With six weeks left until the end of the school year and currently two meets scheduled for the BIIF track and field season, the Kealakehe Waveriders boys and girls teams are ready to roll.
After having their 2020 season canceled due to COVID-19, the Waveriders have been in high preparation mode for a much-anticipated meet tomorrow at Hawaii Preparatory Academy — the first in over two years. Kealakehe track and field head coach, Duke Hartfield, says “the kids can’t wait!”
“They are excited and they really wish their friends were here, everybody has just missed it,” Hartfield said of his team last week. “It was so heartbreaking to watch those seniors go off last season and not get that last senior year. The kids this year don’t want that to happen to them and they are working hard.”
Hartfield, who has been at the helm as track and field head coach since 2008, said the pandemic certainly had a negative impact on the sport. He is currently working with the lowest turnout to date — half of his normal roster of 50 to 60 student-athletes as some students chose work over sport, while others deal with a lack of transportation to practices, and the reality that it’s been two years since their last meet.
“We just want the kids to show up and we don’t know what we are going to end up with,” Hartfield said. “We are up to 25 now — COVID has really knocked our program down. Some of our premiere distance kids are here since they have been active with Coach Patrick over the year. Some of the boys who also are football players did some football combine so they have stayed in shape and they have showed up.
“Here at this school, there are a lot of crossover for the kids that do a lot of other sports and they also come out for track. And that’s what I’m really missing right now. We don’t have everyone that we are used to having.”
While there is also hope of having a total of five meets calendared before the season ends, other exciting news circulating on campus has been about the replacement of Kealakehe’s cinder track into a new state of the art all-weather track.
“We’ve been in the design phase for over a year and it’s been in the budgetary approval phase for at least three to four years,” said Patrick Bradley, who is the assistant track and field coach and head coach for Kealakehe’s cross-country team. “It’s a three-million-dollar project and they will start on it next month. We’ve needed this for a long time so we will have it for the 2022 track and field season.”
Bradley added the current cinder track is outdated and built when the high school opened in 1999. The plan is to begin construction on the new synthetic track right after graduation in May, with a date of completion by November.
“I don’t know the history of why we didn’t get a synthetic track then, or why they decided on cinder, but nobody wants to compete on cinders anymore because it’s slow, it’s slippery and it requires a lot of maintenance,” Bradley said. “So, we will have an all-new synthetic track, we will have a brand-new pole vault, high jump, triple jump, shot put, and discus all right here within the track facility. It will be a blue synthetic track and the relay lines will be silver. It’s going to be the best facility in Hawaii.”
Bradley expressed appreciation and already has his sights set toward the future of the sport.
“We are really grateful to be getting this. I think it’s great for the kids and the school. We plan on having some really big meets here and hopefully the state championships in the future. I want to try to bring back the Big Island relays and maybe even a summer program for all comers. This is going to be great!”
