 11 sacks in just 13 games.

The team finished just shy of the Nevada Class 4A State Title game, falling 24-20 to Bishop Gorman on a late touchdown with 23 seconds remaining in the Sunset Region Championship. Palo Verde ended their season at 12-1.

[Photo: Las Vegas Review Journal]

Christian “CJ” Johnson ‘06, the 2006 Hawaii State Position Player of the Year, has signed with the University of Hawaii for the 2009 season.

Currently a sophomore, Johnson hit .320 with 13 doubles, 3 triples and 86 RBIs (200 ABs) last season for Central Arizona Junior College who won the 2007 Region 1 Championship and were the West District Runners-up.

Speaking about Johnson, UH Head Coach Mike Trapasso said, “He can help us out at the top of the lineup. He has a lot of tools, being able to run and throw well, and can make things happen early in the lineup.”

[Photo: Honolulu Star Bulletin]

By the time the University of Washington Football team takes the field to face UH in what could be the biggest game in Hawaii football history (after last week), two current Huskies on other teams will have already played in a some very important games of their own.

Stephen Fung ‘06, a redshirt freshman goalkeeper for the UW Men’s Soccer team, will start in goal today when the Huskies face No.12-seed and reigning Division I Champion UC Santa Barbara in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Steven is coming off of a two save shutout (1-0) of Portland in the opening round last Friday.

Ashley Aratani ‘04, a reserve defensive specialist for the UW Women’s Volleyball team, will make her first NCAA Tournament appearance this season when the Huskies take on the Missouri Tigers in the opening round on Friday evening. Washington is the No.6 seed and will host first and second round games in the Penn State regional.

On Friday, Ashley recorded an “ace” and a dig on “Senior Night” in a 4-game win over the Oregon Ducks. Prior to the game, she was asked to contribute a short blog about her final home appearance as a Husky. Read it here »

Event Date: Friday, November 30th, 2007

With a 35-21 semifinal win over Kauai, the Iolani Football team advanced to the finals of the 2007 Hawaii State Football Championships on Friday evening at Aloha Stadium. The Raiders will take on top-seeded Lahainaluna in a winner take-all-match for the Division II title.

The Lunas are riding high after a 52-20 blowout of OIA White Division Champion Kaimuki. In the win, the reigning MIL champions gained 252 yards on the ground and scored six rushing touchdowns with four coming in the second quarter.

At Iolani, the Raiders turned a 14-all tie at the half into a three touchdown lead in the fourth quarter by using a balanced attack that accumulated 423 yards of total offense - 253 coming through the air and 170 yards on the ground.

The championship game is scheduled for 5:00pm Friday evening at Aloha Stadium.

Washington State senior guard Derrick Low ‘04 was featured in a full page spread in the Nov 19th edition of ESPN The Magazine along with a short writeup that talks about his laid-back attitude and uniquely Hawaiian roots.

Through six games this season, Derrick is leading the team in scoring at 15.5 points per game while shooting 47.4% from the field and hitting on 48.6% from three (17-35). The Cougars are currently undefeated at 6-0 and will play their next game at Baylor on Friday, November 30th (Televised on ESPNU at 4:00pm HST).

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Four teams set to appear at the 2007 Iolani Prep Classic opened their seasons ranked in the USA Today High School Basketball Super 25 which was released yesterday.

• No.7 Montrose Christian (Maryland)
• No.11 Rice (New York)
• No.16 Leflore (Alabama)
• No.18 Mount Vernon (New York)

Also of note:
• Westchester (California) - Listed as the No.8 team in the West Region
• Mason County (Kentucky) - 6-7 Darius Miller, who signed with Kentucky, was selected as a Sporting News All-American (Includes the nation’s Top 20 players)
• Punahou Girls - Listed as the No.9 team in the West Region

Read more from HawaiiHoops.com »

Raeceen Woolford ‘03, a fifth-year senior defensive specialist at the University of Hawaii, will make her final home appearance for the Rainbow Wahine tomorrow evening when the team takes on Loyola Marymount on “Senior Night” at the Stan Sheriff Center.

At 5-7 with explosive athleticism (36 inch vertical and 275 lb squat), Woolford was recruited as an outside hitter by several other schools, but chose to attend the University of Hawaii to compete for a spot at libero. After redshirting her first year, Woolford appeared in 22 matches in 2004, 17 in 2005 and in 2006, her best year as a Wahine, she recorded 17 aces and 163 digs while appearing in all 35 matches.

Off the court, Woolford is in her fifth year as a Health Studies major and will graduate in the spring with the hope of attending medical school in the near future and becoming a pediatrician.

First serve is set for 7:00pm tomorrow evening at the Stan Sheriff Center. The game will be televised on K5.

Read more about Raeceen in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin »
Feature article in the Honolulu Advertiser »

Event Date: Saturday, November 24th, 2007

By the time the Iolani Football team opens play this weekend in the semifinals of the 2007 Hawaii Football State Championship, they will have had more than three weeks off to recover from injuries and prepare for a final run at what could be their second Division II State Championship in just three years.

The layoff may seem like quite a while, but when you consider that during their final regular season game against Punahou on November 2nd, the Raiders lost starting quarterback Kela Marciel and running back Justin Yamamoto to concussions and were without as many as four starters on defense due to injury (safety Breland Almadova, outside linebacker/db Peter Takara, inside linebacker Jarom Baldomero and lineman Matt Koyama) … another week may have been nice.

Come gametime on Saturday, Iolani should have most of their players back and ready to face KIF Champion Kauai. In the quarterfinals last weekend, the Red Raiders racked up 324 yards on the ground and scored four rushing touchdowns in a 40-9 win over OIA White Division runner-up Roosevelt at home in Lihue.

The semifinal matchup is scheduled for 2:00pm at Kozuki Stadium on the Iolani School Campus.

Kawika Shoji ‘06 must be one persuasive individual… Since his arrival in 2006, the Stanford men’s volleyball team has been extremely successful in wooing Hawaii’s top talent up to the Palo Alto campus.

Last season the Cardinal signed 3-time State Player-of-the-Year Spencer McLachlin (Punahou) and 3-time All-State setter Jordan Infafuku (Kamehameha). This season, they’ve secured verbal commitments from Kawika’s brother, All-State libero Erik Shoji (Punahou) and reigning ILH Player-of-the-Year Brad Lawson ‘08.

This influx of Hawaii players should immediately help the program improve on its 3-25 record from last season. The Cardinal lost just one senior and will return 12 players including Shoji, a 2007 All-MPSF Honorable Mention selection.

[Photo: USA Volleyball]

Of the 68 Hawaii high school seniors that have been named as semifinalists in the 2008 National Merit Scholarship Program, 32 were from Iolani School. The next closest school was Punahou with 17. (This number is even more impressive when you consider that the average class size for Iolani is nearly half than that of Punahou.)

More than 1.4 million high school juniors in nearly 21,000 high schools entered the 2008 program by taking the 2006 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Semifinalists were named based on their scores and the total number is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

The school record for the total number of National Semifinalist in a single year is 33 - held by the classes of 1990, 1991 and 2006. The Class of 2006 may have surpassed that record, but one of the qualifiers left the school prior to graduation and another was a foreign student who had not yet earned his citizenship which could have put the total at 34 or 35.

See the names of the semifinalists »

Washington State senior guard Derrick Low ‘04 scored 14 points in a 68-41 win over Eastern Washington at home at Friel Court. Low was 5-10 from the field, including 3-7 from three point range, in just 26 minutes of play. The No.10-ranked Cougars will be back on the court again today when they face the Boise State Broncos at 4:00pm HST (Not televised locally).

Despite scoring a career-high 22 points to go along with 9 rebounds, Bobby Nash ‘03 didn’t get off to quite the start he wanted as the University of Hawaii fell 73-72 to San Diego in an up-tempo battle decided by a game winning steal and freethrow in the final seconds. The Bows will next face national powerhouse Illinois on Friday evening at 8:05pm at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Sophomore point guard Hennasea Tokumura ‘06 came off the bench to score a career-high 11 points for the Utah Utes in a 78-32 win over Fort Lewis College in the team’s second exhibition game on November 6th. Tokumura was 4-6 from the field, including 3-4 from three, in 20 minutes of play. The Utes will play their first official game on November 15th at home against UC Irvine.

Kyle Pape ‘05, a Pre-Season All-Conference selection for the Colorado School of Mines (DII), recorded a double-double in a 72-54 exhibition win over Johnson & Wales University on Friday evening. Pape scored a game-high 16 points on 5-12 shooting (3-6 from three) with 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. In the team’s opener against Division I Northern Colorado, Pape scored 21 points on 7-14 shooting in a 92-79 loss (CSM led 45-33 at halftime).

[Photo: HawaiiAthletics.com ]

Once teammates five years ago at Iolani, Derrick Low ‘04 and Bobby Nash ‘03 open their respective senior seasons tonight on different courts across the Pacific with high expectations for both their teams and themselves. Washington State is coming off of a successful 2006-07 campaign where they won their opening game in the NCAA Tournament and fell just short of an appearance in the “Sweet Sixteen”. Hawaii comes into their season with a new coach and a new style and the hope that they’ll improve on last year’s disappointing finish.

Low and the No.10 ranked Cougars will take on Eastern Washington at Friel Court at 4:30pm (HST). The game will be televised on Fox Sports Pacific (Oceanic 246).

The Hawaii Warriors will face the University of San Diego at the Stan Sheriff Center at 7:05pm. Catch the game in person or live on K5 (or on the radio, KKEA 1420).

Redshirt-freshman goalkeeper Stephen Fung ‘06 earned up his fifth shutout of the season two weeks ago when he tallied four saves in a 1-0 victory over No.24 ranked UCLA. Currently ranked second in the Pac-10, the Bruins picked up just their first home loss of the season and snapped a 10-game unbeaten streak at Drake Stadium that extended back to last season.

On the season, Stephen has recorded 39 saves in 12 appearances for the Huskies while allowing 14 goals. His overall record is 5-5-1 with 5 shutouts.

As a team, the Huskies are 2-3-1 in the Pac-10 (7-6-2 overall) and currently in fifth place (of six). They will play their next game at home against the first place California Bears on November 9th.

[Photo: GoHuskies.com]

Coming off of shoulder surgery which forced her to miss all of last season, Ginger Gravelle ‘04 is now fully recovered and ready to make an impact this season for the Concordia University women’s basketball team. Thus far, the 5-9 redshirt junior has appeared in two games (and one exhibition) for the Eagles, scoring 3 and 5 points in back-to-back wins (They lost the exhibition to Division I Portland).

Located in Southern California, Concordia competes in the Golden State Athletic Conference as a part of the NAIA.

While at Iolani, Ginger was a four-time all-league selection and was named the ILH Player of the Year as a senior. As a junior, she led the ILH scoring and was second in three-point shots made. After graduation, Ginger attended the University of San Francisco for one year before transferring to Concordia for her sophomore year.

Homecoming isn’t what it used to be… It’s better! The long hours spent crumpling up tissue and creating a wire-framed float are gone and have since been replaced with days of practice and preparation for the most energetic, pride-filled event on campus - CHEERFEST!

Watch and listen as the Senior Class of 2008 performs their cheer:

Want more?… Check out the Class of 2006 at the ‘05 Cheerfest »