When the Waiakea High School boys golf team’s flight home from Kauai touched down last week, it was greeted by streams of water shot overhead by firetrucks and a crowd of supporters waiting outside of the airport.
The Warriors overcame the odds to become their school’s only state champion team for the school year and the only BIIF team to win state during the 2023 spring season.
Bringing home the title was the fruit of a year-long effort, nonstop practice and years of camaraderie.
“All these boys grew up together,” head coach Alika Toledo said. “Parents actually shared pictures of them together when they were six, seven years old. They’ve been around each other for such a long time, they know each other’s personalities, they know each other’s goals.”
Toledo also said that, when compared to past Waiakea golf teams, this year’s team’s work ethic was unmatched.
“When I brought teams to state in the past,” he said, “after the first day, I ask them ‘you guys want go hit balls?’ They say ‘oh no coach, we like go sunset beach, watch the sun set.’ Different priorities. This year, I don’t have to tell them hit balls, they tell me ‘hey coach, we gotta hit balls.’”
Though the Warriors have dominated in BIIF competitions for years on end, last year’s state championship proved to be dissapointing to the players and Toledo. Waiakea finished in fifth place, grossing 695 — almost 90 strokes behind champion Maui Prep.
This year, Waiakea beat Maui Prep by just six strokes, and both teams had three golfers place among the top ten.
Last year’s shortcomings ignited a fire in now-senior and two-time BIIF individual champion Dysen Park, who entered this year’s championship with one goal in mind: cap off his high school career by leading his team to victory.
“We came in feeling good, everyone was playing well,” he said. “Expectations weren’t necessarily high, but we knew what we had to do and what we going there for.”
Park shot 77 for the first round and 75 for day two to place fifth overall, an improvement from his No. 20 finish last year — when he shot 77 and 81.
Part of the Warriors’ success can be attributed to their team dynamic, which is based around an aversion toward complacency and satisfaction. Despite their success at the championship this year, Park and his teammates still felt that they could have found further success.
“I feel like I could have done better,” he said, “but I feel like all of us feel like we could have done better. I didn’t play how I wanted to, but you gotta move on and keep on playing.”
All season, Toledo has preached the value of internal competition to his golfers — and clearly, it worked.
“We trash talk every time,” junior Ryder Ng said. “Every time we play, we bet. We don’t bet money, but maybe a drink or food. We just wanna beat each other.”
Though the competition among the Warriors is intense, it has always been friendly.
“I see all of these guys as brothers,” Park said. “We always feel the same about each other, and as brothers, we want to beat each other. Every practice, every round we play, we’ve always had competition within ourselves. I feel that this year, that bettered us as a whole.”
Ng led Waiakea this year, finishing third overall — shooting 78 on day one and 72 (even par) on day two to tie for the day’s No. 2 ranking. Ng said that though he aimed to play his best, he did not expect to place so high.
“I was a little bit disappointed in myself after the first day,” he said. “I didn’t know that I was playing that well the second day. For the most part, I was just looking at the team scores hoping we’d hold it together. Right around the 15th hole, I looked at the score and saw I was tied for fourth — and I was real surprised by that.”
Ng’s classmate, Noah Otani, placed No. 9 — shooting 75 in the first round and 79 in the second. Like Ng, he spent most of the tournament not paying too much mind to his team’s lead.
“We knew we had a lead,” he said, “but we had to keep playing like there was no lead.”
With Park graduating and joining UH-Hilo’s mens golf team, Ng and Otani will inherit next year the responsibility that comes with being seniors.
“I’m definitely gonna try for top five next year for individuals,” Otani said, “and we’re gonna try to get the state title again. Right now, we don’t have a fourth player — but if we can find someone who shoots high 70’s or low 80’s, and we improve how we’re playing, we can cancel out the lower scores.”
Noah’s freshman brother, Jake, notched a No. 20 finish — becoming one of this year’s youngest players to finish in the top 20. Having such a talented freshman aboard bodes very well for the Warriors’ future as a team.
“I realized that I was a missing puzzle piece to the team,” he said, “and I know that my team realized that. It was a huge responsibility for me to improve myself and do well for the team. It was something I needed to realize, something I needed to come through with.”
Senior Mike Lopez also was dealt a major responsibility to his team. Lopez finished far behind his teammates at No. 79, as he did throughout most of the season. The No. 5 man bears a unique burden in team golf tournaments. When you know you will be shooting much higher numbers than your teammates, you need to play at your highest level in order to not drag down your team’s score too much.
Lopez was succesful at this, and had one of his better outings of the season — carding a season-best 85 on day one and 90 for day two.
“It came down to me being able to play with my teammates,” he said. “Since it’s my last year, I needed to play the best that I can.”
Lopez will attend UH-Manoa, and though he won’t be playing on the ‘Bow’s golf team, he said that he plans on continuing to golf for fun.
The championship victory, which is Waiakea’s first boys golf state title in 20 years, has brought new attention and celebrity status to the team.
“People are definitely talking about us,” Jake Otani said. “I think they’ve realized that the golf team has become a really big thing and really has improved. Because we won states I think we’re getting a lot more recognition.”
This year’s championship victory was a storybook finish. At the same golf course, Wailua, Waiakea won its first-ever team championship in 1983. As a WHS golfer, Toledo led his team to its second straight title the following year at Keauhou Golf Course in Kona — and became the HHSAA individual champion.
“I actually had members of the 1983 team reach out to me,” Toledo said, “and tell me ‘congratulations for bringing it back home.’”
Though the newfound attention around town has been welcomed by the Warriors, Toledo emphasized the importance of the support that his team received throughout the season and into the championship.
“We hadn’t even left the golf course and I had maybe 30 text messages congratulating us,” he said. “It’s unreal. Not only that, it’s the friends you make over the years. I lived on Kauai for ten years, and the first night, one family had us over for dinner — not only the boys, but the girls’ team.”
“We had friends from Maui, who were there to play, who were also invited. I had another friend who was there every day — bringing my boys musubis, bringing them Gatorades. The support is not only locally, its everywhere because of the relationships that you build. I tell the boys all the time ‘you gotta cherish these moments and the relationships that you build.’”
After the tournament, the Warriors met up with the Kealakehe High School golf team to go bowling. The Waveriders also had a successful tournament, placing fifth after not makign it to state as a team since 2009.
Most of Waiakea’s golf team will continue playing through the summer as individuals at invitational tournaments.
However, the Warriors may have another chance to play as a team — at the PGA High School Golf National Invitational this July in Frisco, Texas. Winning state earned Waiakea a berth to play among the 49 top golf teams in the country in the three-day competition, which will host over 500 golfers.
Toledo said that he is looking into what it will take to bring his team there. Last year, Maui Prep tied with Colorado’s team for 25th place.