Sports

Winning Values from the Wrestling Mat

Thursday, February 27th, 2014

Though the Molokai Middle School wrestling program has only competed for two years, young athletes walked away with some big titles by the end of this season’s program. Rather than skill, Coach Benny Venenciano attributes their two, first-place tournament wins to passion and soul.

“When you have the will, the beauty of this sport is the balance of taking care of yourself physically and mentally, and doing your schoolwork,” said Venenciano. “At this developmental age, I wanted wrestling to be that sport for them.”

During the winter season, 19 athletes wrestled after school and about half had no prior wrestling experience, according to Venenciano.…

Boys Basketball Ends Season in Fourth

Thursday, February 27th, 2014

Entering the boys basketball season, coach Carl Adolpho Jr. called the year a building period. Two weeks ago, the boys ended their season earning fourth place at Maui Interscholastic League (MIL) Championships.

“We thought we could do better, but it was a good experience for me as a first-year coach and for the team,” said Adolpho.

After coming close to beating Seabury in the regular season—sometimes, just a few points away from victory — Adolpho said the team was excited to get a chance to play them again in their first match-up of the MIL championship.

However, tournament ended for the Farmers in a 35-58 upset that Thursday.…

Farmers Baseball Takes Tournament

Wednesday, February 26th, 2014

Molokai Baseball swept their first pre-season tournament at Duke Maliu Regional Park last weekend, taking first place with a 3-0 record. The Farmers beat PAC-5 12-2 in five innings Friday, followed by sweeping Kaimuki 11-0, also in five innings. They finished up the tournament taking Damien 4-1 in the tournament championship on Saturday.  Photo by Rick Schonely…

Girls Basketball Finish 4th in State

Thursday, February 20th, 2014

For girls basketball head coach Lee DeRouin, 14 athletes entered this season with high energy and ambitious goals, determined to represent Molokai at the state level. While they were set back by some injuries along the way, the Lady Farmers left Oahu’s Neal Blaisdell Center two weeks ago considered one of the top teams in Hawaii.

“As a team we were able to make many of our goals this year,” said DeRouin, via email. “Even though we fell short of the state championship, we were able to accomplish a state semi-final game and got to play a consolation game.”

After their 14-1 season record and earning the Maui Interscholastic League Championship (MIL) title, the Farmers traveled to Oahu Wednesday, Feb.…