The Maui Interscholastic League on Friday announced a new master football schedule for the 2023 season that included five games for Lahainaluna, the high school of the West Maui community devastated by a wildfire earlier this month.

The Lunas — an MIL powerhouse that won four straight HHSAA Division II championships from 2016 to 2019 and was the Division I state runner-up in 2021 — will begin their league schedule Sept. 30, a full four weeks after the rest of the MIL. Lahainaluna will play Baldwin at War Memorial Stadium in Wailuku.

Most of the Lahaina community has been displaced, with thousands of buildings burned. Many Lahainaluna students have transferred to other schools. The Maui News reported that Lahainaluna will function as a “school within a school” at the newly opened Kulanihakoi High in Kihei.

The red-clad Lunas have long been considered the pride and joy of Lahaina, with a loyal following of fans that regularly traveled to Oahu for state playoff games.

The MIL was forced to shelve its football schedule, as well as other fall sports like girls volleyball, after the Aug. 8 wildfire that resulted in the deaths of at least 115 people.

The MIL said in a statement Friday, "These (new) schedules have been developed taking into account the fluid situation in West Maui. Lahainaluna teams are included so that when the school is in session, the schedules can accommodate and welcome them to participate in fall sports."

Its redone football schedule begins next weekend with Baldwin traveling to Kamehameha-Maui, followed by Maui High visiting King Kekaulike, which recently reopened after experiencing damage from the same high winds that stoked the brushfires.

The MIL could face a dilemma for league playoff seeding, as Maui High is slated to play nine league games, Baldwin eight, and King Kekaulike and Kamehameha-Maui seven.

Among the Lunas five games are two listed at home, on Oct. 7 against Maui High and Oct. 21 against Baldwin. However, it is only considered tentative that those games would be played at Lahainaluna's Sue Cooley Stadium, on the mountainside overlooking devastated Lahaina.

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.