After four consecutive Division II football state championships, the Lahainaluna Lunas are moving on up.
The Maui Interscholastic League voted unanimously on Monday to approve a proposal submitted by Lahainaluna that allows the football team to play for a Division I title and become eligible for the D-I state tournament.
“I found out when Rob (Collias of the Maui News) texted me. They actually approved it. That’s another big load off our minds. Now we can concentrate on the season, whenever it is,” co-head coach Dean Rickard said on Monday night.
Rickard was not surprised.
“Not really. Talking to all the other coaches in the league, they all knew we were pushing for it,” he said.
It was more than two years ago, following the second state crown in a row, when the Lunas began to imagine the possibility of moving up. Then co-head coach Garret Tihada found that support wasn’t 100 percent with the Lunas’ notion. This year, the support is there.
“It was unanimous. That’s what we wanted and I’m glad that everybody was able to approve it,” Rickard said. “The kids are excited. Ever since the story broke about us wanting to move up to Division I, the community got excited. A lot of the players contacted me. ‘Is it really true?’ They’ve been asking for awhile. They deserve it.”
Lunas co-head coach Dean Rickard
The Lunas, under longtime co-head coach Bobby Watson, Tihada, and now Rickard, have been the best football program in the MIL for many years regardless of classification. In fact, Kamehameha-Maui, another D-II program, has filled the void in the past couple of seasons. The Warriors were 5-3 last season and now will have only one other D-II opponent, King Kekaulike.
“As a league, KS-Maui, they’ve been the second-place team for the last two years,” Rickard noted.
Lahainaluna’s entry makes D-I even more intriguing from top to bottom. In the past few years, former D-II powerhouses ‘Iolani, Damien, Konawaena, Moanalua and Waipahu stepped up. Leilehua left D-I to join the Open Division this offseason, but the arrival of Lahainaluna makes it the deepest of all divisions.
“If you take the top tiers of D-II, the top five schools from the last few seasons, any of them could’ve competed in D-I,” Rickard said.
With the start dates still up in the air and training time reduced due to the COVID-19 lockdown, Rickard and Watson are in the strangest time of their long coaching careers. Are their players prepared if campuses re-open on schedule this fall and the football season begins on time?
“You have to take it upon yourselves to get in great shape,” Rickard said. “They’re motivated and dedicated athletes. They’re going to get ready for the time when the football season is back. Then we won’t have to be work as hard to get back in shape.”
Last fall, Lahainaluna was 8-0 in MIL play (11-1 overall). The Lunas outscored opponents 417-121, defeating Roosevelt (35-0) and Kapaa (21-10) in the D-II state tournament. Lahainaluna went 4-0 against D-I foes Baldwin and Maui, winning by a combined total score of 157-23. The closest game was against Baldwin on Sept. 27, a 26-14 result at War Memorial Stadium.
Co-head coaches Dean Rickard and Bobby Watson embraced after the Lunas' state-championship win last season.
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