Mike Aldax – TGI Sports Editor “They proved in one night what has been true all year long,” says J Robertson, football commentator and Managing Director for Hoike Public Television. “They are one of the best four teams in Hawaii,
Mike Aldax – TGI Sports Editor
“They proved in one night what has been true all year long,” says J Robertson, football commentator and Managing Director for Hoike Public Television. “They are one of the best four teams in Hawaii, and no one can take that from them.”
Robertson has witnessed many of Waimea’s greatest moments in history, and he says Friday night’s win over Castle was up in those ranks.
It would be no surprise if the 4,999 other fans who pulled out of the parking lot at Vidinha Stadium that night felt exactly the same way.
“This is up there with Waimea’s 1984 victory over the domineering Waianae team,” said Robertson. “This really is one to remember.”
It is important to understand that this latest victory wasn’t only about what was printed on the scoreboard at the end of the fourth quarter. It wasn’t solely about Brandon Malama’s record-tying rushing touchdown total or the fact that Chelsey Barba carried the ball a record 30 times.
This wasn’t just a win.
This was a declaration of respect that nobody can ignore. Not even Kahuku, who will meet Waimea at Aloha Stadium this Friday.
“Wow, they’re good,” Robertson heard an Advertiser reporter say as he watched Waimea burn down the Castle. Suppose that eight-ranking they gave the Menehunes all season long was an uneducated guess.
Bet they wouldn’t short-change them now.
But it’s hard to blame the media for expecting Waimea to lose the first round of the State Championships. Their feelings were probably not much different from your own. And while you may think you were the only person in this State who didn’t count the Menehunes out, you are just fooling yourself. Deep down, you thought they would lose.
You would be suprised how many Kaua’i residents lost bets Friday night.
Isn’t that exactly the way we all wanted it, though? Waimea, a small, 800-kid school shows the guys from the big city how to play tough football. We all wanted the Rudy Rudiger story to come out of this one.
The Menehunes may not have had the size or the numbers, but they had the heart, the humility, the work ethic, and the ability to play as a team.
You can credit this one to Coach Jon Kobayashi, who instilled these qualities into the program for the last 10 years.
But give some credit, for once, to the boys who survived his system. The ones who, as Kobayashi puts it, “never cut themselves” from this football team.
They taught 5,000 people a whole lot Friday night-not only that you should never count Kaua’i athletes out, but that this is how you put together a team, and these are the kind of winners you want on that team.
