Kapolei’s Sadie Kapaku-You enters the circle of trust

Team sports is about trust, and if Kapolei lacked that quality this season, there’s virtually no way the Hurricanes would have vaulted to the Oahu Interscholastic Association softball championship.

That same trust is something head coach Tony Saffery will continue to be looking for as the team enters this week’s Division I state tournament.

It all revolves around the girl in the pitcher’s circle, Sadie Kapaku-You. The junior, with a solid defense out there complementing her, pitched Kapolei past previously unbeaten Campbell in the semifinals and Mililani in the OIA final.

In addition, Kapaku-You blasted a grand slam in the 6-5 title-winning game.

Making a difference

According to Saffery, she has learned to fully trust the teammates around her as well as her coach and it has made a world of difference.

“In the past, Sadie took it to heart if someone made an error and at times didn’t know how to recover,” Saffery said. “She would get upset, and that stands to reason, but now she’s leaning more toward the positive side and telling her teammates that there’s still a lot of softball to be played. She’s learned how to say the right things. It’s important that they know you support them.”

Saffery first saw Kapaku-You play softball when she was in sixth grade.

“Oh, I thought, this kid is going to be special,” he said. “She also had that competitive look on her face. When she got here to Kapolei, I knew that now we had to put a defense around her.”

The defense was shored up considerably this season, when senior star player Sala Pedebone recovered from a knee injury enough to move from third base to shortstop.

“Sadie and I, we wrestled with a lot of things,” Saffery said. “We talked about trusting the team, but we had to work on trust, her and I. Before, I could see her eyes cringe when we called a pitch inside. I would say, ‘You know kiddo, if you hit that spot, by design, it’s supposed to go foul. Get a couple of those and then throw the curveball away or the drop ball, but you gotta set it up. You can’t just throw. Gotta pitch strategically. You put it close to the white on the plate, that long foul is going to go fair.’ She has learned how to do that and her maturity is at her finest now.”

In her zone

When asked if she is more of a pitcher now, Kapaku-You said simply, “I feel more comfortable hitting my spots.”

In another instance of trust, Kapaku-You connected for that crucial grand slam in the league title game.

“I had grounded out and popped out in bases-loaded situations previously,” she said. “(This time), I was really calm and that was the difference.”

Added Saffery: “I approached her and said, ‘Wow, you’re in this situation again. Do we get greedy?’ She answered, ‘I should look for a base hit and try to drive in two runs. I’ll look for something in the gap.’ She gave me all the right answers, so I was like, ‘So let’s do it.’ She found that one pitch and took it deep for a line-shot home run. It wasn’t one of those lifts she always does when she tries to swing out of her shoes.”

Girls just wanna have fun

Softball is Kapaku-You’s passion, but she and her teammates also love to dance and sing to Whitney Houston songs as well as newer tunes — sometimes at practice — to stay loose.

And, then there’s the season full of laughter they’ve shared about center fielder Holiday Ribac’s eyebrow episode.

“She shaved off her one eyebrow,” Kapaku-You said. “She kept on picking on it or waxing it and it kept on getting thinner and thinner, and she ended up taking the whole thing off. It was before a TV game, too. Everyone laughed and she laughed it off.”

Kapaku-You, who started playing baseball as a youngster before moving over to softball, said the lightness enjoyed at practice doesn’t mean there isn’t work going on.

“Practice is super hard,” she said, adding that it has helped her maintain her weight of 125 pounds despite one of her other passions. “I love to eat! Hawaiian food. Rice.”

Saffery said a handful of colleges have shown an interest in his junior pitcher, including Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific, and Kapaku-You plans to play at the next level.

THE HIGH SCHOOL TOP 10

Voted on by coaches and media statewide. First-place votes in parentheses. Ten points for first-place votes, nine for second, etc.

BOYS VOLLEYBALL

Also receiving votes: Molokai 7, King Kekaulike 6, ‘Iolani 5, Punahou I-AA 3, Waipahu 2.

BASEBALL

Also receiving votes: Kamehameha-Hawaii 13, Waipahu 10, Kapolei 6, Waiakea 6, Kamehameha 5.

SOFTBALL

Also receiving votes: Lahainaluna 17, Waiakea 17, Kamehameha-Hawaii 15, Punahou 11, Pac-Five 7, Leilehua 7, St. Francis 2, Roosevelt 1, Kealakehe 1.