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A rainbow stretches from Palolo to Manoa in a very real way this volleyball season.
It connects Ke Kula Kaiapuni O Anuenue — a small Hawaiian language immersion school on 10th Avenue — with the University of Hawaii. It is less than a 3-mile drive but, for some, it might as well be on the other side of the world when it comes to attaining the dream of being a college athlete.
Not just college but Division I. Not just college volleyball but a program that has the defined the sport for over four decades.
Freshman Kamaleikuhalia “Kamalei” Krug has gone from one end of that multicolored arc to the other, from a school named for a rainbow again to the uniform of a Rainbow Wahine, her high school’s nickname. The 6-foot middle, who did not study English until fifth grade, is the first from Anuenue to reach this level of NCAA competition.
Figure the odds. Anuenue has 516 students kindergarten through 12th, about 90 of those in the high school. Krug, the valedictorian of the Class of 2018, was one of 30 seniors.
Add that Krug didn’t play volleyball her senior year after tearing her right ACL during club ball the summer of 2017 and one can only ask, “Pehea?” (“How?”)
The answer is in the phrase that Krug, a Hawaiian Studies major, chooses to define her drive: Kulia i ka nu’u. To strive for the best.
“Kulia is the word that comes to me,” said Krug, raised in a Hawaiian-speaking home in Waianae. “That olelo no’eau (words of wisdom) describes our team. No one grumbles. I’m happy to be part of a team that works so hard.
“Striving for the best is the goal. I want to win the NCAA (title). I want to be the best because I want to make Hawaii proud.”
Although Krug did not play in the season-opening weekend where Hawaii went 0-2, she has had an impact in other ways. It includes giving the pule (prayer) before a team meal, the words of the Hawaiian language spoken effortlessly with a graceful flow.
There has long been a culture of volleyball in the state. But for the Rainbow Wahine this season, the culture of volleyball has been entertained with the Hawaiian culture. Krug is just one of four players with Hawaiian ancestry — seniors McKenna Granato, Faith Ma’afala and Tita Akiu are the others — and three members of the staff are as well: head coach Robyn Ah Mow-Santos, assistant Kaleo Baxter and director of volleyball operations Aven Lee.
“I love when she prays, it gives all of us a real sense of the Hawaiian culture,” said senior libero Tita Akiu, a Kamehameha Schools graduate along with Ma’afala and Lee. “It is so powerful realizing that so many of us are from here with everything that means.
“We grew up with the culture and it’s been nice to be able share that part of us with the other girls. It truly is the aloha spirit. We are ohana (family).”
It was something Ah Mow-Santos stressed during spring camp. She had the team encircle the ‘H’ logo on the Stan Sheriff Center court and asked, “What does this mean to you guys?”
“For some of them, it was the obvious of playing for the school,” the former Wahine All-American setter said. “The local girls said it was about family, being proud to represent where they were born and raised.
“That is important to me. I tell them I’m from here, I played here. I know how they’re feeling because it’s how I felt when I played.”
There is a similar pride three miles away in Palolo.
“We are very proud that she can represent us and show our students that we can go against all odds and become what we want to be, Anuenue athletic director Edmund Kamanao said. “Obviously Kamalei works hard, you have to in order to get where she is. It gives the younger generation something to follow and to look up to.
“We’re not looking to be famous but we are glad that she is bringing an awareness of our school. That she is sharing our mo’olelo (story) can only be positive.”
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