Hata, Gray pump up their performances

Sometimes, old school is the best school. 

Nadia Hata of Maryknoll and Justin Gray of Waiakea proved it by winning individual state championships on Tuesday at the Civilian Marksmanship/HHSAA Air Riflery State Championships. 

Hata had the best performance of her career, topping the field at Blaisdell Center with a 548 total. She outpointed Toni Silva of St. Francis (543) and Sara Tashima of Sacred Hearts (543) while using a pump gun. Most competitors today use a compressed air gun.

Hata placed 11th as a freshman, then didn’t place as a sophomore. However, she rose to become an ILH champion as a junior last year and took fifth statewide. All with that old-school technology. 

“We couldn’t afford to buy the compressed air gun. A pump gun is half the price,” explained her coach and father, Yuji Hata, adding that he saw some neighbor-island shooters using the same gun. 

But more than the tool, the new state champion honed her skill and harnessed her energy over time.

“In big matches, I get nervous, just not as much as freshman year,” she said. “Experience helps a lot. I was a lot more consistent this year. If I got down, it was only by three to five points.” 

A little boost at breakfast time didn’t hurt Hata, either.

“My dad always cooks me what he calls “the breakfast of champions” on my match days,” she added. “Eggs and rice.”

“Tamagoyaki,” her father explained. 

“It’s the good vibes I got from him this morning,” she said. 

Gray took his first state title with a score of 537, outpointing David Watanabe of Punahou (530) and Zachary Chang of Mid-Pacific (529). The senior was fifth among boys last year. Prior to that, he was on the team, biding his time and learning from upperclassmen in the Warriors’ program. 

At Waiakea, they are proud of their hand-me-downs, an arsenal of guns that aren’t state-of-the-art compressed. 

“One of our coaches (Brandon Lau) said you can have the fanciest guns, but it won’t matter. It depends on the shooter,” Gray said. “We use Sporter guns, not the precision kind everybody else uses.” 

With so much rich history, including some shooters who went on to compete at the college level, there’s no urgency to change the weaponry.

“We don’t switch because it’s our tradition,” Gray noted. “Everything has a lot to do with tradition at Waiakea.” 

Coach Mel Kawahara likes the legacy in those Sporters.

“They’re hand-me-down guns. They have stickers on them from 2005 and ’06,” he said. “Other schools, they buy the guns for the kids. At our school, our kids use hand-me-down guns. They’re very simple to maintain.” 

In the boys team competition, the defending champion Warriors finished second to the new team champ, Mid-Pacific, by a slim margin. MPI amassed 2,092 points to Waiakea’s 2,090. Punahou was right behind with 2,086 points. 

It was so close, the process got technical. Waiakea was behind by a point in the final tally, but challenged and won. The corrected scores were tied between the Warriors and MPI, but the Owls got an edge in the tiebreaker — inner 10s. 

So Waiakea opted to challenge again, and lost, creating the final two-point margin. 

Pearl City won the girls team crown with a score of 2,099, well ahead of runner-up Punahou (2,078) and third-place Waiakea (2,074). 

Being in that elite company keeps Waiakea’s patient young shooters hungry for their opportunity. Gray is a prime example.

“He’s matured. He’s the captain. He’s somebody,” Kawahara said, “who understands what we’re trying to do.” 

Gray hopes to continue his shooting career at the University of Nevada.

Hata is looking at several possibilities, including Ohio State, Mississippi, Kentucky and Nevada.