It was the worst of days.

Yet, in another way, it was the best of days.

Moments after learning that their perfect season had been snuffed out due to an eligibility issue for one player, the Kahuku Red Raiders were among family.

At Kahuku, in the middle of the day, students and teachers gathered around their football team in an unofficial assembly on the football field. There were hugs all around for a team that was derailed by no foe. Instead, it was the specter of a player who was deemed ineligible by the Oahu Interscholastic Association.

"That’s the most support we ever got from the teachers," senior lineman Jackson Mapu said.

"The student body was behind the kids," coach Reggie Torres said. "It was an exciting feeling. The kids didn’t feel alone. It’s an awesome feeling."

It’s the first time a contending football team has been benched from playing for an OIA title on the day of the league final. Fans are questioning the weight of the punishment when it was an issue that had nothing to do with all but one of the 70 players on Kahuku’s roster.

"I told the kids, there’s probably going to be some changes after this," Torres said. "Sad thing to say, it’s not going to be now. It’s going to be a result of this. It’s pretty sad."

Kahuku (10-0) had been a season-long No. 1 team in the Star-Advertiser Football Top 10, heading into yesterday’s scheduled matchup with Mililani for the OIA Red title. Among the wins was a 49-27 rout of No. 2 Saint Louis in an early nonconference game.

Two weeks ago, a rumor surfaced that two Kahuku players were in their fifth year of high school, which would mean they were ineligible to play sports. Torres said he looked into it and found the players to be eligible.

By Wednesday, word of a possible ineligibility surfaced again. Principal Donna Lindsey contacted OIA executive director Dwight Toyama. The self-reporting process required Lindsey to conduct her own investigation, and the results were reported to the league in a Thursday night meeting that lasted 3 hours.

When the league scheduled a follow-up meeting for 11 a.m., yesterday, the writing was on the wall. When the morning came, the announcement of a press conference to follow the OIA meeting all but made it official.

Before the meeting, however, Kahuku co-captains Christopher Thee, George Tafuna and Punga Vea caught a ride into town in hopes of fighting on behalf of their team through an appeal. They weren’t permitted into the meeting.

The decision was made by the rules and sanctioning committee within 2 hours.

The morning had begun with a glimmer of hope for Kahuku players and coaches because of the morning OIA meeting and appeal process.

"The kids were on pins and needles," Torres said. "The seniors were on pins and needles. This is their senior year. Then we get hit again with devastation. Sadness."

There’s no exact way to pinpoint who the player was. The league won’t disclose personal information, so the athlete could have been a transfer or someone who hadn’t played football until this year. At some point, the ineligible player repeated a grade after starting his freshman year.

Torres accepts the notion of protecting a student-athlete’s privacy, but feels for the players who have answered every request and demand.

"The kids will suffer. They don’t deserve to suffer. They said the (ineligible) kid isn’t an impact player, but most of our games, everybody played," Torres said. "If everything had been done right, there wouldn’t be a problem."

Toyama noted that the rule is administered statewide. Just one month ago, Roosevelt forfeited a win after discovering that a player had used an invalid grade check, costing the team a playoff berth.

In this case, the system failed.

"They’re on their second principal and third registrar in the past five years," Toyama said. "In all fairness to (Lindsey), this is something that happened five years ago."

Toyama added that the student-athlete in question was on the eligibility list this season; his eligibility "clock" began in 2007 as a freshman. With more digging in the past couple of days, it was determined that he was a freshman in ’06, meaning that his clock expired at the end of the 2009-10 school year.

"I think it’s an interpretation of when this person was a ninth-grader," Toyama said. "It fell through the cracks. The sad thing is, he meets the age eligibility. It’s a tough one."

Committee member and Castle principal Meredith Maeda noted that the number of games played by the ineligible player is not an issue. Kahuku had won its quarterfinal and semifinal games in the OIA playoffs.

Year after year, issues over eligibility surface and the OIA has not changed its system. That doesn’t mean change can’t happen. Torres remembered the 1987 season, when the format was still district divisions. Kahuku and Kailua tied in their game that year and shared first place, but Kailua got the playoff berth based on a strength-of-schedule tiebreaker formula.

The formula changed in the following year, Torres said.

Kahuku’s current situation had no room for flexibility. The punishment seemed to outweigh the violation.

"We talked about it," Toyama said. "I don’t know if we could’ve made an exception."

The OIA had plenty to lose with a pullout by Kahuku. Rental of Aloha Stadium for the scheduled OIA Red and White title games yesterday was $12,000. With no Red game and no Kahuku, attendance was nowhere near what it usually would be — anywhere between 4,000 and 10,000 fans, perhaps.

The HHSAA will probably see a drastic loss of revenue when the state tournament kicks off next week. The highest-grossing finals have been when Kahuku is playing for the state title. Crowds often surpass 20,000 and even 25,000 when the Red Raiders are playing for the trophy.