IT was something out of "The X-Flies" or maybe "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Waialua keeps prep
football fire burningSaturday night, there was a vacuum-like darkness in Mokuleia. The only lights were light-years away, those tiny diamonds in the sky that spelled out the vastness of the universe.
Then in the distance, lit like the field in "A Field of Dreams," was the Waialua High School football stadium. It wasn't corn fields but sugar cane fields that seemed to shimmer from a second chance at daylight.
And so it is with the Bulldogs' football program, getting a second chance after it was announced the sport would be dropped in July. The community rallied behind the team, the success of that support evidenced in the packed parking lot and the line of cars on the shoulder stretching a mile in either direction on Farrington Highway.
EARLIER that day, I happened to chat with relatives of a Bulldog football player during a stop for barbecue supplies. The dad was excited about watching his defensive lineman-son maybe get to play running back, a feeling seemingly shared by his 19-month-old little girl.
Maybe the big lights of the big city have blinded us to the simple pleasures in life such as enjoying a high school football game on a Saturday night. It's too bad that prep sports have been pushed aside or buried by all the attention given the pro leagues.
It hasn't been completely forgotten. A friend in Arkansas e-mailed me the other day about the homecoming festivities that enveloped her small town, about her son in the band who was playing in his first homecoming parade.
My cousin e-mailed me over the weekend about how our high school fared in the big football game against its major rival. Twenty-five years after we graduated, it was still important.
I've often been told of how big Hawaii high school football was before live television and nonstop work commitments began dominating people's time. Of how there wasn't much else to do -- or much else anyone wanted to do -- on a prep football night.
Sophistication comes with a price.
But as a popular local song goes, "Take me back, back to da kine." Maybe heading out to a high school football game in the country would give us all some much-needed perspective.
Saturday night, Waialua finished its third consecutive winless season with a 33-18 loss to Kalani. The undermanned Bulldogs are to be commended for keeping the lights on for all of us.
THE pumpkins are in the stores, an apt reminder that basketball season is upon us. Last weekend's Midnight Ohana was a great way to kick off the year for both the Hawaii men's and women's teams.
It's going to be very different, not seeing Alika Smith and Nani Cockett on the floor. Smith especially, the one constant the past four years among the Rainbows' revolving door of JUCO players.
Guards Johnny White and Geremy Robinson will never replace Smith and Anthony Carter in the hearts of Hawaii fans. But it's a good start for the Rainbows, who look to have an arena full of talent and depth.
Senior forward Mike Robinson has focus. Senior center Erin Galloway can focus, having adjusted to his contact lenses.
As hyped up as last season's opener with Indiana was, the Nov. 15 tipoff game against Top 25 team Cal is going to be tougher. A win over the Golden Bears would make some noise nationally.
Two of Hawaii's favorite antiheroes will be back for their senior farewell tour: Fresno State's Chris Herren and New Mexico's Kenny Thomas. Herren married over the summer, Thomas met Jenny Craig.
Said Thomas on his weight-loss program: "I don't eat any good stuff, like sweets or fried foods. I just eat bad stuff, like fruit."
Cindy Luis is a Star-Bulletin sportswriter.
Her column appears weekly.
