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Wednesday, May 24, 2000

Neighbor island teams
no longer take back seat

State titles: Everybody won

By Brandon Lee
Special to the Star-Bulletin

With the Molokai baseball team's 6-2 victory over Mid-Pacific in last May's baseball state championship game as a springboard, the neighbor islands have won seven state titles -- including the Farmers' successful defense of their baseball championship, Saturday on Maui.

Baldwin of Maui won its first-ever state championships in girls' soccer and boys' swimming and diving on the same day, Feb. 19.

Six days later, the Hilo boys' basketball team beat St. Louis for another neighbor island state championship.

This spring, Waiakea's girls and boys golfers joined Molokai's baseball team in the winner's circle.

"Neighbor island teams have begun and will continue to be more successful because the population base on these islands is growing," Hawaii High School Athletic Association executive director Keith Amemiya said. "The talent level is going up, the coaching is getting better, and the neighbor island teams are rising to the level of those from Oahu schools."

Hilo basketball coach Larry Manliguis recently noticed a marked improvement in the caliber of athletes and level of play on all of the neighbor islands.

"It used to be that the Oahu kids looked more physically mature," Manliguis said. "But I've seen the progression to bigger and stronger kids on the neighbor islands, especially with more of these kids getting into weight-training and participating in basketball camps like those kids on Oahu."

Athletic directors and coaches also cite strong preseason competition, better coaching, increased television coverage as contributing to the recent success.

"There's lots of talent on the neighbor islands," Baldwin boys' swimming coach Wade Hondo said. "We simply needed and now have better programs and coaches to focus this talent. The enthusiasm to compete with Oahu teams has always been there."

Said Hilo High athletic director Roy Kobayashi: "With more mainland people coming to the neighbor islands to conduct camps, as well as the growth of youth leagues, our high school programs have greatly benefited."

Increased TV coverage of University of Hawaii games and professional sports, coupled with preseason schedules involving Oahu and mainland teams, give neighbor island athletes and teams more exposure to high-level play.

"We improve through visits to Oahu for preseason tournament, as well as better teams coming to Molokai to play," Molokai athletic director Elden Esmeralda said. "We now have the opportunity to see the caliber of play to aspire to."

Coaches say the recent successes have improved confidence levels.

"There has been a slow, but determined shift in mind-set," Hondo said. "Our athletes and coaches believe and want to show that we can compete with Oahu. Athletic competition will get better on Oahu as well with the improvement of the neighbor islands: we'll reach new levels for athletic competition in Hawaii, period."

"I hope the trend is here to stay," added Manliguis. "In the past, we used to be missing the one or maybe two kids necessary to put us over the top. With our population growing as it is, that is no longer the case."

Molokai baseball coach Ken Nakayama said he believes it is difficult for a team from a small school on a relatively isolated island such as his to win state titles -- difficult, but obviously possible.

"Neighbor island teams such as Baldwin and Hilo will be able to compete regularly with Oahu schools because their enrollments are comparable," Nakayama said. "While it may be more difficult for us, Molokai has no barriers anymore because we've been there."