Showdown! Hawaii's high school football powers will face two highly ranked California teams, including the defending national champion, in an unprecedented prep doubleheader at Aloha Stadium.
2 California powerhouses face
Hawaii's best in a prep football
doubleheader on Sept. 21By Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.comThe Hawaii High School Athletic Association has finalized plans to bring national champion De La Salle (Concord) and Poly (Long Beach) to the islands to play St. Louis and Kahuku on Sept. 21.
"It's the dream matchups everybody's been wanting to see," HHSAA Executive Director Keith Amemiya said. "It may even have exceeded everyone's expectations to get two teams of this caliber to come to Hawaii and play in a doubleheader."
Two-time defending state champion Kahuku plays Poly in the first game at 5 p.m. St. Louis, winner of the last 16 Interscholastic League of Honolulu titles, takes on defending national champion De La Salle at 8 p.m.
De La Salle, Poly and Kahuku were ranked nationally at the end of last season, and all four teams could be ranked entering the fall. The Tony Poll, which averages seven major national polls, ranked De La Salle first, Poly third and Kahuku 17th at the end of last season.
"It's a long trip to play a good team, but we're excited about it," said Terry Eidson, De La Salle athletic director.
"I don't know if there's going to be two better preseason games in the country."
De La Salle, which owns a national record 125-game winning streak, was ranked first in the polls after capturing its 10th straight California Interscholastic Federation North Coast title and finishing 12-0 last season. This is the first time De La Salle will play a game outside California.
"(The Spartans) are jacked up about it," Eidson said. "They know it's good competition, and a lot of them have never been out of state."
De La Salle has more league championships (16) than losses (14) under coach Bob Ladouceur, who was inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame last summer.
"It's exciting for our program, and I think it should be exciting for the whole state to see how a team from Hawaii can compete against one of the nation's top-rated teams for the last decade," St. Louis Athletic Director Cal Lee said.
"It's like the University of Hawaii playing the Miami Hurricanes."
Lee guided the Crusaders to 15 Prep Bowl or state titles before stepping down as head coach after last season.
Kahuku, which has won four consecutive Oahu Interscholastic Association titles, defeated St. Louis in the last two state championship games and enters next season with a 23-game winning streak.
Poly captured its third consecutive CIF Southern Section championship this season. The Jackrabbits' only loss last year was to De La Salle.
The doubleheader required some shuffling by the leagues and schools involved. The ILH and OIA modified their league schedules to accommodate the event, and Poly had to clear the date to make room for the trip.
The UH football team's road game at Texas-El Paso on Sept. 21 gave Amemiya the opening he needed to book the games at Aloha Stadium.
"Sept. 21 was the only weekend De La Salle could play," Amemiya said. "It was a stroke of good fortune that UH was going to be out of town. It was almost as if this doubleheader was destined to happen, because so many things have fallen into place."
The pairings were the result of De La Salle's stipulation that its opponent play fewer than two games prior to facing the Spartans.
Kahuku plays three OIA games before Sept. 21. St. Louis plays a preseason game and its ILH opener prior to facing De La Salle.
The doubleheader has been in the works since 2000 and was originally planned to include Mater Dei (Santa Ana). When the Monarchs backed out of the event, Amemiya inquired with Santa Margarita and Loyola of Los Angeles. Those schools declined, leading him to contact Poly officials in late December.
"They accepted the invitation almost immediately," Amemiya said.
Amemiya said the HHSAA will cover all costs involved in the doubleheader, including transportation, hotel accommodations and meals for the visiting teams. He estimated the HHSAA will spend more than $100,000 to host the event.
Any profits from the games will be split among the OIA and ILH (50 percent), Kahuku and St. Louis (12.5 percent) and the HHSAA (25 percent).