KAILUA-KONA — Konawaena is making the jump to Division I for the BIIF football season.
The Wildcats made the decision official during the league’s monthly meeting on Wednesday, ending a process that started in January when the BIIF’s three 8-man programs decided to join the 11-man ranks.
Konawaena joins Hilo, Keaau, Kealakehe, Waiakea and Honokaa — which previously moved up from D-II — in Division I.
“It’s going to be a challenge for our program, but that’s what we have always been about at Konawaena,” Konawaena head coach Brad Uemoto said in a text message to West Hawaii Today. “It was time to make the leap.”
Konawaena lost to Kamehameha in the D-II title game last season, but had won six of the previous seven division titles, making it to the D-II state championship in 2017 before falling in a seven-overtime all-time classic to Lahainaluna.
Uemoto said while his program will miss its divisional rivalries against Hawaii Prep and Kamehameha-Hawaii, it was a logical move. It allows the Wildcats to play a competitive schedule and against programs that will field JV teams, both important factors for Uemoto.
Division II will include defending champion Kamehameha-Hawaii, Hawaii Prep and the three former 8-man squads: Ka’u, Kohala and Pahoa.
With three-tiered or play-everybody schedule solutions being shot down, the league has opted to play a divisional format. Divisional opponents will play each other twice per season in home-and-aways. Preseason play begins the weekend of Aug. 2-3 and the BIIF regular season kicks off on Aug. 22.
As it stands now, the BIIF playoffs will be a one-week affair between each division’s top two squads in the first weekend of November. A bye week will follow before the HHSAA tournament.
The move by the Wildcats ensures the Division I schedule will be interesting nearly week in and week out — something that hasn’t always been the case. Since 2003, when the league split into two divisions, Kealakehe and Hilo have combined for all but one D-I title. The team that broke the trend was Honokaa in 2009, which accomplished the feat under head coach Fred Lau. After some time away, Lau returned to the Dragons program this offseason. It wasn’t long after that Honokaa decided to take on the challenge of D-I.
“The schedule will be awesome,” said Uemoto, whose Wildcats have a preseason contest with California powerhouse Mission Viejo at Julian Yates Field as well.
The BIIF is set to have 11 football members for the first time since the league began sponsoring the sport in 1956. Currently the league is awarded a single berth in both the D-I and D-II state tournaments.
In 2016, the HHSAA D-I field was made up of eight teams and the BIIF was awarded two D-I berths, which went to runner-up Waiakea and champion Hilo. Both teams lost in the first round, with the Warriors falling 48-0 to No. 2 seeded Campbell.
BIIF executive director Lyle Crozier said if there are any changes, they would come at next week’s Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association (HIADA) conference on Kauai.
“A lot is going to be discussed,” Crozier said.
