The shirts just came in Saturday. “They’ve got the island of Kaua‘i on them and flowers around it with name KILAS on it,” said former Kapa‘a High School soccer stand-out Emily Ishida. KILAS stands for Kaua‘i Island Ladies Adult Soccer.
The shirts just came in Saturday.
“They’ve got the island of Kaua‘i on them and flowers around it with name KILAS on it,” said former Kapa‘a High School soccer stand-out Emily Ishida.
KILAS stands for Kaua‘i Island Ladies Adult Soccer. It’s a league Ishida has been trying to start since October.
“It started out with two girls and now it’s grown,” she said. “When everyone comes out, there are about 25 to 30 girls.”
Ishida started the league because she wanted soccer teams exclusive to females.
“We have co-ed leagues, but I wanted to focus mainly on girls, people who didn’t want to play with the men,” she said.
But it’s not a full-fledged soccer league just yet. To become official, more players are needed.
“My goal when I first started this was to have the different parts of the island participate. Waimea would have a team, Kapa‘a would have a team and Lihu‘e would have a team and every team could play each other and alternate weekends,” she said. “Right now, the majority of the girls who come out are from Kapa‘a, the girls I played soccer with before. I want to get out to the Westside girls and the Southside girls.”
Crissi Marti, one of Ishida’s former teammates, is a regular out on the field. She was also the girls Kapa‘a High School soccer coach.
“It’s a nice way for everyone to play,” Marti said. “It’s building up every weekend. All the girls who haven’t really played in a while are really starting to come out.”
Following high school, Ishida went on to get her degree in social ecology from the University of California at Irvine. While there, she played on a club team.
“Soccer has always just been my sport,” Ishida said.
That is why she keeps playing despite her busy schedule. She works at Duke’s Barefoot Bar & Grill at night and recently took a teaching job at Kapa‘a High School.
Ishida said she and the girls who currently come out to play just need more players to come out to become official.
“We basically just need more numbers,” Ishida said. “Then we can really get started. I just need to get the word out.”
They have alternated meeting at the Vidinha Stadium in Lihu‘e and the soccer fields in Wailua. They welcome women aged 18 years or older, of all skill levels. They meet at 10:30 a.m., every Saturday.
For more information, contact Ishida at 822-9005.
Emily Ishida
Age: 27
Hometown: Kapa‘a
Family: Father Clyde Ishida; brother Tim
Ishida sounds off on:
Other sports she’s played: “I played tennis, I swam and I did track and field in high school. I was a long-distance runner.”
What she does on her spare time: “I run and try to keep in shape because it’s so much harder as you get older. I try to surf a little bit.”
On women’s professional soccer: “It’s really good to see people take it more seriously now. I think it’s a good thing for women and I think it’s good women have an opportunity (to play it).”
On who she’d like to play soccer one-on-one with: “Mia Hamm definitely because she’s been the soccer idol growing up. She’d probably kick my butt.”
• Lanaly Cabalo, sports editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 237) or lcabalo@kauaipubco.com.
