WAIMEA — It was a festive atmosphere at Waimea High School as the Menehune opened up their 2009 campaign with the Blue-White spring football game on Friday at Hanapepe. Those in attendance came out to see what the boys and
WAIMEA — It was a festive atmosphere at Waimea High School as the Menehune opened up their 2009 campaign with the Blue-White spring football game on Friday at Hanapepe. Those in attendance came out to see what the boys and new coach Keali‘i Aguiar have in store for the coming season.
The split-squad game pitted both veterans and newcomers against each other, but was really an opportunity for the coaches just to see what they have and evaluate talent.
“Execution,” said Coach Aguiar before the game about what he would be looking for from his team. “We want to look crisp and clean.”
The first-year head coach is keeping a large part of the system in place and feels that Waimea’s old-school, hard-nosed approach is the most important thing.
“We’re going to be working on working hard,” he said.
The blue team was led by sophomore QB Cliffton Callejo who, in addition to his arm, showed off his scrambling abilities and pocket presence.
James Dupree, also a sophomore, led the White team’s offense and didn’t hold anything back as he moved the ball down the field through the air.
Running backs Kaimana Perreira-Alquiza, Devan Kenney-Banasihan and Kaulana Waalani-Arroyo all displayed the ability to be strong, downhill runners and didn’t make it easy on the defenses.
Kaulana Bangolan stood out as an outside weapon at wide receiver, able to get in sync with Dupree, his quarterback.
On the defensive side, Cyrus Simbre-Medeiros and Marcus Barnes each created turnovers for their squads and Garret Cadiente-Gushiken put solid pressure on the quarterback.
“We expect our guys to go out and work hard every Monday through Thursday, then Friday will take care of itself,” said Coach Aguiar.
The Kapa‘a High School Green-White game was also played on Friday at the New Kapa‘a Town Park. Kapa‘a is led by head coach Keli‘i Morgado.
“For coaches, spring games are somewhat frustrating as a whole,” he said, notably about mixing rookies and veterans.
“We’re not looking for perfect execution from everyone, we want guys to get enough repetitions to showcase their skills,” he said.
Coach Morgado was hoping that after the intrasquad game, he and his staff would have a better idea of their depth chart as they move into practice and summer camp.
Since the team was running mainly its base offense and defense, Coach Morgado planned to watch who was able to remember assignments in helping analyze the team’s plans moving forward.
The hope is that the learning curve will be shorter this season.
“It’s our second year, so coming back always leads
to quicker learning,” he said.
Coach expressed that the team made “substantial gains” toward the end of last season and that he, as well as the team’s fans and community, expect Kapa‘a to progress at a faster pace.
“We’re hoping to pick up where we left off,” he said.
