For those involved with Sacred Hearts athletics, the school's banner season in sports was no surprise.

The small, all-girls school in Kaimuki had an unprecedented run this season with state titles in air riflery and Division II volleyball and softball. The Lancers basketball team went undefeated in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu and finished second in the state D-II tournament.

This year's results came from years of hard work, playing tough competition, a drive to be competitive and a proud tradition finally emerging for all to see.

"The main reason is our kids are overachievers," said Wade Okamura, the school's athletic director and softball coach. "We've been in mostly Division I competition. Having an opportunity to step down into Division II just allowed them to showcase what they can do given that venue.

"It's not like all of a sudden we got four different coaches who were geniuses or we opened the gym until 10 o'clock at night. I feel we've always worked hard and done things the same. It's just that the different venue is a result of all that hard work in the past."

Noel Soma and Raecha-Ann Kauahikaua were both members of the softball and basketball teams this season.

"It was really exciting because I got to do it with all different people every time," said Soma, who was also on the bowling and track and field teams.

Before the basketball team's state tournament appearance, the coaching staff asked the two to share their softball experience with their teammates.

"Our coaches asked Noel and me about it and we told them it was a great feeling," Kauahikaua said.

Sacred Hearts' first state title this school year came in a sport it has dominated. The Lancers have won five of the eight state team titles in air riflery, and members know what it takes to win.

"That's our standard," said junior Danielle Pontes. "Second is not good enough."

"We work very hard to up hold (tradition)," junior Mai Oseto pointed out.

After sharing the same coach with Saint Louis in previous seasons, the Lancers got their own coach this year in Alan Tokumura, a longtime Punahou assistant.

"They're a packed program and that was something I felt I had to try and maintain," Tokumura said. "That was going to be a big season in itself."

The team's top four shooters all return next year and moving up are two of the top junior varsity shooters.

"I know that they're going to work just as hard this coming year to repeat that state championship," Tokumura said.

BUILDING A PROGRAM

In three seasons at Sacred Hearts, basketball coach Alan Matsui and volleyball coach Jonathan Tom have gradually developed their programs.

"For us, it was the system that we have implemented," Tom said. "The girls that have gone through our program have grasped and accepted our program and the consistency of the program has developed over the past three years."

Before moving to Division II, Matsui worked his players hard so they would be able to compete with Division I teams 'Iolani, Kamehameha and Punahou.

"I had to work the kids harder than they had before, to get them to compete for a half or three quarters with the big schools," Matsui said.

Though the records never showed, the losses went a long way.

"Over the last four years I've been there, the whole program has done a lot better," said senior Cara Smith, who is captain of the basketball and bowling teams, student body president and recipient of the school's most outstanding senior athlete award. "We got second; we were almost there. Both of those years (in Division I) we got last place. Last year was really tough. Our team was better last year than it showed.

"Winning the ILH championship and being the first team from Sacred Hearts to make the state tournament, that was a big plus for me, my teammates and the whole program."

BEING COMPETITIVE

Players said attending an all-girls school has helped them develop leadership qualities and confidence for both the classroom and athletic field.

"It's girls knowing that they can do good in sports and girls wanting to compete and showing they can do their best no matter what," Soma said. "Even if we're an all-girls school and competitiveness is more in academics rather than athletics, that motivation drove a lot of the athletes, including myself and my teammates, to do well this year."

As the wins came, so did their fans.

"I guess they doubted us at first, but then we started to play at a higher level and more spectators came to watch and everybody was impressed with us because we're a small, all-girls school and we could play," volleyball player Kylee Maneja said.

Basketball player Nalani Bayne was inspired by watching her classmates succeed.

"It made me want to do good," Bayne said. "I wanted to be at the Stan Sheriff (Center) just like them (volleyball team)."

Betty White, the head of school, liked how the Lancer basketball team handled itself in the championship game against Kamehameha-Hawai'i.

"Our girls were outplayed, but they never gave up," White said. "Their supporters did likewise, staying positive and supportive even in a sound defeat. Handling failure with poise is a goal we have for our girls."

THE FUTURE

The Lancers move up to Division I next year in all of its sports. With it comes the challenge of competing with the bigger schools and drawing upon what they have built.

"It's going to be a challenge moving up from D-II to D-I," said softball pitcher Joslyn Eugenio, whose team was the Division II runner-up last year. "We can do it if we just believe and we just have to practice a lot harder. The competition will be a lot harder so we have to keep up with them."

Matsui told his basketball players to remember what they accomplished this season.

"I told the girls to enjoy it," he said. "It's something you'll remember the rest of your lives and no one can ever take it away from you."