Red Raiders for Life recently doubled their pride when:

• In the league's first-ever double-overtime sudden-death finish, the Kahuku High varsity football team claimed the 2008 OIA Red Division championship on November 7 at Aloha Stadium when a dead-on field goal kick by St. John Lessary III split the uprights to put the Red Raiders ahead of the Farrington Governors, 22-19.

• At the same time that night across town at McKinley High School some loyal fans decided to support the Kahuku High girls varsity volleyball team who earlier had won their OIA championship but went down in a three-game defeat to ILH powerhouse Punahou in the HHSAA semifinals. The Red Raider ladies came back the next day to defeat Kamehameha-Maui for the third-place finish in the state behind Kamehameha and Punahou, who took first and second, respectively.

Football

Kahuku High Athletic Director Joe Whitford noted the Red Raiders finished season play with a 10-1 record — losing only to Kamehameha in pre-season. "The win gives us an automatic second-round semifinal berth in the HHSAA playoffs at Aloha Stadium on Thanksgiving Friday," he said. "We'll play the winner of Leilehua and Baldwin."

Whitford described the win over Farrington as a "battle. We didn't score first, but we tied the game at the end of the first quarter, 7-7. Then Farrington went ahead and led at half-time, 13-7."

"We made some adjustments in the second half and kind of held them at bay for the rest of the game," he continued. "We tied the game in the third quarter, and then we went ahead 19-13 on an 87-yard interception runback by Aulola Tonga, but we couldn't make the point after."

Before the end of regulation play, however, the Govs caught up. "They had a chance to win, but they couldn't make the point after either, so the score was 19-19, so each team had two tries to score in the first overtime." Kahuku went first, but neither team scored.

"We went second in the second overtime," Whitford continued. "They missed a field goal attempt, but we came back and scored our field goal."

"One of the interesting things about this game is none of our players had ever one won a championship before, either OIA JV or varsity. They worked hard and made some adjustments from last year, and it all came together. It was a total team effort."

Whitford stressed that Kahuku has a "very young offensive line this year, so the seniors need to be commended for their leadership examples and helping the younger guys get the win."

"It was also a great effort on coach Reggie Torres' part. He made sure all of the coaching staff were on the same page in working together, and I think everything showed out on the field."

Asked our chances in the state tournament, the AD diplomatically replied Leilehua looks tough, and has been our obstacle for the past few years."

For example, in JV action the boys last to Leilehua in the semifinals. "Prior to that, they had not lost all season. I also want to say that there are 13 or 14 sophomores on the varsity who could have easily stayed on the JV and made a difference there. So, you can imagine we're going to be very strong in the next couple of years.

— Photos by Joe Brown

Girls volleyball

The Kahuku girls completed a perfect 16-0 OIA Red season on October 30 by defeating Moanalua in a hard-fought back-and-forth series that went the distance: 25-18, 21-25, 28-26, 22-25 and 15-13. That victory, which at one point included a 13-1 run, gave the Red Raiders second seed in the state tournament and a first-round bye.

"In the quarterfinal match they beat Mililani in three sets," Whitford said, "but they lost in three sets to Punahou in the semifinals. Last year our girls finished fourth in the state, with three ILH teams ahead of them; so among our own league and the neighbor islands, we seem to be the best."

Whitford praised head coach Uila Fotu Vendiola, "who only lost that one match in all the season and post-season games. This year the team had 10 seniors out of the 14 girls, which is a good way for them to go out. We had great senior leadership from Nile Te‘o, among others."

Other sports news

"Everything else is pretty much done, and we're kind of in an interim," Whitford continued, thanking all the student athletes who participated this Fall.

"Basketball for both girls and boys will start December 1 with tryouts, and of course, Hiram Akina has succeeded Nathan James as the boys head coach. We anticipate a good turnout, with a lot of solid players coming back. It should be an exciting year."

Whitford added that the girls will be playing this year in the OIA White Division, "so with the talent we have, I don't see anything less than playing for the OIA championship."

He added that Kahuku had its "best season ever for bowling. Coach Joe Holtzman did a great job with good participation from both girls and boys, but bowling's not our major sport.

Whitford explained that he has asked all athletes "to pay $20 toward our transportation shortfall, and most of the teams have come through."

Cutting costs

"Because of DOE reductions, we've had to cut our transportation budget in half — from $22,000 to $11,000 a year — and the same with supplies and equipment, which includes uniforms and balls." He added going forward all of the uniforms will be stored in a designated room to see "if we can't have them last longer, so we don't have to buy as much in the coming years."

Whitford said other "budget-cutting efforts" during this Spring will include:

• "Cutting transportation in half in baseball by playing double-headers on Saturday instead of playing Wednesday games."

• "We're also looking at playing double-headers in tennis, cutting out the week-day matches. We'll have three teams go to site."

• "The same with boys volleyball."

• "In varsity basketball we're going back to two referees. That's going to save a third of the referee budget. We might save between $7,000-8,000 in officials costs."

• "We're also going to do the same in soccer," Whitford continued, "and only have two officials — one on the field and one on the side-line."

"Our coaches may not be too happy with some of these cuts, but that's what we have to do. It's either this, or we may have to cut sports — and we definitely don't want to do that. We want our student athletes to continue to participate."

"I also want to let the fans and parents know with fewer officials, we shouldn't be too hard on them," he said.

In addition to basketball, Whitford said the next sports coming up include paddling, wrestling, swimming and soccer.