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Prep Beat
Yesterday was the first official day of high school football practice around the state. Hurricanes make history
While thousands of players popped pads for the first time since last season, it was even more eventful for those who turned out for the junior varsity team at Kapolei High School.
Whether they realize it or not, the 50 Hurricane freshmen made history, participating in the school's first ever real football practice.
Although he expects his team to take its lumps against sophomore-dominated Oahu Interscholastic Association junior varsity teams this season, coach Darren Hernandez is excited to be leading Kapolei from ground zero.
"Our football stadium should be completed just in time for the 2002 season," the former Campbell coach said. "That's when these freshmen will be ready to play on the school's first varsity team."
After yesterday's practice, Hernandez said the Hurricanes have a long way to go.
"They're green, they're learning," said Hernandez, who will coordinate the defense, as he did at Campbell. "But there's a lot of potential."
He said the Hurricanes will use the spread offense, which can be either a run- or pass-based attack. He's also got a pretty good practitioner of it to be his offensive coordinator and quarterback coach in Michael Carter. Carter quarterbacked the University of Hawaii to the Holiday Bowl in 1992, using the spread.
Kapolei plays its first junior varsity game Aug. 18 at Kailua.
"Tell coach (Darren) Johnson to pull all his tough sophomores up to the varsity," Hernandez quipped.
Duffin-Barnes youngest champ
Evan Duffin-Barnes, 14, a Kaiser High School swimmer, became the youngest champion in the 12-year history of the Eyecatcher North Shore Swim Series on Saturday. He finished the four-event series with a cumulative time of 1 hour, 53 minutes and 18 seconds.Canadian League
St. Louis senior-to-be Brandon League is with the USA Junior National baseball team that has won its first three games in the IBAF world championships at Edmonton, Alberta.
League was 0-1 in two games with a 5.68 ERA in 6° innings as the team went 7-2 in exhibition games preceding the tournament.
The U.S. beat China, 9-0, yesterday. No additional details were available.
Comings and goings
Iolani graduate Taylor Takata, a two-time state wrestling champion and seven-time national judo champion, will compete at the World Judo Championships Oct. 28-29 in Tunisia. Takata will be a freshman at San Jose State in the fall ... Damien's new varsity football coach, Chris Bisho, a former Punahou and BYU star lineman, has tabbed former UH standout linebacker David Maeva to coordinate the Monarchs' defense.
By Dave Reardon, Star-Bulletin