The lexicon of air riflery includes words such as confidence, focus and poise.
The lexicon of air riflery includes words such as confidence, focus and poise.
That won’t change at the BIIF championships on Saturday at Kamehameha, but Waiakea coach Mel Kawahara is ready for another word to rule the day: entertainment.
“Air riflery isn’t always the funnest sport,” Kawahara said, “but this will be different. It should be fun to watch the various schools compete and to watch how all the kids have come along.”
And not all those kids will be wearing Waiakea Blue and White.
Parity was evident during the regular season as perennial power Waiakea had to squeak past Kamehameha in the girls race to sweep the team titles. That narrow margin and the myriad standout shooters from other schools that put up high averages left some Waiakea marksmen wondering if they were slipping a bit.
“I had to tell them Waiakea is not shooting poorly,” Kawahara said. ‘Everybody shot well, and we had to shoot well to get it done.”
No surprise, but both top seeds are from Waiakea: Mekayla King and Bradon Miyake.
In the past handful of years, Waiakea has produced every individual champion save for two shooters from Kamehameha.
The Warriors’ stranglehold could be put to the test, and the challenge could come from some unexpected sources.
St. Joseph’s Mark Nemeth is only slotted as the No. 2 seed because Miyake won a tiebreaker, and Christian Liberty’s Kawika Aguiar posted the highest score Oct. 1 contest, becoming the first Canefire win a shoot.
“It should be very competitive and very interesting,” Kawahara said. “St. Joe has never had a kid shoot that high, and Kawika did great last week.”
Another reason Kawahara figures the finals will be more entertaining this season is because of a change in format. Each field of 24 shooters will compete in the three positions (standing, kneeling, prone) and the top eight will advance to a shootout. The score from those 10 shots will be added to the earlier round.
“The shooters that focus and keep their emotion in check will do the best,” Kawahara said.
King put up the two highest scores early in the season, distancing herself ahead of Kamehameha’s Iceley Andaya and Tiari Fa’agata, but those totals are wiped out Saturday as everybody starts from scratch.
The top six boys shooters are separated by just four four points.
Entering BIIFs, the top eight seeds are assured berths in the HHSAA championships, and the Nos. 9 shooters will earn spots as well unless a shooter below them wins the league title.