Boys volleyball

Less than three years ago, Max Slaughter didn’t know he would ever get the chance to play volleyball. Now, he’s a senior captain and the leading outside hitter for Moanalua. The rise up the sport’s ladder was sudden. Slaughter was afraid when he tried out for club volleyball before his sophomore year, thinking he might not be good enough. Soon, though, he paid his dues and is now one of the best players in the state. He was featured in […]

On paper, the dynasty that is Punahou boys volleyball should be in speed-bump mode. With a young roster including three freshmen and three sophomores, Punahou hasn’t missed a beat. Junior Jack Deuchar had 13 kills while hitting .423 and Christian Hong added seven as the visiting Buffanblu outlasted Kamehameha 25-19, 25-21 on Thursday night at humid Kekuhaupio Gymnasium. The visitors looked young at times, committing nine service errors in the first set and five more in the second. Their defense, […]

ILH dominance has been unreal in state boys volleyball. You have to go back 40 years to the Robin Goo-coached Roosevelt Rough Riders in 1979 to find an OIA team that turned out to be the best in the state. Eighty-eight percent of the time (44 of 50 years), a private school has won the top-level championship. One school, Punahou, has 36 of those titles, and that’s a 72-percent clip. What can the underdog public-school teams do? Keep plugging away […]

Hawaii was well represented with four of the 50 players selected to the VolleyballMag.com Boys Fab 50, which ranks the top 50 high school boys volleyball seniors in the country. The list of 50, which was released Friday, is in alphabetical order with no distinction made among the top 50 after the top five. State champion Punahou had three of the four players selected, led by two-time Star-Advertiser All-State player of the year Ryan Wilcox. Wilcox, a recent Hall of […]

Here’s a list of capsules and coaches’ comments about the 2018 Star-Advertiser Boys Volleyball All-State Fab 15, including Coach of the Year Dandi Holder of St. Francis. COY Dandi Holder, St. Francis Rick Tune (Punahou): “It takes a masterful coach to be able to rally a team back down 0-2 in the state final. It doesn’t get much more pressure packed than that. What I saw from the sideline was a quiet confidence than they infused into their players. I […]

Four years, he says, have gone by at warp speed. Well, maybe not Star Trek warp speed, but fast enough that Ryan Wilcox is almost missing his time as a Punahou volleyball player. The Star-Advertiser’s panel of coaches and media selected Wilcox the All-State Player of the Year for a second season in a row. Wilcox earned it with consistent, precise play as an all-around player who happens to be an outside hitter. “Ryan has a high degree of skill. […]

With the Star-Advertiser’s boys volleyball all-state team coming out Sunday, here is a look at the All-State teams from 2000-2009. The ILH had at least a share of every player of the year award in the decade, beginning with Punahou’s Will Reppun. But that glory was short lived as Isaac Kneubuhl and Kamehameha took over before relenting to an Iolani run led by Sean Carney and Todd Blankenship. Spencer McLachlin of Punahou took over from 2004-06 and remains the only […]

With the Star-Advertiser’s boys volleyball all-state team coming out Sunday, here is a look at a few of the past All-State teams, beginning in 1988 when Steven Corbelli of Punahou was the best player in the land. The Buffanblu had the next two players of the year in Rick Humphreys and Stein Metzger before Kamehameha took over with the next four including Fred Robins, who was the only boy to repeat in the decade. Kamehameha and Punahou had all of […]