Kaniela Kalama is not a coach easily satisfied.

In his upbeat way, Kahuku’s first-year head coach reflected on a tight, three-set sweep of Moanalua and saw plenty of room for improvement — not that he wasn’t stoked about winning the Oahu Interscholastic Association Red girls volleyball championship.

"Oh, I’m happy. We’ve met one of our goals, so now we just go back to practice and try to reach our other goals," he said. "We did OK, but we could still do better."

Kalama also credited assistant coach and former Rainbow Wahine star Aneli Cubi-Otineru, his "defensive coordinator."

Kahuku drew the third seed for the Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I state championships, which begins tomorrow at the campuses of Kamehameha-Maui and King Kekaulike. The Lady Raiders will play the Pearl City-Kamehameha winner on Thursday in a quarterfinal.

Punahou is the No. 1 seed and tourney co-host Kamehameha-Maui is No. 2. KS-Hawaii has the fourth seed. Seeds have first-round byes.

The D-II state championships begin tomorrow at McKinley and Kalani. University has the top seed, while Molokai is seeded second. Roosevelt is third and Hawaii Prep is fourth.

Yellow alert

The remarkable string of yellow flags that left Castle and Leilehua with a combined 15 penalties for 171 yards in the first quarter of their game on Saturday was not the result of an order or directive to officials.

It just seemed that way. With head injuries mounting nationally in recent weeks, plus a recent injury locally, officials simply did their task.

"Our guys are only human. They hear this and see that," Oahu Interscholastic Association chief official Jim Beavers said. "It’s always been, ‘You see it. You throw it. You stop it.’ "

Many of the calls were for illegal contact with the helmet — spearing.

"Both teams are excitable and nobody is backing off," said Beavers, who did not work the game, but watched it later on video. "If you don’t enforce it, you’ll never get (control) back."

The emphasis on helmet contact came from the National Federation of State High School Associations this season, he added.

Castle finished with 13 penalties for 131 yards. Leilehua racked up 19 flags for 191 yards.