WAIMEA — The Waimea High School football program won’t field a junior varsity football team for the 2012 season, Waimea varsity head coach Keali‘i Aguiar said on Saturday. The Menehune program has fielded both JV and varsity squads in the
WAIMEA — The Waimea High School football program won’t field a junior varsity football team for the 2012 season, Waimea varsity head coach Keali‘i Aguiar said on Saturday.
The Menehune program has fielded both JV and varsity squads in the past, but this season Aguiar said the numbers are just too low to run two squads out on the field.
“Three years ago we started to see a problem with the number in the Pop Warner program,” Aguiar said. “Now that’s coming up to the high school level.”
The Menehune have routinely fielded squads with low numbers, oftentimes with players doubling on offense and defense. Aguiar said he only had 16 players come out for this season’s JV team, short of his roster minimum of 20.
“We’d love to have a JV program so younger players can develop and not sit,” he said. “But we’re not going to force something that’s not there.”
While Aguiar said the lack of a JV program is disappointing, there are some positives that may come out of the decision. Instead of stretching his players too thin by trying to field two teams, Aguiar said Waimea will field its largest varsity roster in years. Last season, Waimea fielded 26 members on its varsity team and Aguiar said to expect that number to be in the 40s this year.
“That’s the biggest benefit: we’ll have more bodies on the varsity squad,” he said. “We’ll be strong.”
