King Kekaulike High School defenders bring down Waimea’s Aukai Emayo during the Division II state championship game on Nov. 26 at Mililani. A rematch of that championship game, won by Waimea 45-6, is scheduled for Aug. 19 on Kauai. ANDREW LEE photo
PUKALANI — Kalelepono Wong remembers walking off the field at Mililani High School’s stadium after his King Kekaulike team suffered a 45-6 loss to Waimea in the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Division II state championship game in late November, but the experience was a bit fuzzy at that point.
Na Alii’s quarterback and the Maui Interscholastic League Offensive Player of the Year had been blindsided after punting with his team down by 32 points midway through the fourth quarter.
Monday, under a baking late afternoon sun at King Kekaulike Stadium, he took a short break from guiding his team through offensive drills at a voluntary summer practice. Wong smiled when asked about the chance to face the Menehune again on Aug. 19 on Kauai.
The rematch comes a week after Na Alii play host to Honokaa to start their preseason slate.
“I’m excited to have a home game first, just to get rolling already and then go up to Waimea and finish our business up there with Waimea,” Wong said.
Lahainaluna’s Noa Gordon cuts through a hole against Maui High during an MIL game on Sept. 24. The Lunas and Sabers, last season’s top MIL Division I teams, will meet in each round’s final game, on Sept. 23 at Lahainaluna and on Oct. 28 at War Memorial Stadium. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
When asked how much unfinished business there is with the defending state champs, Wong was straight to the point.
“A whole lot,” he said. “That state game wasn’t all of it, we got plenty left to go. I feel good. … I’m going to get it back. I’m going to get my way back, somehow.”
Wong rushed for 732 yards on 88 carries (8.3 yards per carry) and 11 touchdowns in eight MIL regular-season games in 2022 — his rushing total was second in the league and his TD total was first. He also passed for 261 yards, the fourth-best mark in the MIL.
There were about 50 players practicing on Monday for Na Alii and coach Tyson Valle is excited after his team’s impressive run to the state final.
“I think for us we’re more so set in just getting back to work,” Valle said. “We have a large number of kids out this summer, which is great. The weight training program is going, the offseason program is going. Just having the numbers out here is definitely something we haven’t seen before.”
Kamehameha Maui quarterback Makana Kamaka-Brayce releases a touchdown pass under pressure from Baldwin’s Omaha Sau during a game on Oct. 21. The Warriors and Bears will meet on opening weekend of the 2023 MIL season, on Aug. 26 at Kanaiaupuni Stadium. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
Na Alii finished 5-7 last season, but they were 4-55 in the seven seasons prior, including 0-6 in 2021.
“I feel like we’re up and moving like last year,” Wong said. “Last year we had a long time to get ready, so this year is just picking up where we left off.”
Valle said that his team is ready to see Waimea again.
“We’re anxious to play that game,” Valle said. “I think that will kind of be a sample in what the season could be like. So, for us, that game is kind of an important one being that it’s a preseason game.
“It’s going to tell us a lot, it’s going to tell us what we did in the summer, how hard we worked in that weight room and basically where we stand going into our season.”
In other MIL preseason games, Edison High School of Huntington Beach, Calif., will play on Maui twice in a week — the Chargers will play Baldwin on Aug. 12 at War Memorial Stadium and then face defending MIL Division I champion Lahainaluna on Aug. 18 at Sue Cooley Stadium.
“Yeah, it is a tough preseason slate, but that’s really the only way to gauge where we’re at, that’s what we’ve been telling the kids,” Lahainaluna co-head coach Dean Rickard said. “This group of seniors, they were really the heart and soul of last year’s team as well. They were the future leaders that we were looking forward to taking that role. It’s a natural progression.
“We don’t have the numbers that we’d like to see coming out for our summer sessions, but a lot of the kids are busy with other sports — canoeing and some are wrestling on the Mainland. We’ve got that starting corps, but we still have some concerns.”
Kamehameha Maui will open the MIL preseason with an Aug. 11 game at Castle. Other games on Aug. 12 include Hilo at Lahainaluna and Maui High at Nanakuli. The last game of the preseason will be Waipahu — last year’s D-I state runner-up — against Maui High on Aug. 19 at War Memorial Stadium.
Opening weekend of MIL play will be King Kekaulike at Lahainaluna on Aug. 25 and Baldwin at Kamehameha Maui on Aug. 26. Both rounds of the regular season will end with the top two teams from last season — the Lunas and Sabers — facing off, on Sept. 23 at Lahainaluna and on Oct. 28 at War Memorial.
Baldwin will celebrate homecoming on Sept. 29 at War Memorial against Kamehameha Maui. King Kekaulike’s homecoming is against Lahainaluna on Sept. 30 at King Kekaulike Stadium.
Maui High’s homecoming will be Oct. 20 at War Memorial against King Kekaulike and Kamehameha Maui will host King Kekaulike for homecoming on Oct. 27.
Lahainaluna’s homecoming has not yet been announced.
Possible MIL playoff games are set for the weekend of Nov. 3-4.
The Lunas enter the season on a 39-game MIL winning streak, a league record that began with the final game of the 2016 season. Quarterback Noa Gordon is back from a broken collarbone that ended his 2022 season early.
“The returning players coming back and serving as leaders, they’re there, they are serving as good examples, but now we just got to get the buy-in from everybody else,” Rickard said.
* Robert Collias is at .
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