Monday Morning MIL: Lāna‘i High School girls basketball makes school history at states as pool of talent grows on island

The Maui Interscholastic League combined to go 1-7 at the Pacific Century Fund Team Aloha/HHSAA girls state basketball tournament on O‘ahu last week, but the single win was a big, significant step for Lāna‘i High School.

The Pine Lasses beat Kaiser 45-41 in the first round of the Division II state tournament on Wednesday to pick up their first championship-round win ever at a state girls basketball tournament. The game was tied 41-41 with 30 seconds to play when Kamila-Mafi Koloi, one of seven freshmen on the Lāna‘i roster, sank a 3-pointer to give the Pine Lasses the lead. Another freshman, Izabella Bolo, sank a free throw moments later to ice the victory.

Lāna‘i lost its next two games, 53-34 to Kohala in the quarterfinals on Thursday and 36-24 to Kamehameha Schools Hawai‘i on Friday and returned home on Sunday. Their overall record in seven state tournaments (2007, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2023, 2024, 2025) is now 5-13, but the future for the program is clearly on the upswing.

Lāna‘i High and Elementary School has 178 students in the high school grades, while Kaiser has 1,073. There are 16 players on this Lāna‘i roster, none of whom are seniors and just four of whom are juniors. 

The starting lineup includes three sophomores and two freshmen. The Pine Lasses have won the last three MIL D-II girls basketball titles, their first league championships in the sport, and have been steadily progressing for more than a decade.

Besides the 16 high schoolers on the roster, there are 20 more girls from fourth to eighth grade playing the sport in competitive youth leagues, traveling to Maui for games on Saturdays three to four months per year.

Christian Yumol has been with the program for the last 12 years and is currently a co-head coach with MaryLou Kaukeano, who has coached tennis and other sports for the school for several years. Lāna‘i had been to just one girls basketball state tournament before Yumol arrived at the helm.

“It was just a thought of ‘I think we can be better, I think we can complete and I think we can do something special,’ ” Yumol said. “And each year it has only grown.”

Yumol pointed to the 2023 team as the key to sending the message to younger players that the tiny school could compete with anyone in the MIL Division II ranks. Veniza Jackson, Keala Montgomery, Haley Ostrander, Souina Seiuli and Alexa Pascual were the starters on that team in a hard-fought 51-44 loss to Hanalani in the quarterfinals of the state tournament when the Pine Lasses were there as MIL champions for the first time.

“They were the ones — they endured so much during their time coming up as middle schoolers to high schoolers — and it only helped propel the younger ones to kind of say, ‘Hey, if they can do it we can do it, too,’ ” Yumol said. “It’s just been consistency over the last 12 years to get the program to where it is now.”

Montgomery is playing college softball, Jackson is playing college basketball and Ostrander played one season of college basketball, something the current Pine Lasses have taken to heart.

Former players Gina Anton, Chant’e Sproat and Arriana Maltezo are all assistant coaches and this team takes great pride in wearing “Lāna‘i” on their chests.

Yumol remembers his first season as head coach.

“That first year was rough, I think we had like five girls at practice to start,” he said. “It ended up growing to 10, but with injuries and everything I think we finished the season with eight.”

Kaukeano noted that the youngest players on Lāna‘i are now competing in the Maui Menehune League that plays at the South Maui Community Gymnasium.

They take two boys and two girls teams over on the boat for one day of competition — six games from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. — before jumping on a Maui Economic Opportunity bus and heading back to Lāna‘i.

“This is our second year in that league — it’s really helping the boys and the girls,” Kaukeano said. “The league is very accommodating to Lāna‘i — they schedule our games from when we get in to the time we have to leave.”

The program also plays several summer tournaments around the state to keep building on the foundation now in place.

Sophomore Graziella Reese is the lone starter back from last season.

“It’s really fun, the community is small, but we all have each other,” Reese said. “We push through, we all come to practice, we help each other grow, it’s really great. We just make great opportunities from what we have and the whole community supports us. … It means a lot, not just representing a school, but a whole entire island. We’re just grateful for everything Lāna‘i has done for us and we just want to give back.”

Assistant coach Anton played basketball at Copper Mountain Junior College in Twentynine Palms, Calif., after she graduated high school in 2019.

“I was homesick for awhile, but I got used to it,” Anton said, adding she’s having “a lot of fun (coaching). It’s pretty stressful, but I enjoy it. It’s like taking care of my own nieces and sisters.” 

Sophomore starter Kylie Yumol has been following her father to practice since she was 2 years old. The MIL D-II runner-up Moloka’i team was in the crowd to support the Pine Lasses at Kalani High School gym against Kaiser, along with dozens of supporters from the Pineapple Isle.

“It was very exciting to see all the joy and excitement on everyone’s faces, especially those who came to support us in the crowd,” Kylie Yumol said. “I think we’re making a lot of progress, we’re still a young team. State title, that’s the plan.”

Freshman Destinee Dupree is the 10th leading scorer in the state D-II ranks at 13.5 points per game, according to ScoringLive.

“We’ve made a lot of connections with each other, we’ve played with each other for a couple years now, we’re definitely growing up together on the basketball court,” Dupree said. “I’m just really grateful for our island, like being able to represent the whole community, everyone who lives there. Telling everyone where I come from and showing them we can do this and we’re from Lāna‘i, that’s really special to me.”  

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BOYS SOCCER: Seabury Hall finishes tied for third in the Division II state tournament, King Kekaulike beats Baldwin for fifth in Division I

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All three MIL boys soccer teams made it to Saturday, the final day of the Motiv8 Foundation/HHSAA state tournaments at the Waipi‘o Peninsula Soccer Complex.

MIL Division II champion Seabury Hall finished tied for third in its eight-team bracket, beating Kahuku 2-1 in the quarterfinals on Thursday before losing 1-0 to top-seeded and eventual champion Kamehameha Schools Hawai‘i in Friday’s semifinals. The Spartans finished the tournament with a 2-2 tie against Le Jardin in the third-place match on Saturday.

The Spartans’ James Notarangelo was named to the D-II all-tournament team after scoring two goals in the three matches.

In Division I play, MIL runner-up King Kekaulike beat MIL champion Baldwin 4-2 for fifth place on Saturday. Na Ali‘i opened the tournament with a 7-3 win over Kapolei in the opening round on Monday, lost 1-0 to top-seeded Mililani in the quarterfinals on Thursday, then beat Hilo 4-1 on Friday.

The Bears reached the fifth-place match after a 2-1 loss to Campbell in the quarterfinals and a 2-1 win over Castle on Friday. 

King Kekaulike’s Lorenzo Gonzalez was named to the D-I all-tournament team after scoring seven goals in four matches, including five against Kapolei.

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CANOE PADDLING: MIL crews combine for eight finals appearances, topped by Seabury Hall’s runner-up finish in the boys division

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The MIL put eight of its nine qualifiers into finals at the Hawaiian Airlines/HHSAA canoe paddling state championships on Saturday at Ke‘ehi Lagoon.

In the girls final, King Kekaulike finished third in the half-mile race in 4 minutes, 12.80 seconds, Kamehameha Maui was sixth in 4:23.93 and Seabury Hall was eight in 4:35.36.

In the boys final, Seabury Hall finished second in 3:44.16, almost 14 seconds behind champion Kamehameha Kapālama (3:30.43). King Kekaulike was third in 3:44.71.

In the mixed final, Kamehameha Maui was fourth in 3:54.98, Seabury Hall was fifth in 3:58.31 and King Kekaulike was sixth in 3:58.96.

King Kekaulike won all three MIL division titles in the five-regatta season, while Seabury Hall was second in girls and boys and Kamehameha Maui was third in girls and boys. In the mixed division, Kamehameha Maui was second and Seabury Hall was third.

“Monday Morning MIL” columns appear weekly on Monday mornings with updates on local sports in the Maui Interscholastic League and elsewhere around Maui County. Please send column ideas — anything having to do with sports in Maui County — as well as results and photos to rob@hjinow.org.