Dave Reardon: Lahainaluna showed what team, town are all about

LAHAINA >> There were just five penalties, combined, and a total of six incomplete passes. Guys played hard, staying in bounds, fighting for extra yards. There were no long injury timeouts — real or fake.

Sportswriters on deadline love football games like this. The game clock keeps going, meaning we get a few minutes more than usual to string together some coherent sentences.

We also admire the high level of coaching, effort, discipline and talent those elements represent.

But when the lead changes or the game is tied four times in the fourth quarter? We have mixed feelings about that.

Blowouts make our job easier. Ultimately, though, we remind ourselves we chose this line of work for chances to document real-life drama. Who do we root for? It’s not supposed to be a who, it’s a what: We root for the story.

There was almost one final twist Saturday, one that would have elated the home crowd at the Lahainaluna High School campus and meant at least one more chapter in the incredible story of resilience that is Lunas football.

But the clock went to zero in Kapaa’s 29-28 victory with Lahainaluna possessing the ball at the Warriors’ 9-yard line.

Sometimes a team doesn’t lose, it just runs out of time, or downs. If it was win-by-two-scores they might still be playing.

“This is the best high school football game I’ve ever seen in person,” said Keith Amemiya, the former Hawaii High School Athletic Association executive director who has viewed hundreds.

Of course there were a few mistakes, by both teams, in Saturday’s state tournament game at Sue B. Cooley Stadium — from where you can see what used to be and what will someday again be Lahaina town.

The Warriors and Lunas recovered from their errors, every time. And, as we know, recovery is everything on Maui since the Aug. 8 wildfires that caused at least 100 deaths and destroyed the homes of most of the Lunas players and coaches.

Amemiya, who is now chief of the governor’s sports task force, mobilized business leaders and sports figures to help Lahainaluna athletics rebuild. Much of the players’ and coaches’ gear was destroyed in the fires.

Lahainaluna was also involved the last time I saw a game this thrilling. In seven overtimes, the Lunas beat Konawaena 75-69 for their second of four consecutive Division II state championships, at Aloha Stadium in 2017.

On separate occasions in recent weeks, two Lunas fans told me this year’s seniors “took cracks.” That usually means getting beat up. In this case, I took it as suffering misfortune at no fault of their own.

In 2020, when they were freshmen, there was no season because of COVID-19. In 2021 the program transitioned to Division I and lost to ‘Iolani 38-0 in the state final. Lahainaluna lost to Aiea in the first round of states last year.

And this year, they rebuilt from ashes.

They stopped practice for a month while school officials, coaches and parents assessed whether there should be a season at all. When they restarted it was at a park in Kihei (near where they attended school before Lahainaluna was reopened last month) without an actual football field or goalposts.

Lahainaluna went 5-0 in its abbreviated Maui Interscholastic League schedule, outscoring opponents 169-26.

Kapaa (9-0) beat the Lunas for the first time after five losses to them — three in state championship games.

“Their program is stellar,” Kapaa coach Mike Tresler said. “When you think of the great programs in Hawaii high school football history, you have to think of Lahainaluna. The discipline, the consistency, the quality of their preparation. And now, what they did despite the tragedy here. Nobody wanted to play us, and nobody wanted to play them.”

In many ways, they are mirror images, Kapaa and Lahainaluna. They are neighbor island public high schools, both with around a thousand students. Both football programs are built on fundamentals of discipline, teamwork, resilience and respect.

“One of the things I liked most was guys from the other team helping each other up, and there was no trash talk,” said Amemiya, whose reign as HHSAA director saw the start of state tournaments and classification.

It’s easy to become cynical about high school football. This game and this shortened season were reminders of the positives it can bring for student-athletes — and their community.

“Our job as coaches is to develop good, productive members of society, and to teach them to pass that forward,” said Lahainaluna co-head coach Dean Rickard, who is a retired Maui Police Department deputy and acting chief.

Team manager Zyon Auwae also spoke profoundly, the day before the first game of this team that didn’t win states, but that no one will ever forget.

“To me, this gives us a chance to show what Lahaina is all about,” she said. “This is to show the pride of where we come from, and that strength can come from tragedy.”