Steve Erler | SL

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In the Oahu Interscholastic Association, Kahuku's dominance in girls water polo is well known.

Since the league started to have it as an official league sport in 2004, the Red Raiders have won all but one championship in the OIA.

There is no doubt that Kahuku is the cream of the crop for the sport in the league. That's why when the Red Raiders dropped a 6-5 contest to Roosevelt in the regular season for their first league play loss since 2010, those that follow the sport knew it was a big deal.

Was the dynasty ending?

No. Kahuku avenged the loss to Roosevelt in last Saturday's OIA championship, 8-6, and won its 13th overall and seventh straight title in the process.

The Red Raiders are a young team this year, there's no doubt about it. With just one senior and three juniors, there was going to be some growing involved.

"We played Roosevelt really early on in the season," said Kahuku coach Aaron Waldrip. "For us it was a lot of basic things that we have't learned yet.

"This was a year where we really had to fight it out just to get it, with such a young and small team. We usually have 35, 30 girls on the team. This year we had 18 or 16, something like that. It was tougher that it's been so it's required a lot of work."

Instead of putting more pressure on his girls to succeed after the loss to Roosevelt, Waldrip's focus was to reinforce "team energy and being positive."

"No tearing each other down, no criticizing for missing (shots) or making mistakes, because with young teams, they tend to panic when they make mistakes.

"Our strategy was to keep the team energy high, that way when somebody makes mistakes, you've got support instead of being torn down for it. You don't panic and freak out, you just go back and do a better job the next time."

The second focus after that was shooting, specifically how to aim and use your body to get good shots when you don't have good looks.

Kahuku's work on offense was evident as it converted on three of its five first quarter shots and held a 3-0 lead over Roosevelt in the OIA championship game.

Another reason behind the Red Raiders success has been their defensive strategy. With goalkeeper Noa Cravens coming into her own in the net, Kahuku was able to run a drop defense, which is similar to a zone, against the Rough Riders with great success.

While Kahuku was efficient in the opening period, Roosevelt struggled from the field and was 0-for-9. The Rough Riders tried to work it down low for close range shots, but was stymied by Kahuku's length and could not get off any good looks and was forced to get some shots from distance, putting the onus on Cravens.

"We rely heavily on her," said Waldrip. "I've been training her this last two months on blocking Roosevelt's style of shooting. They prefer the sort of outside lob shots and things like that so Noa was ready. We knew we could count on her for that so that allowed us to run the drop defense and the crash defense and let them have some outside shots because she would be all over it."

One of the junior goalkeeper's best plays in the match was when she forced a shot clock violation on a Roosevelt attacker that tried to pump fake Cravens from two meters out.

Another key player for the Red Raiders this season was the lone senior on the team, Indie Pyzel. Although she didn't need to mature as much as the younger players on the team this season, she did have to battle through injuries that nearly sidelined her for her senior campaign.

"It was scary in the beginning of the year," she said. "I have a pretty bad tendonitis in my knees and my hips and my elbows so I wasn't even sure I was going to play this year, but I love to play and I love all the girls on the team."

While her scoring is definitely a boost for the team (41 goals on the season, team-high three against Roosevelt last Saturday), her unflappable presence in the water is invaluable.

"Indie is just one of the greatest players I've ever coached," said Waldrip. "I've been coaching her since she was 12 and she's just one of those athletes that's driven. When it's time to perform, she performs.

"Without her, we had no senior leadership this year. She's the only one that has been playing for six years. She's the only one that knows in the water how to coach her teammates, and she really raises everybody up. She really is one of the greatest players I ever coached."