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Friday, July 14, 2000

Nakani Koa
closes in on HFL
championship

Players on the financially
strapped semi-pro island football
teams are in it for the love of the game

By Tim Crouse
Special to the Star-Bulletin

They are bouncers, teachers and movers. They are former college and high school gridiron standouts. And they -- the Nakani Koa football team -- are two wins away from a Hawaii Football League championship.

The Nakani Koa Warriors (6-2) host the Hilo Storm (5-3) tomorrow night at 7 at Cooke Field on the University of Hawaii campus in an HFL semifinal playoff game. Tickets are $7. Admission is free for children 14 and under.

The Maui Stars (7-1) and Kihei Heat (4-4) face off at War Memorial Stadium on Maui in the other semifinal tomorrow.

The winners meet July 29 in Tsunami Bowl VIII.

The Warriors -- one of seven teams in the Hawaii Football League -- thumped Hilo, 36-0, on July 1 and handed the Stars their lone loss of the season June 24.

For the Warriors, playing the game is the easy part.

The difficulties for Nakani Koa, and the other HFL teams, are mainly financial.

Each team in the HFL is a nonprofit organization, and the players have to pay their own way for road trips to the neighbor islands.

Sandy Pepee, president of the team and wife of head coach Paul Pepee, said this season has been difficult financially.

"The problem is travelling to the outer islands," Pepee said. "We had three games in a row (off Oahu). We went to Kauai with only 14 players.

"A lot of the guys work and we have some military also. We have tried to get sponsors, but to no avail," she said.

HFL commissioner Danny Crowell, a former UH running back who plays for the Maui Stars, said crowds have been small this season because the league doesn't have money to advertise.

Crowell said in its best years, the HFL drew crowds of 1,000-2,500, which is well below this season's numbers.

"The fans are basically the family of the people playing," Warriors wide receiver, and former UH player, Ricky Daley said. "We're just there to play -- it doesn't matter if it's 10,000 or 100."

Even though league games aren't getting much outside support, the players are proud of the product they put on the field.

"It's an adult league with various amounts of talent," Crowell said.

"There are high school players up to ex-NFL guys playing in here.

"Everyone can hit. In high school you have maybe two or three players who can hit, but in this league, everyone can," he said.

Crowell said several players coming out of high school have received college scholarships after playing in the HFL, including linebacker Joe Correia, who made significant contributions to the UH football team last fall.

And for some players, it's simply a chance to continue playing the game.

"For me, it's an opportunity to play again," said Daley, who played with the Honolulu Hurricanes of the Pro Indoor Football League in 1998. "I played high school and college ball and this is the next option to continue playing. I play for the love of the game."

The competition also gives players a chance to renew old rivalries.

Daley played against Eddie Klaneski in high school, and with him at UH. And now they're rivals again.

Klaneski, who also starred for the PIFL's Hawaii Hammerheads last year, plays cornerback for the Maui Stars.

Nakani Koa downed Maui, 26-14, on June 24.

Daley scored a touchdown against the Stars' secondary, and Klaneski returned a fumble for a touchdown in that game.

"But I got the better of him because we won," Daley said with a smile.