Kealakehe will play at home on Saturday for the BIIF Division I title against Hilo — an advantage the Waveriders earned by losing only one game in BIIF play and defeating Hilo on the road during the regular season. ADVERTISING
Kealakehe will play at home on Saturday for the BIIF Division I title against Hilo — an advantage the Waveriders earned by losing only one game in BIIF play and defeating Hilo on the road during the regular season.
But for the majority of the year, it hasn’t exactly felt like a one-loss season for the Waveriders. There have been many twists and turns to go with some highs and lows, but one of the hallmarks of a championship team is battling through that adversity.
Kealakehe has done just that, and a new adjective can be used to describe the Waveriders heading into the title clash with their east side rival: cohesive.
“Our team has come a long way,” Kealakehe linebacker Pulama Louis said. “It took a little while for us to mesh, but now we are ready to go.”
A large chunk of that unity took shape after the 30-29 double-overtime victory against Hilo at Wong Stadium on Oct. 2. The offense executed, hit on long plays and managed its season-high, to that point, on the scoreboard. Meanwhile, the defense rose to the occasion, all the way up until the final botched extra point by the Vikings.
“I haven’t played in a game like that since probably Pop Warner, but it couldn’t even compare. Head-to-head, and fighting for home field — whew,” Louis said. “In that game, the offense really came around. People have been saying the defense has been carrying our team, but it takes both units to win a game.”
When the Kealakehe offense is clicking, it can usually be traced back to senior Riggs Kurashige, who will be playing in the fourth title game of his high school career on Saturday.
Kurashige got a taste of the BIIF championship as a freshman, but Kealakehe has lost the last two to the Viks.
“I want the same feeling from when I was a freshman,” Kurashige said. “It’s been high intensity in practice, and we have upped the level every week. I think that hard work is starting to show. In the last game against Keaau, all our engines were hitting on offense.”
That might be an understatement. Kealakehe posted 43 first half points on the Cougars to coast into the title game. However, Kealakehe understands Hilo will be an entirely different challenge.
“We have to stay mentally and physically prepared. This game is just a matter of who wants it more,” Louis said. “We need to play our game, as a team. We know they are going to come in here hungry, but we just have to be hungrier.”
The Waveriders use another H-word to supplement their hunger. That word is heart — something senior offensive lineman Josiah Kia said they picked up in the preseason after losing to Iolani 37-0 and watching an undermanned Castle team defeat Campbell 33-32 at Aloha Stadium.
“We saw a lot of heart from Castle. I think we needed to see that as a team,” Kia said. “The next week, we were behind 20-0 to Kamehameha, but came back and won. I think the kind of heart we showed that night describes this team pretty well.”
Yet another H-word Kealakehe head coach Sam Kekuaokalani has stressed to his players is history. The locker room walls at Kealakehe are lined with pictures of former players, coaches and BIIF title teams. The 2015 edition of Waveriders are continuing a streak of consecutive championship game appearances that spans back to 2002.
“We stand on the shoulders of those before us,” Kekuaokalani said. “But now, it’s our turn.”
