Ka’u High bandied about the idea of fielding an eight-man football team in 2012, a season that ended prematurely because of safety concerns. ADVERTISING Ka’u High bandied about the idea of fielding an eight-man football team in 2012, a season
Ka’u High bandied about the idea of fielding an eight-man football team in 2012, a season that ended prematurely because of safety concerns.
A year later, with the Trojans once again facing low numbers and an undersized roster, athletic director Kalei Namohala decided it was time to pull the trigger.
What she didn’t know was whether coach DuWayne Ke would buy into the idea or pass eight-man off as a sideshow or a fluke.
Ke, a former nose tackle at Konawaena High, was pessimistic at first. But he liked what he saw when he went home and clicked on Youtube, and the new game really popped when he watched it on his big-screen TV.
“Let me tell you something,” Ke said of the first time he watched eight-man. “I started tingling. We can do this.”
Kohala and Pahoa feel the same way this year, and so begins the latest trend in the Big Island Interscholastic Federation. The Cowboys return after having to sit on the sidelines for two seasons due to low numbers, while the Daggers are reviving their program for the first time since 2001.
Many of the rules are similar to the full-sized game. There are four 12-minute quarters and the field is 100 yards long. The major difference — besides fewer personnel — is the width of the field is only 40 yards, approximately six yards shorter on each side.
Ke was happy to explain his experiences last year with Kohala coach Reginald Tolentino and Pahoa coach Chris Midal to help them better understand the game.
His key piece of advice: The game is built on speed not strength, so plan accordingly and tell your players not to make mistakes.
“You miss your block, you miss your man, that’s the end,” Ke said. “Less room for error. In 11-man, you’ve got guys in the backfield to catch your mistakes. Not here. One mistake and he’s gone.
“You have to be on your game. Never close your eyes, never blink because the game goes by so fast it’s unreal.”
The first order of business for Tolentino and Midal was to bring football back to their communities. Now they’re trying to acquaint themselves and their players with the game.
“For the offense, it was really challenging,” Tolentino told West Hawaii Today. “Trying to figure out formations where we can utilize the whole field. We’re trying to work out deceptions. It’s challenging, but I like it.”
Tolentino and Midal both intend to duplicate the two-linemen technique that Ka’u used on defense last year. Interestingly, Ke is switching to a three-man front this season.
Few of the Daggers have even played the full version, so Midal’s primary concern during training camp was teaching the fundamentals.
“Running backs and wide receivers can do a lot of damage,” he said. “Our team is not really built for speed. We’re fast, but not as fast as others.
“We’ve marked the field to 40 yards, but we really haven’t noticed a difference yet.”
The three teams will each play one another twice in a home-and-home series, with two advancing to the championship game in October. Games against junior varsity teams won’t count in the standings.
The BIIF champion won’t advance to the state play this season, but Namohala said that could be an option in the future.
Ke doesn’t see himself as a pioneer, but he’d love to see schools such as East-Pac — a cooperative between Christian Liberty and St. Joseph — and Makua Lani follow in the Trojans’ footsteps in the future.
“We could go from one to three to five or more,” he said. “And you know what? If we did that, we could play more games than the 11-man teams.”
