Waimea High School senior Keelan Sakuda has been described as a quiet person, but last Saturday, he made a pretty loud statement against Kaua‘i High School. Sakuda was a key factor in Waimea’s 3-1 win over Kaua‘i, finishing with 13
Waimea High School senior Keelan Sakuda has been described as a quiet person, but last Saturday, he made a pretty loud statement against Kaua‘i High School.
Sakuda was a key factor in Waimea’s 3-1 win over Kaua‘i, finishing with 13 kills, five digs and nine blocks (five solo and four as half of doubles). With each kill or successful block, Sakuda let out a scream of celebration.
Making big plays is part of his way of stepping up as a co-captain and returning senior. Sakuda is one of the few players left from last year’s Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation championship team and he’s taken it upon himself to lead his team to another one.
“I see myself as an example,” he said. “I figure the best way to be is to be good.”
Sakuda started playing volleyball his freshman year at Waimea. Prior to that, he had no experience in the sport, but he said he picked it up quickly.
“It was pretty easy for me (to learn),” he said. “Because I was athletic, I had the coordination so it didn’t take long for me to get the hang of it.”
That year, the Menehune went undefeated.
“It was very intense. I’d never played competitive volleyball up until then,” he said.
Waimea lost the KIF championship to Kapa‘a High School during his sophomore year. That was the same year boys volleyball split off into two divisions, with Kapa‘a taking the first ever Division II boys volleyball state championship title.
But a strong crew returned for his junior year and Waimea was able to take back the championship and head to the state tournament.
This year, however, Sakuda and the Menehune (1-0) will have a few challenges to overcome throughout the season. One of them being that the Menehune’s average player height is 5 feet, 7 inches, which is relatively short for boys volleyball.
Sakuda is tallest of the bunch, standing at 6 feet, 1 inch.
“Because we’re not that tall of a team, we have to make up for it with our jumps,” he said. “We’ve really been working on it and some of the guys have actually improved.”
The Menehune lost their main height to graduation last year, so now Sakuda will bear most of the grunt work on the front line.
“Keelan is a sleeper,” said Waimea head coach Tony Magaoay. “He’s quiet, but effective. I expect him to control the front court and encourage the underclassmen to follow his lead.”
Magaoay said he is good role model for the underclassman: he shows leadership on the court and has shown great dedication to the team. For example, Sakuda cut his working hours at the Kaua‘i Chocolate Company to make practices and games.
Sakuda said he gets approximately five hours of sleep a night, balancing school, work, church, volunteer work with Adopt-a-Highway and volleyball.
“He’s sacrificed his part time job to be here every day. He’s really committed,” Magaoay said.
Another challenge for the team is that a lot of the players, like Sakuda, are for the most part, quiet.
“I can see our talking as a challenge for us. We’re all kind of shy so we don’t talk a lot on the court and we need to,” he said.
Then, of course, there’s the offensive attacks from opposing teams. Kaua‘i has three big hitters in Travis Stine, Basil Walton and Jeremy Robinson. Kapa‘a has John Berales and Chance Bukoski.
Waimea is working on it. The school has a pretty young team with several who are playing volleyball for the first time. But it looks good for the Menehune so far and Sakuda said that even though it may not look like they’ve got the strongest team, they’re still legitimate contenders for another title.
“I think there’ll be a lot of surprises this season,” he said. “A lot of these guys can play different positions and our first-year players are learning quickly. It’s almost like you can put them anywhere.”
And Sakuda is ready for the challenges for his final year with the team.
“It won’t be easy getting these underclassmen caught up to me and the other four-year players. It’s like we’re rushing them to be as good as us, but it’s possible,” he said.
Waimea plays Kapa‘a next, with the junior varsity games starting at 5 p.m. and varsity taking the court no earlier than 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Kapa‘a gym.
Keelan Sakuda
Age: 17
Family: Parents Warren and Terry Sakuda; brothers Tyren and Arty; sister Meileah
Position: Middle blocker
Other sports: Basketball, Track and Field
Extracurricular: Adopt-a-Highway
Personal goal for the season: “I just want to keep getting better at my hitting and everything. I want to be a better player.”
