Wednesday, June 27, 2001
[ PREP GIRLS' BASKETBALL ]
It was a fairy-tale season for Fran Villarmia-Kahawai and her Aiea girls basketball team. Coach lives happily
ever afterBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.comLike most fairy tales, it had a happy ending. And, after many retellings, it's still a little hard to believe.
"I knew we had a pretty good team," said Villarmia-Kahawai, the Star-Bulletin's Coach of the Year. "I just wasn't sure how everyone would work out -- whether they'd be injury-free or how the chemistry was going to be. ... Just the whole journey, as I look back, it was unbelievable."
A month has already passed since the championship, and the reality of the feat still hasn't fully hit Villarmia-Kahawai.
And the happy ending isn't over, either.
Villarmia-Kahawai, a 1987 Aiea graduate and former University of Hawaii player, guided Na Alii to a 14-1 mark and the school's first state basketball title.
Aiea breezed through the Oahu Interscholastic Association's West Division, compiling a 9-0 record. The only stumbling block was the OIA championship game, where Kalaheo's Brandy Richardson scored a career-high 41 points to lead the Mustangs over Na Alii, 67-51.
After a loss like that, it would have been easy for a team to fold and lose confidence heading into the state tournament. But that wasn't the way Villarmia-Kahawai trained her team.
"It was just her getting into our heads, telling us, 'You guys are really good,' " said Na Alii senior Aritta Lane, who shared Co-Player of the Year honors with Richardson. "She couldn't have stressed that more. We'd have a down practice and she just kept reminding us."
The confidence was there when Aiea upset top-seeded Punahou in the semifinals to draw a rematch with Kalaheo in the finals.
The championship game was a much different story than the teams' first meeting, with Aiea executing several different defenses that tired out Richardson, limiting her to only 16 points.
Though her coaching style often involves a lot of yelling, it also includes a lot of encouragement and motivation.
In a preseason practice, Villarmia-Kahawai kicked her entire team out of the gym for not putting in enough effort while shooting free throws.
The next day, she had them read an article on Jackie Stiles, the NCAA career scoring leader, and her reasons for playing. Then she challenged them to think about their reasons for playing.
Villarmia-Kahawai reminded them that there were other girls she had cut who would die to be on the team.
Villarmia-Kahawai wasn't being dramatic, just intense. It was the same kind of intensity she displayed as a player and now as a coach as well.
"She's intense, but she's a people person," said assistant coach Rodney Cavaco, who coached Villarmia-Kahawai during her playing days at Aiea. "She's a players type of coach. She approaches the athlete in a holistic way. She expects a lot of them. She can yell at the kids but they respect her."