Kamehameha and Hilo will have a two-week break to prepare for their respective BIIF football championship games.
As is stands now, Konawaena and Kealakehe will not.
“I have no idea what’s happening,” Wildcats coach Brad Uemoto said Monday night. “It’s a totally awkward situation right now. And we’ve never been in this situation before.”
In an unsurprising development Monday, the Warriors informed the BIIF they were forfeiting their game against the Vikings on Friday night at Wong Stadium, a cross-divisional contest that is meaningless to the playoff picture.
Other than being West Hawaii’s rivalry game, the same could be said of the Waveriders-Wildcats tilt that is still scheduled for Saturday in Kealakekua – both makeup contests of games postponed by weather represent regular-season finales slated for an open weekend on the schedule ahead of championship weekend.
Hilo (7-0) will host Kealakehe (5-1) in the Division I championship game Oct. 26 at Wong, while Konawaena (4-2) travels to face Kamehameha (5-2) on Oct. 27 in the D-II title game.
Uemoto told the Tribune-Herald on Friday, after his team lost at Hilo, that he was dead-set against playing Kealakehe, a game “with nothing riding on it,” and would forfeit the contest, if necessary. On Monday, however, Uemoto indicated he saw the merits of going through with the game against the Waveriders and would try make the best of any situation.
He met with Konawaena principal Shawn Suzuki but stressed he hasn’t talked to Kealakehe yet to gauge their interest in playing this Saturday.
“I told (Shawn), I don’t want to play (Saturday), in the sense that I want two weeks to prepare for (Kamehameha),” Uemoto said. “The more I thought about it, if we forfeited and it’s an automatic loss anyway, playing (Kealakehe) is a win-win.
“I don’t know that it’s in our hands. We need to contact Kealakehe.”
Kamehameha coach Dan Lyons told the Tribune-Herald on Saturday night, after the Warriors wrapped up home-field advantage, that he was concerned about unnecessary injuries being suffered in a contest against the Vikings that “doesn’t mean anything.”
Lyons said Kamehameha wouldn’t necessarily spend all its preparation time leading up to the title game focused on the Wildcats.
“That’s not how we normally do things,” Lyons said. ‘The first week would be more like a normal week of practice. Now, we might work on skills that would be useful against Konawaena.”
While appearing amenable to play this week, Uemoto said the Warriors’ extra week off “wouldn’t be fair.”
Hilo coach Kaeo Drummondo said last Friday, after the Vikings wrapped up home-field advantage against Kealakehe, that the Viks could use another game, meaningless or not.
”We’re a young team that can use reps,” he said.
In eight-man football, Kohala (0-4) and Pahoa (2-2) will play their semifinal at 6 p.m. Friday night at Keaau after their contest last Saturday was postponed by lightning. The winner faces Ka’u (4-0) at 1 p.m. Oct. 27 in Pahala in the championship game
