KEALAKEKUA — Konawaena football’s season begins today over on O‘ahu, and the eagerness and excitement to get back on the field is sky-high.
The 2023 Hawaii High School Athletic Association (HHSAA) Division I runner up and 2022 state champion knows a thing or two about what it takes to reach the mountaintop and how difficult the journey can be. In early season practices at Kona Scenic Park, 10th-year head coach Brad Uemoto has instilled the importance of keeping the same hunger, knowing that the island’s top team will have opposing squads giving the Wildcats their best shot.
“Sometimes, you can get complacent with past success,” he told West Hawaii Today at Thursday’s practice. “There’s excitement to start the new year, but the target gets bigger and bigger (on us) each season. So we keep reminding them that anything we achieved before doesn’t really mean anything going into the new season. We have to go out with the right mindset and earn it.”
The green and white went 11-2 overall last season and 9-0 in Big Island Interscholastic Federation (BIIF) play, averaging almost 53 points a game while allowing less than 14. After falling 53-28 to Waipahu in the state title game last season, Uemoto admitted that the loss still stings, but the group has turned the page and is ready to right the ship in 2024.
“It gives you the tendency to work harder, because we know what it feels like to win that game and lose that game,” he said. “So that’s where we’re at now. We’re trying learn how we fell short last year, and how we can figure out what we need to do to become champions once again.”
Kona will have a slightly different cast of characters this season, though. While several key players from 2023 have returned to the Wildcats, former ScoringLive All-Hawaii talents such as quarterback Keoki Alani and receivers Zedekiah Anahu-Ambrosio and Abraham Ogata have left the program. Alani graduated in the spring, and now plays for Santa Rosa Junior College in Santa Rosa, Calif. Anahu-Ambrosio and Ogata took their talents to Provo High School in Timpview, Utah.
Losing core players hurts Konawaena, but Uemoto is confident in the younger players on the roster that will fill their shoes — especially in new starting quarterback Keenan Alani, who is Keoki Alani’s younger cousin. Uemoto plans to run the Wildcats’ usual pass-heavy system with the sophomore quarterback. Keenan Alani will have returning starting receivers Austin Takaki and Malu Tan to cater his development in the offense.
“He’s very similar to what Keoki was during his sophomore season,” Uemoto said of the team’s new signal caller. “Coming up from junior varisty, he’s obviously going to have a learning curve, but he has the intangibles to be a great quarterback. He has a strong arm and isn’t afraid of contact. So there’s a lot of positive things that we can work with.”
“I feel confident,” Alani added. “I think I have a good team around me to help as well.”
The Wildcats begin their season journey at Punahou at 3 p.m. today in their first non-conference matchup. They’ll return to the Big Island on Aug. 17 for another road matchup against Waiakea. Due to current construction at Julian R. Yates Field, Kona cannot host a home game until Sept. 7 against Hilo. The Wildcats will end their regular-season slate with four straight home games.
No matter how Kona’s season goes, the goal has remained the same: a state title or bust.
“Winning a title for these seniors would mean everything to this community,” Alani said.
“Anytime we lose a BIIF title or a state title from here on out, I think it’s going to be foreign territory for us,” Uemoto said. “We’re just spoiled by that fact. And our community wants to see good football and winning football, so we want to try to achieve everything that we set out to do.”
To read the results from the Wildcats’ opener against the Buffanblu, please see the paper next week.