Named the Maui Interscholastic League’s 2010 Division I Player of the Year, 5’4” point guard Maiki Viela—known for her “dime-dropping exploits,” according to ESPN Insider—helped lead Lahainaluna to the MIL’s first-ever Hawaiian Airlines Division I Girls Basketball State Championship this February. Opposite defending champs, Konawaena High of Hawaii Island, the Lady Lunas were down 11 points in the fourth quarter when a floater from Viela ignited a harried, championship-winning run for the second-seeded team. After the win, coach Todd Rickard told The Maui News Viela is “a true point guard who can get through traps and relentless pressure.” She was picked for the 2009 Team Aloha Girls Basketball Team, but opted to join “Team Taurasi”—affiliated with two-time U.S. Olympian and WNBA All-Star, Diana Taurasi—the most elite travel team of the California Storm Basketball Club. In March, she was named 2009-’10 Gatorade Hawaii Girls Basketball Player of the Year, which awards “not only outstanding excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character.”
She was great as part of Lahainaluna’s Lady Lunas basketball team, wasn’t she? This former Honolulu Star-Advertiser Player of the Year really played hard out on the court. Their winning seasons in the last few years were in large part to her toughness and dedication, to say nothing of her excellence in the classroom. To no one’s surprise, late last year Viela signed onto Gonzaga’s dominating female basketball team. If people expect greatness from Viela, it’s only because she’s never not been great.
Sports and Leisure Maiki Viela She was great as part of Lahainaluna’s Lady Lunas basketball team, wasn’t she? This former Honolulu ...
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Entertainment and lifestyle news for Maui, Hawaii and the surrounding Islands. Maui Time Weekly is Mauis only independent and locally owned newspaper.
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