She has become familiar with the hoisting of state championship trophies.
Even with state tournaments leveled in the 2020-21 athletic calendar, the total is three titles so far for Marley Roe. Two state crowns in soccer and one in girls volleyball. The latter will soon also be a college scholarship sport at Utah Tech for the Kamehameha senior.
Routine? Not quite. The journey is new with each season. After being part of two Kamehameha girls volleyball state title teams, the impeccably pinpoint setter — and opposite with thunderous power — sees her senior season as a unique adventure.
“I think there’s more stages we have to go through. We’re at a pretty good start,” said Roe, who has a 3.7 grade-point average.
Under longtime coach Chris Blake, the Warriors have brought 11 state crowns home to the trophy case at Kekuhaupio Gymnasium. So far, No. 1-ranked Kamehameha, sans state Player of the Year Devin Kahahawai and All-State outside hitter Maui Robins, is 9-0 in preseason action. The Warriors won the Hawaii Invitational on Saturday, sweeping previously unbeaten Kahuku 25-22, 25-18.
Next up is a Labor Day weekend tournament hosted by Kamehameha-Hawaii. Growth is the way.
Roe, Adrianna Arquette, Moana Peaua and Charlize Ching are part of this year’s senior leadership.
“I feel like we’re very close player-wise with everyone, but practices are hard. We get pushed. We work super hard on the track, in the weight room and in the gym. It’s just a constant grind every day. You have to bring it every day because you never know what’s going to happen,” Roe said.
Quality competitiveness within a program is a given at Kamehameha. The journaling after each practice and match, the introspection. The cerebral and the physical process. It was spring 2020 when the ILH brought girls volleyball (and other sports) back while the rest of the state kept athletes sidelined.
“We definitely kept our circle small. I was a sophomore, adjusting to the new offense. That was a hard offense to learn how to run — it’s so fast. But the upperclassmen were very welcoming and helped a lot with that,” Roe said. “Devin, Isha (Knight), Kahiau (Ka‘alele), Maui (Robins).”
The tradition and culture are matched by very few.
“You really see the legacy that people before you have left. It’s a very great program, player-wise and coaches-wise, the impact you have of playing for this school. If it wasn’t for Devin and Maui, I wouldn’t be as good as a player as I am now. They guided me a lot. Looking up to Kanani (Danielson), Kaylei (Akana), Brae (Akana),” Roe said. “You have a reason to be playing, and giving back to the school and the princess.”
Soccer. Basketball. Baseball. Volleyball. Kamehameha coach Blake is a proponent of variety for his athletes.
“I’m a believer that a scholar-athlete should be playing multiple sports. It’s better to change up things, and the competition, how she pushes herself to success, asking her to do more physically and mentally, also to take more of a leadership role,” he said.
Soccer was Roe’s first sport, when she was 3. She joined Leahi Soccer Club at 4.
“She was such a great athlete from day one,” Leahi coach Denise Eldredge said. “So coachable and fierce. Marley is the most competitive athlete I’ve ever coached. She’s such a smart player too.”
It wasn’t until Roe was 11 that she began playing club volleyball. She cites Dayne and Sheri Teves as her only club coaches.
“They’ve done a lot for me,” she said.
During those early years, Roe took on another sport she has always loved. Two years of flag football with her club volleyball teammate Kalei Watson brought them closer as buddies. Their team, an all-girls roster in the All-Blacks Crusaders organization, won a girls league championship. They won more than their share of games against all-boys teams, too.
“The most fun was playing alongside her and our good friends, and watching her beat up all those boys to show them that we were just as good, if not better than them,” Watson said. “She was fearless wanting to run over boys, not shying away from any contact. We were the All-Blacks Crusaders Pink!”
Family is everything to Roe, including families of her friends.
“When my grandfather was sick earlier this year, Marley was one of my only friends that went out of her way to come and visit him before he passed away,” Watson said. “That right there is something I will never forget because she knows how much she means to him and to me. No matter how competitive she may be on the court or field, she is one of the most caring and sweetest friends you could ever have.”
Family? The tree is tall and it is wide. Moe Roe played defensive line, fullback and tight end in the mid-1990s at the University of Hawaii, where he met Liz Lau. Their first child, Max, played football and basketball at Kamehameha. Eight years later, Marley arrived.
“I have a good mix of my mom and dad. My work ethic and soft side of my personality, but also my sassy side comes from her. She’s very loving and sacrifices so much for me, but she also knows how to keep me in check,” Roe said. “My dad’s definitely where I get my sense of humor from. He’s the funniest person I know and very athletic.”
Max Roe, she says, is her buddy.
“That’s like my best friend, for sure. We fight and stuff, but we’re so close, and he’s super funny, too,” she said.
Over the years, they were surrounded by athletes in the bloodline. The Lau ohana, Viena ohana, White ohana. Liz’s brother, Leonard, played football for Hawaii. Cousins Ezekiel Lau (pro surfer), Xarah (UH soccer), Jordan (Fresno State soccer) and Dalen (Punahou soccer).
Cousins Bulla Viena (Saint Louis/Shoreline CC basketball), Drew Viena (Academy of the Pacific/Shoreline), Malosi Viena (Pearl City/Gallaudet University) and Kodee Viena (Maryknoll/Hope International/Hawaii) represent the hoops branch of the family tree.
Cousins Josh White (Saint Louis football, basketball) and Jeremiah White (Kaimuki football, basketball) follow the footsteps of their late father, Josh “Zeus” White. The breadth and width of athletics is practically a family business.
“If you’re going to play sports, why not be good at it? Push yourself to be great, but if you don’t play sports, they’re not going to look down on you, either,” Roe said.
Even a former Kamehameha and Hawaii great, Kanani (Herring) Danielson, is related to Roe through marriage.
“She’s really a mentor for me. I can talk to her and she really helped me through my recruiting. Before I really got to know her, I was going to her clinics and helping her out,” Roe said. “I really like her mentality and work ethic. She’s a really good person on and off the court.”
In Roe, wisdom came at a young age, and strength is immeasurable.
“She’s always been a good student. I think choosing Kamehameha over Punahou in fourth grade was surprising, especially since a lot of her soccer friends were at Punahou,” Liz Lau recalled. “She knows she made the right choice and is where she was meant to be.”
It was freshman year in 2020. Kamehameha’s soccer team was in the state championships.
“She played with a stress fracture in her lower back and came up with 10 saves. It wasn’t until after the tournament when she went to see the doctor and got x-rays that we found out she had spondylolysis,” Lau said. “Even with the diagnosis, she was on the plane a few days later to play in a volleyball tournament in Vegas. She made a deal with her doctor that she would rest after the tournament. Then COVID happened.”
Growing up with three or four sports to play, sometimes all on the same day, made life hectic and fun.
“My advice is play everything you can because every sport brings a different skill. I don’t think I would be as good as I am in volleyball if I hadn’t played soccer, and I wouldn’t have been as good in soccer if I hadn’t played volleyball,” she said. “All the experiences in different sports, new friendships, you learn what you’re good at, and you have options.”
And if things work out, maybe fourth and fifth state championship trophies.
Marley Roe
Kamehameha
Senior
Volleyball, soccer
>> Did you know? Marley began playing soccer at age 3 (Little Leahi).
>> Favorite teams: Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Lakers
>> Favorite athlete: Kanani Danielson
>> Favorite class: Bible literature
>> Favorite teacher: Mr. Ryan Parker (Social Studies). “We would learn through his story-telling and he had nicknames for everybody. He called me ‘Bob.’ “
>> GPA: 3.7
>> Funniest teammate: Adrianna Arquette
>> Smartest teammate: Kayla Bonilla
>> Time machine: 1960s Hawaii. “I would go and buy all the vintage aloha attire. I think that’s my next thing I’m going to do. Fumi’s and barkcloth. Nice vintage dresses.”
>> Top 3 shows/movies: “The 100,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Kissing Booth”
>> Top 3 foods/drinks: Acai bowl (Lanikai Juice, Hawaii Kai), Boba (Tea Time Taiwan, Aiea), apples and peanut butter
>> Top 3 music artists: Summer Walker (“Playing Games”), Lil Baby (“We Paid”), Three Plus (“Driving Me Pupule”).
>> New life skill: Sewing
>> Hidden talent: Powder puff football
