Kahuku defensive back Stokes Nihipali-Botelho was voted the USA Today Super 25 Top Star for games played last week by readers of USA Today high school sports.
Nihipali-Botelho returned the opening kickoff 84 yards for a touchdown and had two interceptions on defense while helping the No. 1-ranked Red Raiders hold Campbell to negative yardage in a 44-0 victory.
The win was the 17th in a row for the Red Raiders, who play winless Radford tonight before heading to Las Vegas next week to face No. 1 Bishop Gorman (Nev.) next Saturday.
Botelho also kicked all six extra points against Campbell and talked to Hawaii Prep World’s Nick Abramo after the game.
“This whole week we’ve been practicing all of our special teams, so everybody was on,” Nihipali-Botelho said. “We were making sure all of us were 100 percent and knew our jobs, so we just had to come out and execute, and — with all of that combined with what I did — it felt really good.
“We’ve got a lot to work on, giving up too much yards, too many big plays. We’ve just got to come back next week (to prepare for the Radford game on Friday), start working on it and hopefully come out better.”
Head coach Vavae Tata had this to say about Stokes-Bolteho.
“He’s just a class act,” Tata said. “He does it all. He tries to beat his previous best. That’s what we all try to do on defense, beat our previous best performance.”
For more on Stokes-Botelho, click here.
What an awesome achievement to yet another Hawai’i football athlete!!!!!!
Congratulations to being USA Today’s Super 25 Top Star.
A true defensive prodigy!!!!!
Good luck in your future games and stay healthy!!!!!
One of my favorite players! Congratulations!
Way to go Stokey!!
SNB you the man, was there any doubt like definitely his many awesome performances were unquestionable. Congratulations and god bless you and keep you without any future injuries.
Great job…Palekana Street Bloodlines continues….Keep up the good work….All the best. ..GO BIG RED. ..