Monday Morning MIL: Baldwin water polo, softball teams clinch state berths

The Baldwin High School girls water polo team has 13 returnees from last season’s Maui Interscholastic League championship team, and they’re a big reason behind the Bears’ dominance this year.

Baldwin wrapped up a state tournament berth with a 10-2 win over Lahainaluna on Tuesday at Kīhei Aquatic Center, then capped a 9-0 run through the MIL regular season with a 17-1 win over King Kekaulike on Thursday. The Bears, who also have four newcomers on this year’s team, have outscored their MIL opponents 107-27 so far.

“It was really important,” Baldwin head coach Lauren Shinozuka said after the win over Lahainaluna that clinched the regular-season title and state tournament berth that goes with it. “We really preach one game at a time, 1-0 every day, so I’m glad we could take care of it today.”

The Bears can nail down their third straight MIL championship this week in the Central Pacific Bank MIL tournament. Seabury Hall and King Kekaulike will play in a first-round match with the winner taking on Baldwin in a semifinal on Friday. Lahainaluna and Kamehameha Maui, both 6-3 on the season, will face off in the other semifinal Friday, which will decide second place and a state tournament spot. After Baldwin, Kamehameha Maui has the next largest roster in the league, with 13 total players.

If Baldwin does not win the MIL tournament to nail down the overall title, a championship playoff between the Bears and tournament winner would be played April 28.

On May 2, the third-place team from the MIL will play against the third-place team from the Interscholastic League of Honolulu for the final spot in the 12-team Kyoya Hotels/HHSAA state tournament May 5, 8-10.

Baldwin junior attacker Jade Brown scored six goals in the state clincher agains the Lunas. Brown now has 31 goals on the season, one behind Kamehameha Maui’s Lilinoe Peterson, the league leader.  

“We were working really hard every day, every practice, and I feel like it really is big, all of our work just paid off,” Brown said. “We all just have fun, make jokes, but we can also really focus well.”

Brown said she and her teammates have a close bond, and they don’t plan to let up yet.

“This is not the end. We still have a bunch of games to go, and we have to keep pushing,” Brown said.

When asked about Baldwin senior goalkeeper Mariah Kuehu, who was stellar in the cage, Brown smiled widely.

“Oh, amazing, the best. She’s freaking awesome,” Brown said of Kuehu. “She just surprises me every single game. It’s awesome to have her back there to back us up.”

Kuehu said the respect is mutual with her field players.

“I have fun, especially when I’m able to see everyone and be able to kind of control where the ball goes,” Kuehu said. “And wherever I put the ball, the girls are able to move it either way, wherever it goes.”

Kuehu, who started playing as a sophomore, would like to go 3-for-3 in her career for MIL titles.

“It’s important for us players to make our coaches proud, especially how much time they put into our season,” Kuehu said. “Yeah, we owe it to our coaches.”

Shinozuka pointed out that the Bears’ returning players are the key to this season’s impressive showing so far. Baldwin’s large roster is part of a resurgence in participation in the sport despite the addition of flag football to the high school spring sports docket this season.

Girls flag football has more than 200 players in the MIL among eight teams, while girls water polo has 62 players this season among five teams, according to league statistician Dave Wintermeyer. According to roster archives at scoringlive.com, there were also 62 players who played girls water polo last season in the MIL, while 54 played in 2023, and 50 played in 2022.

In 2019, the final season before the 2020 and 2021 seasons were wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic, the MIL had 94 players on girls water polo rosters.

The spring season also has softball, another all-girls sport, adding to the challenge of finding girls to play.

Shinozuka said “we all want our kids to be multi-sport athletes,” but it’s tough to have the “two really physical sports” of flag football and water polo in the same spring season.

“I think we lucked out that we had so many returnees who were committed to playing water polo,” Shinozuka said. “But I can definitely commiserate with some of the other (MIL) coaches with kids getting pulled other directions. Girls may not even have other sports, but other commitments. And we want the girls to be excited to play, but we don’t want to put too much pressure on them — it’s hard when their attention is divided.”

Lahainaluna is in position to claim a state spot with just eight players on the roster — seven players are in the pool at once in water polo. The Lunas’ first three matches of the season were forfeit wins, from Kūlanihākoʻi, King Kekaulike and Seabury Hall, and they got another forfeit win from Seabury Hall on April 10.

“Once again it will come down to the MIL tournament and so it’s all about who can play the best water polo at the right time,” Lahainaluna coach Bradley Mason said. “So we’re hoping that we can clean up some of the things we need to clean up and we can be peaking, ready to go come tournament time.”

Mason added, “Unfortunately most of our games have been forfeits, so we need game experience and the league hasn’t been able to provide that this year. So, we’re working towards getting to where we want to be.”

———

MIL SOFTBALL: Baldwin nails down state tournament berth

———

The Baldwin High School softball team clinched a state tournament berth with a 17-2, four-inning win over Maui High on Wednesday when the Bears celebrated senior day at Patsy Mink Field.

The Bears are led by seven seniors, all of whom are set to play college softball. Two of them — Bailey Nagasako and Briana Maio-Silva — have signed to play at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

“It is an awesome, awesome feeling to be able to be welcome again to states, representing Baldwin High School,” Baldwin coach Sanoe Montilliano Kekahuna said after the senior night win. “It’s an awesome feeling as a coach to see athletes excel after high school, not just in softball itself, but in school, pursuing that next level of education. To be a witness of it, to be a part of it, I am thankful, grateful and I appreciate the time that they’ve given me for the last four years.”

The other seniors on the Baldwin roster are Camryn Nakamura, Ka‘ala Kaho‘ohalahala-Watanabe, Kalia Demello, Kekoa Ka‘a‘a-Saltiban and Kiyana Nakagawa.

The Bears, who were a state final four team last season, can nail down a fourth straight MIL championship by winning the Central Pacific Bank MIL tournament set for April 26 and 28-29. The Datahouse/HHSAA Division I state tournament is May 6-9 at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.

“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.