Kailua’s Nai‘a Graham is the Gatorade Hawaii Boys Soccer Player of the Year.
The award recognizes athletic excellence, academic achievement and exemplary character, according to the Gatorade Company.
A 6-foot, 165-pound senior forward, Graham scored 28 goals and added 12 assists in the winter season, leading the Surfriders (9-6) to the Division II state quarterfinals. A member of the U.S. Youth Soccer Region IV Olympic Development Program team, Graham was a Honolulu Star-Advertiser All-State first-team selection.
Graham holds a 3.67 GPA and is a volunteer youth soccer coach.
“Nai‘a Graham was very dangerous,” said Spencer Machado, Moanalua’s outgoing head coach, in a news release. “You had to double-team him every place he went because they always tried to get the ball to him. Kailua would not have gotten as far as they did without him.”
Graham will play at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, Calif., in the fall.
Gatorade Hawaii Player of the Year recent winners
>> 2014: KJ Ahlo, ‘Iolani
>> 2013: Leo Klink, Kalani
>> 2012: Leo Klink, Kalani
>> 2011: Scott Granger, Punahou
>> 2010: Cody Sullivan, Mid-Pacific
>> 2009: Nick Goo, ‘Iolani
>> 2008: Zane Dydasco, Kamehameha
>> 2007: Kekoa Osorio, Kamehameha
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