It is the same desire held by all the coaches and players that represent Kaua’i at various state championships. “We just want to earn a little respect for our island,” Kapa’a basketball coach Michael Ban said. “We want to leave
It is the same desire held by all the coaches and players that represent Kaua’i at various state championships.
“We just want to earn a little respect for our island,” Kapa’a basketball coach Michael Ban said. “We want to leave the state tournament with Oahu teams saying, ‘That team from Kapa’a is pretty darn good.'”
Ban’s Warriors are preparing for a first-round showdown with Leilehua in the 45th Annual Boys Basketball State Championships Wednesday at 6 p.m. The Mules are 17-5 on the season and compiled a 9-0 Oahu Interscholastic Association record.
The Warriors (12-6 overall, 6-3 KIF) are the only league champion at the tournament not to receive a seeding. However, with the KIF’s success rate at state championships, the snubbing is nothing new. For Ban, it’s perfectly understandable.
“The KIF hasn’t proven anything at the state level, especially in basketball,” the coach said. “Maybe if we won one or finished second or third a couple of times, then we’d be considered for a seed. But we haven’t earned that yet.”
And Ban is not unrealistic. He understands that his Warriors likely won’t be the team that sets the KIF seeding process into motion.
“We’re going over there to try and win our first two games, that’s the goal we set,” Ban said. “But we’re going to give it our all. No matter what happens, our boys played their hearts out and if we fall short, then we gave it our best shot.”
Not that Ban is conceding anything.
“I’m happy with the draw,” the coach said. “I think that, for us, Leilehua is a winnable game. The kids just have to believe.”
That’s something Ban was able to pull from his players throughout the KIF season. When the Warriors slumped midseason, Ban and his assistant coaches, Bryan Doo and Ed Phillips, were able to lift them to consecutive season-ending wins. When, in the KIF title game, Waimea stormed back from 11 points down to take a five-point advantage in the final two minutes, Ban and his staff bolstered the troops.
“I brought you this far and I won’t let you lose,” he told them.
They listened.
Now, the Warriors face a similar wall in need of scaling.
“We’ve been written off in this tournament,” Ban said. “But I think we’re capable of doing some good things. We’re representing the island as a whole now and we don’t want to come back 0-2.
“We want some respect from the state as a whole.”
