A long Punahou streak came to an end Tuesday. Iolani ends Punahou’s
tennis streakBy Nick Abramo
nabramo@starbulletin.comThe defending state boys tennis champion Buffanblu suffered their first Interscholastic League of Honolulu defeat since at least 1984 in a 4-1 loss to Iolani.
There is a discrepancy in the actual length of the newly broken streak. According to Jackie Scott of the Punahou athletic department, the string was thought to have gone back to at least the start of the 1981 season, but former coach Mike Gearen (who took over in 1981) recently said he remembers a loss to the Raiders in 1984.
Scott is in the process of trying to confirm the 1984 loss with Blane Gaison, the athletic director at Kamehameha, where past ILH tennis statistics are located. The streak may even be longer, since Punahou has won every ILH title since 1973. Scott has tried to contact past coaches, but so far can't confirm when the team's last loss was prior to 1981.
"It's amazing," said Iolani coach Mike Burger about Punahou's dominance. "They have a unique program. All you have to do is take a look at their after-school program to see why they're successful. Every day, you see five to eight kids on all of their eight courts."
On Tuesday, the Buffanblu were without No. 1 singles player and defending state champion Robbie Lim (at a national tournament) and consistent contributor Nick Leong (at a school camp function).
"Our boys just played well," Burger said. "I'm happy for them. In the season's first round, we lost to Punahou 5-0, but three of those matches went to three sets, so the boys believed they could win (in the second round) after that.
"It's a belief thing. You can't beat a team for so many years, and sometimes you still can't beat them even if you're a better team, so you wonder if you'll ever be able to do it. This was the best I've seen my kids play as a team."
The Buffanblu and Raiders are both 13-1 in the league and will face each other for the championship next Tuesday at 4 p.m. at Punahou.
Derrick Lajola and Jonathan Lo won singles matches for the Raiders, while the doubles teams of Sean Morales and Torin Ching as well as Daniel Adachi and Jon Okada secured victories.
Partners Chris Iwamura and Ryan Laws won the only match for Punahou. The Buffanblu, under coach Rusty Komori, will try to regroup to maintain their ILH championship streak.
"Our players were tremendously disappointed," Komori said. "But in a way, it's something of a relief. Such a long streak is pretty incredible and it may help us in giving us the fire and drive and the wake-up call that if you're not on top of your game, you can fall."
Punahou has won 50 league titles (including 30 in a row) since 1946 and 34 state championships (including 12 in a row) since 1958.
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