Some bonus material from this week’s prep feature story on Hanalani senior Ellana Klemp. This is the stuff that we didn’t have space for from the story and her Q&A.
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Q&A
Ellana Klemp
Hanalani basketball
Sr.
Did you know?
>> All three Klemp siblings are Hanalani student-athletes. Her older brother Jackson (class of 2023) ran cross country and younger brother Trevor (2026) plays basketball.
>> Ellana’s first name is pronounced el-LANE-ah.
Top 3 movies/shows
1. “The Notebook”
2. “Top Gun Maverick”
3. “Pirates of the Caribbean”
“I used to watch ‘The Notebook’ at least once a week maybe sophomore year of high school. I’d say over 50 times. A couple times with my mom, but normally, I’m alone. My younger brother actually likes the movie, which is surprising. My friends, I’ve forced some of them to watch it.”
Top 3 foods/drinks
1. Dark chocolate from Choco le‘a.
2. Doritos (spicy sweet chili)
3. Gatorade (orange)
“Anything chocolate. Reece’s peanut butter cups. Peanut M&M’s.”
Top 3 homemade food
1. Mac and cheese
2. Dad’s chicken legs
3. Grandma’s fettuccine alfredo
“I’ll normally make mac and cheese in a pot. My nanna makes it when she visits sometimes and it’s delicious.”
Top 3 music artists/favorite song
1. Lauren Daigle – “Valuable”
2. Zach Bryan – “Burn, Burn, Burn”
3. Morgan Wallen – “7 Summers”
Favorite athlete: Anthony Edwards.
Favorite team: “Don’t really have a favorite NBA team, but I love UConn women’s basketball. Over the years when Paige Bueckers went there I liked them even more. They’re just fun to watch. (Geno Auriemma) is still a pretty good coach. His ways are a little more old school, but still effective.”
Funniest teammate: Tamilyn Celestine.
“She’s kind of has a dry sense of humor, but it’s also unexpected. She’s kind of the quiet side, but she can say something out of the blue and make you laugh.”
Smartest teammate: Jayda Okuhara and Christina Harrison.
“Jayda has a good work ethic and it pays off. Christina spent this summer at a Harvard summer program.”
GPA: 4.2
Favorite teacher: Mrs. (Katherine) Baquero.
Favorite class: Exercise science and First aid/CPR.
“It’s actually on class. The whole goal of it is to get us certified and trained. The first semester was first aid, then next semester it’s CPR on adults and babies. I really like the teacher. He’s super fun and really good at getting all the details and everything in our heads. That way we can really apply it. A lot of the kids in the class are really good friends, so that makes it fun. We just learned about basic human anatomy.”
Favorite motto/scripture: “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.” —1 Corinthians 16:13-14
“I love how it’s very to understand. A good wanting to be aware at all times because there’s so many distractions in the world. It’s a good reminder to me. Everything in love it’s so important to go about your day with that mindset.”
Hidden talent: Playing guitar.
“I do all of it. I help play in my church, and at school chapel. but it’s kind of when I’m exhausted after a long day, I just pull music up and learn a song. I’m still trying to learn ‘Blackbird’ by the Beatles. It sounds really pretty. And ‘Linger’ by the Cranberries.”
New life skill: Just became certified in First Aid.
Bucket list: Travel to Paris with my mom.
“My mom and I have talked about that for a very long time. Having some coffee, walking around. We just want to experience it together. Sometimes it’s a different experience when the boys are around.”
Time machine: “I would travel to a past summer when I spent time with my family at a lake house in Wisconsin. We do that every summer. The guys do a lot of fishing and we’ll go tubing and water skiing. It’s relaxing, too.”
Youth sports: Club soccer, volleyball and basketball
If you could go back in time, what would you tell your younger self?
“Find the joy in whatever you are doing because it makes any experience so much better.”
Shout outs: ”My family for all the sacrifices they’ve made for me over the years. My team for the joy they bring into my life. All my coaches who have pushed me to where I am now. Physical therapist Jamie Dominguez. Friend and trainer Traci Mccombs.”
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Kyle Klemp was a cross country runner in high school and college. Though he and Heather graduated from Concordia College (Mequon, Wisc.), they did not meet until they crossed paths in Central Oahu. She was a teacher at Our Savior Lutheran in Aiea. Kyle taught at Trinity Christian. They coached their respective youth teams and met at Wahiawa District Park gym. Two people from the same college, meeting for the first time in a small P&R gym 4,221 miles away.
“Our friend (David Witting) introduced us,” Kyle recalled.
“I was new to the island. I had seen and knew of him in college,” Heather said. “We had different circles of friends. I knew he was good with kids, loves God, loves sports. I can give this guy a shot.”
Watching Kyle coach, of course, was slightly different from dating.
“He was pretty intense, always working the referees. I got to see all sides of him. We had a really good youth group and he would come and help with them. I saw that connection with the kids a lot more,” she said.
Within a few weeks, they began dating.
“Grading papers. Going out after basketball games. Teacher stuff,” Heather said.
After 11 months, they made the big decision.
“By the end of 2002, we knew we wanted to get married,” she said.
The wedding was in December of 2003 at Our Savior.
“The school band played. Our work friends were our new family. They were really our closest family,” Heather said.
There was a move to Illinois, where Heather is from, which explains the lively Bears-Packers rivalry in the Klemp household. Jackson and Ellana were born in Illinois. Jackson was easy. Ellana was not.
“I had an awful pregnancy with Ellana. I had kidney stones. They put a stent inside me, but it could have produced labor and they kept telling me she would not survive outside the womb at five months,” Heather said. “It was so upsetting. The three months the stent was still in me, her lungs weren’t able to develop. As soon as she was born, everything was back to normal. I still have PTSD about the kidney stones. Whenever I have aching in my back, I start drinking lots of water.”
After moving back to the Midwest, but the Klemps soon found themselves back in the islands.
“That was 2009, 2010. There weren’t any schools hiring. The recession was big,” Kyle recalled. “We still had connections in Hawaii. I never wanted to come back or thought we would come back, but we felt called by the Lord to bring us back.”
Oldest child Jackson became a cross country runner at Hanalani. Younger brother Trevor is a high-scoring swingman for the Royals’ boys team. He scored 19 points in a loss to Woodside Priory (Calif.) over the weekend at the Punahou Invitational.
Two years younger than Jackson and one year older than Trevor, Ellana was entrenched in soccer from a young age. She was always around basketball, the toddler bouncing a ball at the annual basketball camp. She finally started playing organized hoops when she was 9. Then came a left foot injury. When Klemp healed up, she was done with futbol.
“I played a lot of soccer growing up, but when I started playing basketball, I wasn’t too good. I was competitive and I wanted to win. It was very busy to have soccer practice, then basketball practice. When I was able to come back, I didn’t want to go to soccer practice anymore. I had been playing for so long and it just felt so robotic doing the same thing. Basketball was newer. I was probably better at basketball so that gave me confidence in the sport,” she said.
Kyle Kurasaki was a coach in the MCA youth league. Kyle Klemp was also a coach in the league. They both have sons named Trevor, and their daughters are the same age. Brooke Kurasaki is a standout senior guard at Mililani, where Kyle was the head coach until early December.
“I’ve known Ellana since she was in elementary school, since MCA league. She was tall, could shoot the ball and was lanky. To me, she’s a mismatch because she can handle the ball like a guard, and if she has a smaller guard on her, she can post them up. She’s definitely an all-around outstanding player, and super smart,” Kurasaki said.
Klemp and Brooke Kurasaki played together on Team Aloha.
“I’ve seen her compete on the mainland against the best,” Kyle Kurasaki said. “She can get off her shot whenever she wants. She would’ve fit in with any Division I team.”
Back in the day, MCA had future high school standouts in Klemp, Kristi Kagawa of Mid-Pacific, and Akemi Kawamata and Brooke Kurasaki of Mililani.
“I told (Ellana’s) dad, she’d fit right in at Mililani. No matter where she goes, she’ll find her way and fit in. She’ll share the ball, rebound and defend,” he said. “A total team player.”
Klemp never needed prodding. Heather Klemp played high school basketball and volleyball before an ACL injury cut her playing days short.
“I remember my dad telling me what to do to get better. It was such a chore. Rolling my eyes,” Heather Klemp said. “It was never like that with Ellana. We had a hoop in our driveway. She was always outside playing with her brothers. She would always find something to work on.”
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The past four years at Hanalani have been regal and rooted for the senior class of hoopsters. It began at the start of freshman year for Aliya Hofherr-Sanders.
“I met Ellana on orientation day. We played an ice-breaker game and we clicked instantly. Ever since then we’ve been besties,” she said.
Together, Klemp and Hofherr-Sanders have done yoga poses, but not exactly yoga. They love to dance.
“She’s God-loving, prayerful, honest, sarcastic, loyal, trustworthy, encouraging, reliable and beautiful inside and out,” Hofherr-Sanders added.
Ainsley Lee goes back a bit further with Klemp.
“I first met Ellana when we were in preschool. I remember somehow being closer to her from the instant we met. She was also very smiley and always wearing bright colors,” Lee recalled.
“My favorite memory with her was when we were waiting in the car for my mom. We couldn’t figure out how to turn on the car, so it was blowing hot air and we were profusely sweating. Neither of us thought to just open the car door,” Lee said.
To be a Royal is to be loyal.
“Ellana is a good friend because she’s always there whether it’s talking, venting, studying or asking her to come watch a movie with me when I’m bored,” Lee added. “She always shows up when she can.”
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