Any signs of normalcy throughout this pandemic are welcome, even though they are fleeting.
These signs are especially hard to find for anyone heavily involved with Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association-sanctioned events year-round.
The glimpse of normalcy came through an e-mail last week when Waimea High School girls’ basketball coach Natalie Mata informed The Garden Island that three players on the Menehune girls’ basketball team signed letters of intent to play college basketball. See the story in the Sunday, Feb. 14 edition of The Garden Island.
The e-mail stated that Menehune players Braelyn Cayaban, Kierstin Gummerus and Kaye Serapio all have inked their intention to play basketball at the college level.
Becoming a standout basketball player at the high school level requires a lot of dedication. To sign on the dotted line to play at the collegiate level is something the majority of high school players dream about, and very few achieve.
These Menehune stars did it without playing a single Kaua‘i Interscholstic Federation or HHSAA game this season.
Cayaban signed with Colorado College, an NCAA Division III school located in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Kierstin Gummerus and Kaye Serapio signed to play basketball at Arizona Christian, an NAIA school in Phoenix, Arizona.
In Mata’s interview with The Garden Island, she emphasized the achievement, especially because of a modification in NCAA eligibility rules because of the COVID-19 pandemic that altered recruiting significantly.
A lot of junior-college transfers, who have two years of experience playing basketball at the collegiate level, are getting signed over players coming out of high school.
Add in the fact that there is the extended eligibility some college seniors received, and the Menehune recruits were up against some players from the mainland who got to play an abridged or full-season, high-school girls’ basketball schedule.
Mata credits the families for the success of the recruiting process, but this is no doubt a collaborative effort by the entire Waimea High basketball community.
This goes to show that you can achieve great things under extraordinary circumstances if you remain determined enough to make it happen, with no excuses, and that is exactly what this trio of Waimea recruits did.
A significant amount of time has passed since the players laced up their sneakers representing their school and community in a KIF-sanctioned game.
They’ve made their community and the island of Kaua‘i proud with their accomplishments, and the letters of intent prove that normalcy can be achieved, even under extraordinary circumstances.
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Jason Blasco, reporter, can be reached at 245-0437 or jblasco@thegardenisland.com.
