“To everything there is a season,” Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes, “and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
About this time for each of the last 50 years, young men strap on shoulder pads and put on white helmets to practice the pure art of prep football for Konawaena High School. They show up at practice in early August and wonder why they work so hard when they could be enjoying the dwindling days of summer at Magics or just chillaxing with friends. But their questions are answered in September when they descend down the stairs to play on the Emerald of Kalukalu, Julian Yates Field. After long bus rides in October to other parts of the island, more times than not someone in November hands them bling at the end of a ribbon that says “Big Island Interscholastic Federation Champions.”
I’ve been around for 35 of those years. I surprised myself when I thought about it. That’s kinda long. Been going to games all those years?
For those of you who might be thinking time warp, no, I don’t work for the paper anymore. But you might recognize my name since I devoted 25 year of my life to West Hawaii Today, seven of them as sports editor, starting right out of college in 1983. I also have a life-long passion for prep sports. And among other things, I’ve been the Voice of the Wildcats football team for about 10 years. I like to think that J.R. De Groote thinks I’m cool, but I think it’s for the other stuff that he asked me to say a few things about the 50th anniversary of Konawaena football.
While I pat myself on the back for being around since 1983, a bunch people at the game Friday were there at the very beginning. Back then, there were no concrete bleachers, the rickety old gym sat where the locker rooms are now, and the Ka’u end zone was about five feet higher than the Kohala goal. Coach Hans “Pete” L’Orange, who assisted at Konawaena for years, once told me veteran coaches ordered their captains to defer if they won the coin flip at Yates so they could make sure they were “headed downhill” in the fourth quarter.
Yates was still like that in 1983, when I showed up. It was smack in the middle of Jim Barry’s string of championships that lasted 11 straight under Roy Aukai and Bob Fitzgerald. That evening, Konawaena bullied Punahou 28-16. To this day, it galls me that at the end of an 11-1 season and following a 35-0 loss at Aloha Stadium to St. Louis, Cal Lee said the Wildcats would have little success in the ILH. Lee must have motivated the underclassmen because Kona visited Punahou the following year and really laid the pain on the elite prep schoolers.
One of my favorite moments at Yates was a game between Honokaa and Konawaena in 1985. The teams were undefeated and you know how it goes with a big game like that. Some say 4,000 witnessed the contest. You could cut the tension with a knife. I covered the game from the field and watched an upstart young Honokaa coaching staff threatening to end Kona’s grip on the title. On the other side of the field were three legends — Barry, L’Orange and Earl Crozier — trying just as hard to preserve it. The game ended with Honokaa inside the 10 and the Wildcats successfully defending four straight passes into the end zone.
Speaking of legends, Mr. Crozier is the father of Konawaena football, conspiring with then principal Morris Kimura, athletic director Albert “Baer” Ikeda and some others in the mid 1960s to bring the sport back after three decades of absence. In those days, Kona couldn’t play because the school was allowed to shift its summer vacation to September through November so kids could help harvest coffee on family farms. Shortly after the “coffee schedule” was abolished, Mr. Crozier somehow pieced together a program with kids who had never played football. They won two games, both against Honokaa. Two years later Crozier led them to their first title.
I was a newspaperman for 25 years and got lots of great quotes during that time. My favorite is from my good friend and former Kona coach Bob Fitzgerald. In a big upset loss against Honokaa in the late 80s, a Konawaena player fumbled forward into the end zone and a Dragon defender standing close to the back edge of the end zone scooped up the ball and ran the length of the field for a touchdown. I was standing so close to the play I could have picked the ball up first. I called it a 108-yard return in the morning paper. Bob grumbled to me a few days later. “I don’t think it was 108 yards,” Bob said, straightfaced. “Maybe 105.”
There have been so many great moments: Getting the monkey off our backs in 2015 when Konawaena, under current coach Brad Uemoto, defeated Damien 43-22 in the first round of the state tournament, which was awesome. Prior to that Kona was 0 for history in postseason playoff games. And I don’t have to remind anyone about last year, when the Cats and Lahainaluna forced a rule change after that 75-69 loss in seven overtimes. And there’s the one that still stings, hugging a devastated tackle — my son — following the 25-23 loss to Nanakuli in the first round of the 2012 tournament after Coach Cliff Walters’ boys took a big lead and lost at the end on an intentional grounding call in the end zone.
Do you remember 1998 when Kona invited Iolani and future Cal running back Joe Igber to town for a postseason “bowl” and beat them 41-17 at the Old Kona Airport? How about when Mr. Crozier took an 0-8 team in 1977 and turned them around to win the championship a year later. Perhaps 1999, when the Wildcats lost to Kahuku 47-14 in the first round of the first state championship tournament? Or the “No Clock Tie” at HPA in 1985 when the officials had to keep time on the field and suddenly informed Kona coaches that the 14-14 game was over as the Wildcats were setting up for a potential winning field goal?
I could go on and on and on. But if you’re reading this then you probably remember those moments as well. You’re probably also saying, “Nah… Command stay pupule. Wasn’t like that. Was like DIS…”
Back to the game tonight. While the 51st version of the Wildcats try to secure a homecoming win, some of the originals will be at Yates to be honored. Five decades after that season, most are still around, but right about where Social Security kicks in. Some have left, but many have stayed and worked long and productively to build the strong mauka Kona community we love and call home. A few served us in Vietnam. Yes, some have passed.
Anyway, if you’re lucky enough to see any of the original Wildcats at Yates Friday night, snap to attention, throw a high five, and say aloha and mahalo for providing the foundation of 50 years of fabulous football at Konawaena.