Prep sports year gave us moments to remember

One of the best things about high school sports is that the wins and losses matter less than they do in college and the pros.

Yes, of course the players try as hard, in some cases harder. And sometimes the defeats are more difficult to take. The ages of 15 through 18 are the most emotional of our lives in many ways, where everything can seem like life or death.

And try telling a teenager that not coming up with a key play in the state tournament is no big deal. It’s just the last inning, with only a berth in the championship game at stake. It’s just on statewide TV. Just your entire school and family watching.

The double down the line by Saint Louis’ Jordan Mopas will go down as one of the biggest plays in the 2013-14 Hawaii high school sports year. It drove in the run that got the Crusaders to the title game, where they beat Mililani for their first state championship since 1974.

But the moment I will always remember came a minute after Mopas’ hit. It did not affect the outcome, it won’t show up in any scorebook, it did not reverse the final score of Saint Louis 3, Campbell 1. But it will last forever for the two players involved, and in my mind.

Regardless of anything else he does as an athlete, to me Zachary Kapihe will always be a winner because of a little stroll he took from his third base position to left field while a relief pitcher warmed up. When he got there he said a few words to Keola Himan, the player who came up just a bit short on a diving attempt for a game-saving catch on Mopas’ double.

If you played high school sports, you know that’s the kind of thing that bonds you forever. Assuming Kapihe and Himan were friends, they’re now brothers.

I was watching the game with Jerry Campany, one of our primary high school sports reporters, and he noticed it, too.

Jerry reminded me about another bigger story related to prep sports last fall that also grabbed at our emotions, when Farrington football player Dayne Ortiz was lost at sea in November.

The Governors won their next game, 21-3, a state tournament quarterfinal against Baldwin on Maui.

FOR PURE dominance over the course of an individual career, Star-Advertiser preps writer Paul Honda points toward Mid-Pacific’s Joshua Terao sweeping every possible championship in wrestling and judo, four years in each.

He also agrees with me that Dakota Grossman of Seabury Hall doing the same in cross country and the 3,000 meters in track is a similarly impressive career feat.

The Kodi Medeiros-Jordan Yamamoto pitching matchup lived up to its billing when Waiakea played Saint Louis in the state quarterfinals.

Yamamoto threw a 2-hitter, but Medeiros was just as if not more impressive to the 30 pro scouts on hand. Saint Louis got the win, 2-0, and continued on to take four games in four days to capture the state title.

It’s fun to imagine how these seniors will perform at the next level.

As for Campbell’s Kapihe and Himan? They are juniors, with one more chance to take the Sabers all the way next year.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. Read his blog at staradvertiser.com/quickreads.