HONOLULU — Prep football fervor returns with a flourish this weekend.
Three straight nights of action kick off the 2022 season coming off the first summer of relatively normal preparation since 2019.
The action kicks off Thursday night when Waialua visits host Farrington at 6 p.m. at Skippa Diaz Stadium.
Marquee matchups follow on Friday, with Saint Louis at Mililani, and on Saturday, with Kamehameha at Kahuku as the defending state Open Division champion Red Raiders break in their brand new turf field.
“Oh, it’s going to be electric,” Kahuku coach Sterling Carvalho said. “The Red Sea is going to come out in full force.”
This year marks, for the time being, the return of a normal schedule across all leagues in the state; the 2021 season stretched until the state tournament in December as some leagues got underway later due to Hawaii’s COVID-19 policy.
But “normal” as a whole? Not quite, as teams are painfully aware that an untimely spike within the ranks of a team can bring championship aspirations to a halt. Still fresh in the minds of players and coaches is the debacle of the entire 2020 season being canceled.
COVID testing, at least for the unvaccinated, is still a thing.
“You know, we are still very mindful of what we’ve learned from the past two years,” Iolani coach Wendell Look said. “We haven’t really taken it for granted that this is over. So we remind the kids and ourselves to be smart about what they do away from football. It’s still part of our lives, and I guess it always will be now.”
Official practices began July 18, but teams’ players were, in many cases, training throughout the offseason. Kahuku, for example, continued its excellence in Pylon football tournaments both locally and on the mainland.
As was the case last season, the Oahu Interscholastic Association and Interscholastic League of Honolulu have separate league schedules — although there are several notable out-of-league crossover games.
There was a notable change to a state tournament rule for how leagues could send teams to the postseason; football teams may now qualify for the state tournament even if they are the only team in their division competing in a given league, matching the rule for other sports. For example, Pac-Five will now qualify for states as the only ILH team competing in Division II, and Kapaa, the defending D-II state champ, made a move up to Division I knowing it will qualify despite being the only Kauai Interscholastic Federation team competing at the D-I level this year.
Spectrum News spoke with the head coaches of the three defending state champions in the lead-up to the opening weekend: Kahuku (Open); Iolani (Division I) and Kapaa (Division II).
The Red Raiders are ready for more on the heels of their ninth championship of the state tournament era — and first in the Open after four straight by rival Saint Louis.
Behind offensive standouts like Kainoa Carvalho and defensive studs like linebackers Liona Lefau and Leonard Ah You, Kahuku thumped the Crusaders 49-14 in the 2021 championship and begins the season as the prohibitive favorite in the Open Division.
Ranked No. 49 in the MaxPreps preseason poll, Kahuku will test itself with two signature games in the middle of OIA play, on the road at No. 1 St. John Bosco (Calif.) on Sept. 17 and at home against No. 3 St. Frances (Maryland) on Sept. 30.
“Being a public school, the players that we have doesn’t come around very often. And we’re so deep offensively and defensively, so a team like this doesn’t come very often,” Sterling Carvalho said. “So, we wanted to see where we stack up against the nation’s best.”
But first, Kahuku will debut its new turf at Carleton Weimer Field, where it will play its first four games of the year after being away from home since 2019.
The dynamic Carvalho, the Star-Advertiser’s reigning offensive player of the year, recently verbally committed to Utah. Lefau, the Star-Advertiser’s top defensive player, has a standing commitment with Texas.
Sterling Carvalho said his nephew wanted to get the announcement out of the way so he can focus entirely on the season ahead. Carvalho will again get a chance to be a playmaker as a combination return man, slotback and running back.
Waika Crawford, who split time with Jason Mariteragi at quarterback last year, is in firm command of the position now, according to the coach. Clyde Taulapapa is back at running back and is paired with a potent transfer from Missouri in Mana Tapusoa.
The 2021 season was one of catharsis for the Raiders.
By not only winning the middle tier in the state tournament for the first time (38-0 over Lahainaluna), but doing so in undefeated fashion and coming off a year lost to the pandemic, Look, the state’s second-winningest coach behind only Cal Lee, was overwhelmed and moved by the accomplishment of his players.
The challenge begins anew as Iolani visits Kaiser in a nonleague game on Friday.
Iolani must replace workhorses on either side of the ball in running back Brody Bantolina and safety/linebacker Sterling Sakashita, and a leader on the line in center Raynne Passi.
“Brody, Sterling, Raynne, all those guys really set the bar high for our program,” Look said. “They accomplished something that in my 30-whatever years, we never went undefeated. It was satisfying that they had the opportunity to accomplish what they set out for two years ago.”
Look has about 16 seniors, though not all saw significant time last year.
“This group of seniors has, I think, have taken over from where we left off last year,” he said. “They understand how special last year’s team was and season was, and they have really lofty goals and tremendous shoes to fill this season.”
Iolani will duel Damien to determine the ILH’s Division I state representative. Both will face the secondary squads of Punahou, Kamehameha and Saint Louis — games that will count in the ILH standings, though those I-AA teams are not eligible for the postseason.
Iolani has options at quarterback with senior Micah Hoomanawanui, junior Kualau Manuel and freshman CJ Villanueva.
Their top targets are Kaeo Miyahira, Tristan Martinez, Taniela Taliauli and Tyger Hayashi.
Defensively, the Raiders will lean on hybrids Jacob Gaudi and Asher Matsui, the Morioka twin defensive backs, Bronson and Brayden, and defensive lineman Ha‘aheo Dela Cruz, who has verbally committed to Hawaii.
When the Warriors brought the koa trophy to the Garden Isle, a first in Kauai history, the celebration was on — starting from the moment their plane received a water salute at the Lihue airport.
“It just got better from there and it’s never stopped,” coach Mike Tresler said.
“I can’t tell you how many people across the island (celebrated), and it didn’t matter what school, that we finally brought one home for the island.”
Now the Warriors will try a higher difficulty setting, with an even younger team.
They’ve lost a few players from their massive line like Kawika Rogers, who is now playing at Oregon.
The line and power running game is still Kapaa’s strength.
“Make no doubt about it; that’s where our bread and butter is,” Tresler said. “We gotta be great at it to succeed. Definitely will be running the ball a lot.”
Two-way stud Solomone Malafu, who put on an electrifying performance in the 61-7 state tournament rout of Kamehameha-Maui with four rushing touchdowns and six 2-point conversions, is back as a senior and has Division I offers in the double digits.
Tresler said he’ll do what he can not to burn out Malafu, a linebacker who is expected to shift around on defense this year.
“Mone, he is all that,” Tresler said. “He’s being recruited by D-I schools. He’s a great person and a super hard worker. I’m excited to see him do his thing on the football field.”
Part of Kapaa’s move up to D-I is a dramatically beefed up nonleague schedule. The Warriors begin at reigning OIA D-I champ Aiea on Saturday and host Saint Louis in a marquee afternoon matchup Aug. 13.
“I don’t recall the likes of Saint Louis in their current status,” Tresler said of whether a KIF team has hosted a state contender in the recent past. “It’s going to be electric for Kauai. Let’s face it, when do you have one of those top-four teams that’s a storied program (come here)?
“They’re not used to playing day games and we are, so maybe that will be an advantage. They’ll melt in the sun,” he added with a laugh.
Tresler, who is recovering from a case of COVID, used that as an example to his team that it still must be cautious.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.