Chanelle Molina Earns Third Gatorade POTY Award

Konawaena senior Chanelle Molina. File photo by Bobby Command.

Konawaena High School senior Chanelle Molina has once again received the state’s highest recognition in girls basketball.

For the third consecutive year, Molina, the oldest of three sisters on the Konawaena girls basketball team, was named the Gatorade Hawai’i Girls Basketball Player of the Year.

Molina missed most of the Big Island Interscholastic Federation regular season due to a high ankle sprain suffered at the Title IX Classic in Washington D.C. last December. She returned for her team’s regular season finale against Hilo and played in just six games in the 2016 calendar year.

Playing in 19 of her team’s 27 games, Molina averaged 19 points, eight rebounds, and 7.6 assists per contest. She scored a season-high 26 points to lead Konawaena past South Medford at the Title IX Classic, but her big performance came in the OC16/Hawai’i High School Athletic Association Division I Girls Basketball Championship against Maryknoll, scoring 24 points to push the Wildcats to a 44-33 win in the title game.

Konawaena finished the season at 26-1.

“Chanelle Molina is a phenomenal player and probably one of the best to come out of Hawai’i,” said Punahou head coach Elizabeth Kam. “It’s not only her athleticism and skill set that set her apart, but also her basketball IQ and ability to read defenders and make the right plays consistently are on point. From what I’ve observed while coaching against her, she is a very humble, gracious, and hardworking player. Each year, she consistently got better, but did so with humility and great respect for the game of basketball, her coaches, and her team.”

Molina has mixed her dominance on the court with excellence in the classroom, achieving a 3.45 grade point average. Away from the court, she has taken part in Konawaena Elementary School’s literary-outreach initiative and volunteered on behalf of the Women’s Basketball Coaching Association’s Pink Zone initiative to raise awareness in the fight against breast cancer.

Molina has signed her letter of intent to attend Washington State University.