Iolani Alumni

The Stanford Men’s Volleyball team concluded its fall season with two wins and two losses at the UC Irvine Fall Invitational this past weekend. The Invitational marked the end of an eight game stretch that began in mid-October with the Husky Oil Can-Am Challenge where the Cardinal went 3-1.

Freshman Brad Lawson ‘08, the 2008 Hawaii State Player-of-the-Year, had a strong fall recording highs of 12 kills in a five-game win over UC Irvine and 13 kills in a four-game win over Alberta.

Junior setter Kawika Shoji ‘06, an AVCA 2nd Team All-American last season, was named to the All-Tournament Team at the Can-Am Challenge.

Stanford will open their season on January 9th, 2009 at the UCSB/Elephant Bar Challenge in Santa Barbara.

Note: There are six players from Hawaii on the Stanford roster: Kawika Shoji (Iolani), Brad Lawson (Iolani), Spencer McLachlin (Punahou), Max Halvorson (Punahou), Erik Shoji (Punahou), Jordan Inafuku (Kamehameha)

In her first official game as a member of the UNLV Women’s Basketball team, freshman Jamie Smith ‘08 poured in 14 points and grabbed 9 rebounds for the Lady Rebels in a 92-71 win over Sacramento State. The 6-0 guard/forward shot 5-9 from the field, including 3-5 from three-point range, while also contributing one assist, two blocks and three steals.

On November 8th, Smith scored 6 points and recorded 9 rebounds in a 62-55 exhibition win over Cal State San Bernadino.

UNLV (1-0), picked to finish 7th (of 9 teams) in the MWC pre-season poll, will play their next game tomorrow afternoon at home against Southern Utah.

University of Utah junior point guard Hennasea Tokumura ‘06 suffered a knee injury and will likely miss the rest of this season. The Utes are the preseason favorite to win the Mountain West.

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 2009 performs their cheer:

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The University of Utah women’s basketball team was picked as the preseason favorite to win the Mountain West Conference in the upcoming season. Last year, the Utes went undefeated in the Mountain West at 16-0 and received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

This season, Utah returns Preaseason Player of the Year Morgan Warburton and all-conference selection Kalee Whipple to an already experienced team. Junior guard Hennasea Tokumura ‘06 will also be back this season and looking to make a larger contribution after serving as a backup in 2007-08 behind MWC Player-of-the-Year Leilani Mitchell (who was later selected in the WNBA draft).

Note: Tokumura won the Mountain West Conference Scholar-Athlete Award last season after earning a team-best 3.59 cumulative grade-point average.

Freshman Leinani Keanini ‘08 and the USF Dons are off to their best league start in program history after winning back-to-back games this weekend - against St. Mary’s on Friday and No.18 Santa Clara on Saturday.

In a five-set win over the Gaels, Keanini made three appearances for the Dons recording one dig. Opposite the net, former teammates Kapua Kamana’o ‘07 and Megan Burton ‘06 led the way for St. Mary’s. Kamana’o, a sophomore setter, recorded 60 assists to go along with 11 digs while Burton, a junior middle blocker, totaled 13 kills (.343) and 10 blocks.

On the season, San Fransisco is 15-4 and undefeated in West Coast Conference play at 5-0 after winning their last eight consecutive matches.

Just two years removed from their playing days together at Iolani School, the Langley brothers, Morgan ‘07 (left) and Dylan ‘06 (right), have emerged as the top scorers this season for the Swarthmore College Men’s Soccer Team.

Junior midfielder Dylan is currently tied for the team lead in goals scored (4) while brother Morgan, a sophomore forward, leads the team in assists (6). The duo is also tied for the team lead in total points (10).

Through 11 games, Swarthmore is 8-2-1 overall and tied for second in the Centennial Conference at 3-1.

The University of Washington Men’s Soccer Team ended a successful weekend of play on Sunday with a 2-2 tie against No.10-ranked Cal. Husky goalkeeper Stephen Fung ‘06 made five saves and helped his team hold off the Bears through two overtime periods despite being outshot 13-9.

On Friday, Fung recorded his first shutout of the season in a 1-0 win over Stanford in the team’s Pac-10 opener at Husky Soccer Field on the UW campus.

Washington is undefeated in their last five games (all at home) with a record of 4-0-1 and will hit the road for three-straight beginning at Oregon State, Friday, Oct. 12 at 7:30 p.m

[Photo: GoHuskies.com]

After advancing to the championship game of the conference tournament last season, the Occidental Tigers are looking to take the next step forward this season and win it all. The team returns several core players including three Iolani alumni - sophomore forward Jesi Sasaki ‘07 (shown), the 2007 SCIAC Player-of-the-Year; 2nd Team All-SCIAC defender Marci Kang ‘06; backup defender Jamie Souza ‘06.

The Tigers are currently 1-1 in conference (1-3 overall) with a 5-0 win over Whitter College and a 3-2 loss to the University of La Verne. Sasaki and Kang have started in all four games for the Tigers while Souza has appeared in three of the four with one start.

Jon Takamura ‘06, a backup linebacker and special teams player at Harvard, recorded 5 tackles in a come from behind win over Holy Cross on Friday night at Harvard Stadium.

Down for most of the game, the Crimson scored three touchdowns in the final quarter to edge the Crusaders 25-24 and improve to 1-0 in Ivy League play.

Note: One year ago, Holy Cross connected on a 40-yard touchdown pass with 19 seconds remaining to pull out a dramatic win over the Crimson in their season opener.

[Photo: GoCrimson.com]

Mike Hirokawa ‘06 (shown), a junior wide receiver/running back for the CMS (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps) Stags, scored three touchdowns in a 41-17 win over visiting Lewis & Clark College. Hirokawa caught three passes for 66 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 23 yards on three carries with one touchdown.

Also on the Stag roster are recent graduates Landon Patoc ‘06, Ronnie Hirokawa ‘08 and Justin Yamamoto ‘08.

Utah running back Raynold Stowers ‘04 made the most of his first opportunity to carry the ball this season, rushing for 17 yards on 5 carries and scoring a 2-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter in a 58-10 win over Utah State.

Utah is currently 3-0 and ranked No. 20 in the latest AP and USA Today polls. Next up for the Utes is Mountain West Conference opponent Air Force who is also undefeated at 3-0.

[Photo: CMSAthletics.com]

St. Mary’s sophomore setter Kapua Kamana’o ‘07 (right) and junior middle blocker Megan Burton ‘06 (left) are in town this week to compete in the Rainbow Wahine Invitational which runs through Saturday.

The Gaels entered the 4-team tournament with an undefeated 6-0 record, but fell to the No.10-ranked Rainbow Wahine yesterday evening in straight sets, 22-25, 16-25, 8-25.

Kamana’o recorded 27 assists and 5 digs while Burton put down 4 kills.

St. Mary’s will face the No.9-ranked Washington Huskies tonight and the winless Pacific Tigers on Saturday. Both games will begin at 5:00pm Hawaii time.

More News: The duo along with Word-of-Life graduate Shanteal Satele were featured in a recent article on the St. Mary’s Athletic Website. Read the article »

[Photo: SMCGaels.com]

Of the 70 Hawaii high school seniors named as semifinalists in the 2009 National Merit Scholarship Program, 36 were from Iolani, a new record for the school. Punahou, by comparison, had the second highest total with 23 semifinalists.

More than 1.5 million high school juniors in nearly 21,000 high schools entered the 2009 program by taking the 2007 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 previous record for the total number of National Semifinalist in a single year was 33 - held by the classes of 1990, 1991 and 2006. Last year’s graduating Class of 2008 had 32.

See the names of 2009 National Merit Semifinalists »

When the 18th Annual KCCN FM100 Birthday Bash rolls around this weekend, two Iolani alumni will be rockin’ it on stage for the thousands in attendance on Friday night.

Christian Yrizarry ‘94 (left), formerly of Ho’onu’a, will be on stage as the lead singer for Beach 5 and Brandon Tucay ‘06 (right) will be keeping the beat behind the action as the full-time drummer for Kapena.

The 18th Annual Birthday Bash is a two-day event running Friday and Saturday at the Waikiki Shell from 4:30pm until the final “Hana Hou”. For the first time ever, the Birthday Bash will be televised live on Oceanic pay-per-view in standard definition (Channel 260) and HD (Channel 1260).

It may be the middle of the summer, but remembering Iolani’s dramatic upset victory over Punahou to capture the 2008 Hawaii Boys Volleyball State Tournament still brings a smile to my face… (Thanks, Wes)

A panel of coaches and media members from the Honolulu Advertiser honored Iolani outside hitter Brad Lawson ‘08 and head coach Mike Among as the 2008 Hawaii State Player and Coach of the Year.

Playing through injuries to his knee and wrist, Lawson emerged as an unstoppable force this season, carrying the Raiders to a 16-4 record and leading them to an improbable win in the state finals over the undefeated Buffanblu. He is currently featured on the cover of the July issue of Volleyball Magazine as the top player in the nation and will be heading to Stanford next fall to join former teammate Kawika Shoji ‘06.

In his third season as the head coach of the Raiders, Mike Among made his second appearance in the state finals in 2008, capturing his first state championship. With the win, Iolani snapped Punahou’s four-year streak of 74 consecutive regular and postseason victories.

View the entire 2008 Honolulu Advertiser All-State Volleyball Team »

[Photo: Honolulu Advertiser]

Coming off an appearance in the Texas League Mid-Season All-Star Game last weekend, Kila Ka’aihue ‘02 is one of the hottest hitters in Double-A, currently 2nd in the league in home runs (18), 1st in walks (57), 2nd in on-base percentage (.437) and 5th in slugging percentage (.560).

His production dropped slightly in June, but the Northwest Arkansas first baseman is still batting .282 on the season and has earned 57 walks against just 30 strikeouts. Northwest Arkansas is the AA-affiliate of the Kansas City Royals.

Kila’s younger brother, Kala Ka’aihue ‘03, got off to a slow start this season, batting just .184 in April, but has consistently improved over the last two months with a .242 average in May and .338 average in June. On the season, he is batting .248 with 10 home runs and 39 RBI and is coming off of two home run performance two days ago against Montgomery.

Kala is a first baseman for the Mississippi Braves, the AA-affiliate of the Atlanta Braves.

Michael “Ian” Mopas ‘06 recently started his second season with the GCL Twins of the Rookie Gulf Coast League and has made 4 appearances for the team, amassing a record of 1-1. He has an ERA of 2.57 in 7 total innings of work with 4 strikeouts and 2 walks.

Keoni De Renne ‘97 has appeared in a team-high 61 games for the York Revolution (Independent League) and currently leads the team in walks (31), is 2nd in home runs (6), 2nd in doubles (13), 3rd in runs scored (30) and 4th in RBI (23).