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Sports Watch
BREAK up the Molokai Farmers. They made it two high school baseball championships in a row by beating Kamehameha on Saturday. Farmers plowing competition
Next thing you know, they'll want to make it three in a row.
Who do they think they are? Iolani and Mid-Pacific, the only schools to win the HHSAA baseball championship three consecutive years?
Even Punahou and Kamehameha couldn't do it.
Molokai coach Ken Nakayama wouldn't mind pulling off a three-peat.
"I hope it becomes a habit," Nakayama said. "It would be a good habit."
The veteran Molokai coach loses only four senior starters. But one's a big loss -- his star catcher, Apana Nakayama, who happens to be his youngest son.
Apana has received feelers from Brigham Young, Nebraska and the University of Hawaii. He might even turn pro, if the offer's good.
Still, Nakayama has a good nucleus returning, including a solid shortstop in Kelii Alcon and three tournament-tested pitchers -- Ikaika Place, Ikaika Lester and Keahi Rawlins -- to make a run at it again.
"We got five or six starters back, so we should be pretty good again," said Nakayama, bearing bad news to the rest of the state's baseball fraternity.
When Molokai beat Mid-Pacific to win the state baseball crown last year -- the school's first championship in any sport -- it was the feel-good sports story of the year.
The team captured the imagination not only of the good people of Molokai but of the entire state.
A "Molokai No Ka Oi" T-shirt became a hot-selling item.
And Honolulu television stations and the Star-Bulletin traveled to the Friendly Island to cover the school pep rally honoring the 1999 state champions.
Yesterday's school assembly to honor this year's champs received far less publicity, but the cheering was just as loud for their boys.
"There was no TV media this time. Just the school and us," Nakayama said.
MOLOKAI'S first state title is a keeper for the ages, according to Nakayama. The first one is always special.
But in comparing emotions, Nakayama says the feeling is even better after the second championship.
"I'm not saying it was easy last year, but I felt this time it was much tougher," Nakayama said.
"The pressure was on us more this time. Everybody was gunning for us. Kamehameha saved their best for us.
"But we got it done. So the feeling is greater because we did it under those circumstances."
So Molokai didn't sneak up on anybody this time. And with two in a row under their belts, the Farmers will be the team to beat again next season.
Nakayama thought the character of the two teams was pretty much the same.
"They had a quiet confidence. They didn't need any rah-rah stuff," he said.
The real question, then, is how come Molokai? How did a tiny public high school from a small populated island get to win baseball bragging rights?
Especially since its youth baseball teams have yet to win big on the state level?
Obviously, Nakayama has had a lot to do with it with his no-nonsense, highly structured practices.
But it's all a matter of hard work on everyone's part, according to Nakayama, who completed his 26th year as Molokai's coach.
"We've got the athletes here. And they really work hard at what we're trying to have them do," he said.
Whatever it is, it's sure working.