The Gilbert Classical Academy varsity volleyball team strives to bring passion and intensity – but also ohana and aloha to its 2018 season.

Coming from Hawaii, coach Kiana Hiapo explained Hawaiian volleyball as brave, courageous and fighting for what you believe in, so she is trying to build those same Hawaiian values into her second year at the small Class 2A school in Gilbert.  

Breaking volleyball stereotypes is another goal of Hiapo and GCA.

Hiapo said she wants her team to understand that they have the ability within themselves, and they don’t have to be at a huge school, or a huge height to attain what they want.

“It doesn’t matter how they look or how much the other teams look down on them,” Hiapo said. “It’s all about them pushing as hard as they can with what they have at the time, rather than just wishing for things and always being left behind.”

Junior Jordann Delozier added that one of the most important things for her this year is building chemistry on and off the court.

“We are not the tallest or the strongest, but our bond makes us stronger,” Delozier said.

GCA volleyball players said they have come together as a family, and junior Monet Bouchard said they play for each other, not just for themselves. 

“They’re like sisters,” Bouchard said. “That’s what I tell them. You have to play as family.”

As GCA dives deeper into its 2018 season, it already have a “big family goal” to make it to state, Bouchard said.  

But although state is the main goal, Hiapo has other goals as well to help make her team succeed.

“The goal is to make them not just good volleyball players, but the best that they can be so that they can benefit and share the aloha around this area and wherever they go because a lot of them have international dreams to change the world,” Hiapo said.

Delozier said she is excited for anything that happens this year, including the teams they will play, where they are going take it and how far they will go.

“(Gilbert Classical Academy) is a really awesome place with courteous, amazing, respectful kids, and I really feel that with the things that we learn and that I’m teaching this year, that they will be able to change a lot of the world,” Hiapo said.