Nobody seems quite sure who first came up with the nickname, but at Baldwin High they have come to refer to the challenge confronting the Bears’ football team Friday as “The Hump.”

Officially, it is the Division I semifinal game of the First Hawaiian Bank/Hawaii High School Athletic Association State Football Championships, a mouthful of a title that practically demands some sort of nickname.

But this is about more than convenience. This has everything to do with history and symbolizes the Bears’ decade-plus drive to carve out a place in it.

For all the considerable task of playing Punahou School in the 4 p.m. game at Aloha Stadium, there is more that surrounds this for Baldwin. There is the push to become the first neighbor island team to win the Division I championship. To do that, though, means first settling what has increasingly become a personal score for Baldwin and bursting over the so-far unscaleable — and often maddening — semifinal game “hump.”

On five previous occasions in the 12-year history of states, extending across four head coaching tenures, the Bears have reached the semis. It is a noteworthy accomplishment but one that, over time, has left them unfulfilled by being unable to step beyond that. The 22-20, last-play loss to eventual champion Kahuku in 2006 being the most frustrating chapter to date.

Now, after a three-year absence and with frequent tormentor Leilehua on the other side of the bracket, the crusade is renewed. Remarkably, perhaps, because with a largely inexperienced offensive line that returned just one starter, it seemed the Bears had a particularly arduous climb this year, even with a promising defense.

For their spread offense to roll, they needed the offensive line to come through big-time. “I told our offensive line coach (Brian Harris) early on, we’re going to ride you guys as far as we go,” head coach A.J. Roloos had said.

And the 9-1 Bears have gone far. An eye-opening first-round 28-24 victory over Farrington last week, guided by junior quarterback Keelan Ewaliko, has brought the Bears back to the semis where, as Roloos observes, “The Hump” has “gotten bigger.”

Haleakala huge, almost, with Punahou standing in the way.

Yet, it is a challenge the Bears have come to embrace and plan for yearly, not shy away from. They annually schedule tough in the preseason, this year playing Edison High of Huntington Beach, Calif., their only conqueror, with states in mind.

And they set the tone of their practices early, targeting what it will take to survive in the postseason. “You have to work hard to become a champion and we set the bar high, to work all season for that goal,” Roloos said. “We want to get to that championship game,” said Roloos, who has spent 11 years on the staff chasing the dream.

“You have to have expectations and every year we go to the states with high expectations,” said athletic director Kahai Shishido, who has spent a quarter-century at his alma mater. “We’re hoping this is the year. We want to get over that ‘Hump.’ ”

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.