Somewhere above, Julie Kauweloa smiled as the Kailua Surfriders and Kamehameha Warriors played for the Surfrider Holiday Classic championship on Saturday night.
Kauweloa passed away on Monday, just days before her brother, Greg Tacon, led his Kamehameha boys basketball team at the Surfrider Holiday Classic. Her husband is a junior varsity coach at Kailua, and the families, including Kailua varsity coach Wally Marciel‘s ohana, are interconnected in many ways.
“It was great that we got play each other,” Tacon said, holding back tears. “This was a grind, and we knew we wouldn’t be able to run as much as we like because of the way Kailua plays. It was good to win a game that’s a grind.”
He got great effort and performance from his team, which went 3-0 in the tourney. Kamren Victorino-Kato led Kamehameha with 24 points.
“We knew we couldn’t shoot a lot of threes. We had to take it to the basket,” Victorino-Kato said.
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