HONOKAA — The rain came down steadily, from the middle of the afternoon before the junior varsity teams for Konawaena and Honokaa took the field for the Dragons’ Homecoming Night.
Far from the first time it has happened, these annual homecoming gatherings are used to rainy conditions, and if you wanted to take the temperature on community support for their high school, Friday would have been a good time to check in, even if people don’t know why their team is the Dragons.
“I love our Dragons,” said Cindy Shiraki, selling caps and T-shirts under a tarp next to the line of ticket-buyers, “I breathe yellow and green for our school, our teams and our players, it has been a wonderful community to be a part of.”
Shiraki, a nurse, and her husband Gerald, who works for the Department of Education, live in Waimea and sent all three of their children — all graduated and on their own now — through the Honokaa school system. She had been a traveling nurse from Alabama who worked 10 years on Oahu, but over 30 years ago she relocated to Waimea, got married, and the rest is happy history.
“This community cares about its kids, cares about this school,” Shiraki said. “When our kids were young, if there was a problem in a class, if they gave a teacher a hard time or something, believe me, you would hear about it right away.
“My kids are grown and gone, but you will see me here at every game,” she said. “It’s doing your part to be a part of the community, you can’t sit back and let someone else do it, jump in and go for it, that’s the attitude we learned here and this is small, very small way to pay back.”
When asked why they are the Dragons, Shiraki paused, then said, “I have no idea and it’s kind of funny, I’ve never really thought about it.”
Former longtime girls basketball coach Daphne Honma was going for it Friday night, wandering through the crowd perched high above the football field where bulldozers and other earth-movers sit idle 10 yard off the field of play, ready to tear into the hill next to the field and install about 1,000 covered seats for next year.
Honma had a smile on her face and noticeably, no umbrella.
“It actually feels pretty good,” she said, “refreshing. I’ll get under something if it comes down hard.”
Honma took a moment to reflect on the support over the years at Honokaa.
“This generation is a little different because of all the technology,” Honma said, “but it used to be that everyone would come out for football, it was the only way to know what was going on. Now, some of these games are live on Facebook and other social media so there are reasons not to come, especially on a night like this.
“But it still has that old school feel, it isn’t all gone and we get such good family and friends support here, I think we turn out more than a lot of the other schools on the Big Island.
“This is a place where you come to show your pride in the community, pride in these kids and these coaches, no matter what.”
It was mentioned that there seems to be few Dragons in the area, why the nickname?
“I’ve never heard that story,” she said. “There are lots of legends and fables maybe it hooks up to one of those.”
Athletic director Keith Tolentino has a long history with the school, but was on duty Friday night, running here and there in a golf cart to respond to issues at the gate, cramped parking situations and a myriad of other small alarms.
“That’s one I don’t know,” Tolentino said when asked about there nickname. “That’s a story I never heard.”
The pride was there as adults, parents and their young ones stepped over puddles and huddled under umbrellas to get through the gates. Most of them stand up, many bring collapsible chairs they sit in until the new stands are done.
These are people here to support a cause and they will show up win or lose. This occasion fit in the latter category, as Konawaena hammered Honokaa in both JV and varsity games, but supporters of the team don’t come out only when they think the team might win, that’s not being a fan.
“It’s been one of the joys of my life to do this,” said public address announcer Dominic Yagong who has been there consistently — he calls both the JV and varsity games — after attending the school, playing football and baseball for the Dragons and now has 25 years of announcing credentials at the school. “I was in school back in 1974-75 when Honokaa won back-to-back (football) BIIF championships. My senior year (1977), I was the quarterback and we lost our Homecoming game to HPA and that cost us the BIIF championship, but we did beat Hilo, the only team to do that. “
“Through thick and thin,” Yagong said, “this is a tight-knit community and they will come out to support you. Is it the same as always? I don’t think that’s the case anywhere, but it feels a lot more supportive than other places we go.”
The support starts with the students and carries out in waves from there, as Shauna Jardine, an elementary school teacher in Honokaa knows from personal experience.
“It’s still there,” she said, “they made us discontinue the bonfire, but the students are still geared up, especially for Homecoming when so many are participating.
“There are the times like now, and at the end of the year, obviously, that a lot tears are shed,” she said, “and sometimes they are my tears. You see these kids in elementary school, wide-eyed, waiting to discover what’s in store for them, and it seems like you just turn around and they are seniors, getting ready to go into the world.
“I would hope they all learn through this that we all worked together, we found strength in our numbers and our support.”
Jardine had an extra touch of emotion last week after her daughter Shaela was named Homecoming Queen, along with Kalewa O’Neil, chosen King.
“The years go by so fast, it’s hard to keep up,” Jardine said, “it’s a blur, they are here, you make connections with them, you see the hope in their eyes as little kids and then you see them leave as people heading out into the world on their own.
“It is emotional,” she said, of Homecoming, “and no matter what happens, it will stay with them, probably, for their rest of their lives.”
And at some point, maybe not for a little while after, all of them, the players and their fellow students, will remember these times fondly, and not because of the rain all night on Friday, not because they were rubbed out in the game itself by Konawaena.
They will remember the way their hearts opened up, how their classmates supported them, how they developed a bond in those moments that will always be a part of their transition from kids to young adults.
The school will attempt its traditional lighted ceremony for the Homecoming King and Queen at the last game of the season when they hope the rains won’t wash it out, but the memories will be of those supportive faces, the offers of help, the willingness to join and be a part of a high school tradition.
The teams may suffer roller-coaster ride, but the spirit feels like it will endure at Honokaa, and for a school, the teachers and students and parents and everyone else associated with it in some small way
That’s a big deal, and we’ll get to the nickname in time. It shouldn’t be too difficult, the school has only been doing this for 129 years so far.
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