The grass is frayed in some parts, but it’s playable. ADVERTISING The grass is frayed in some parts, but it’s playable. The bleachers are clean. The pads arrived in time for a few good practices, and the shiny new uniforms
The grass is frayed in some parts, but it’s playable.
The bleachers are clean.
The pads arrived in time for a few good practices, and the shiny new uniforms are fit, snug and ready to go.
There is nothing stopping them now: After a 12-year hiatus, the Green and White is back on the gridiron at Pahoa High.
“When I started high school I always wanted to try it,” senior Casen Arriola said. “I knew it was going to happen someday and I knew I was going to join.”
Arriola never lost faith, and neither did the Pahoa Boosters Club, which was awarded the necessary funds by the Legislature to field an eight-man team, resurrecting a Big Island Interscholastic Federation program that had been dormant since 2001.
“I feel pretty stoked,” senior quarterback Luis Velez said. “It’s my last year and I finally get to play high school ball. It’s something. At least it’s tackle.”
Coach Chris Midal is a Pahoa graduate, but he was a caught in no-man’s land when it came to football. The Daggers fielded a team off and on until 1989, and when they picked football back up in 1995, it was too late for Midal to play.
Even beyond wins and losses this season, his first goal is to make sure future Pahoa students aren’t caught in the same situation.
“No one and done, we want to grow the program” Midal said. “Just making sure we stay out there on the field and show the community that our school is ready for football. We don’t want to disappoint anybody.
“The school and the community wanted and needed football.”
When Midal got the job, he started recruiting students he teaches through Hawaii Community College’s Construction Academy, and he spread the word through Facebook.
Midal’s presence in the classroom at the school could help him as he tries to keep his players’ grades up, which is one of his biggest concerns.
“When we tried to get the program started in the past, grades was always the issue,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons I got the job. I can work with them.”
The roster stands at 28, which is comparable to what Ka’u and Kohala carry in eight-man. It helps to have a few alumni from Pop Warner’s Puna Panthers, but the Daggers figure to enter the season as the least experienced team on the island.
Pahoa got off to a late start to practice, and Hurricane Iselle further complicated matters.
Still, when Arriola was asked what he expected this season, he answered with just one word: wins.
“We need to show them we can do it,” he said. “We’ve just got to work together. Embrace the challenge.
“It’s a smaller field, but it’s still a team game.”
But in many ways, eight-man favors individual play, perhaps putting the spotlight on Velez, a first-year quarterback.
“I think it’s going to be a little more fast and I think my job is a little bit more important,” he said.
“I would love to have wins, anyone would, I have a feeling we have to work on it, but we should be solid. I have a feeling we should win at least half of our games.”
