Football
16in16: Iolani Raiders


The motto that the Iolani football team — and the athletic department as a whole — lives by is "One Team," so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the decision to fully embrace the move to Division I this year was a collective one.

After capturing 11 consecutive Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II titles — which included eight state championships, including a string of six straight — the Raiders are stepping up to compete with the big boys in 2015 by league mandate.

There was, however, an opportunity to appeal the ILH's decision, but that discussion didn't last very long.

"It was them, it was the kids," said Wendell Look, who enters his 25th season as head coach at Iolani. "I didn't know what we wanted to do yet. I wanted to get the feel from them and they definitely had the enthusiasm to take it on and I said, ‘Yeah, we go. Let's go then.' "

Senior center Devin Ide gave some insight into the meeting.

"We had a meeting that didn't last very long," Ide said. "We met during lunch one day and (Look) basically said, ‘Are we in or are we out?,' and that it was up to us. Everyone wasn't ready to back down, we all said we wanted to go and so it was pretty quick. It was a no-brainer."

There's no been looking back since, according to Look.

"We addressed it early in our preparation and that was it," Look said. "The kids decided that this is what they wanted to do and we said ‘OK, we're going to go full bore,' and we haven't regretted it, we haven't wavered on it. They've been very determined and steadfast in their preparation and we're going to prepare like how we prepare every year and we expect to be in the championship game."

Unlike in years past, teams will exclusively play within their division in the ILH this season in a double round-robin format. That means, there are no games pitting D1 versus D2 teams this year.

"We saw (the D1 teams) last year, so it's not that much of a difference, you just see them twice," said Ide, a third-year varsity member. "Winning is always great, but we just strive to get better every day and whatever happens on the field, happens on the field, but we don't expect to lose. We come out here ready to win and ready to fight, but as long as we get better and we have this bond as a close team like we had last year, then I think everyone will be happy."

Senior slotback Conor Hannum is looking forward to the challenge.

"It's different than the past two years for us, because not only do we have to get ready for a competitive D2 season and try to win a state championship there, we have to kick it up a whole another level and get ready for D1, which is a completely different game," Hannum said. "We've played those guys before, so we know what to expect, but we haven't played them two times in a season and we haven't been fighting for a D1 state championship before, so that's definitely a new challenge."

Despite the promotion, the Raiders aren't changing the way they go about their business.

"We haven't treated it any different," Look said. "I think I'm focusing on our guys and that's what we always do anyway, is we just focus on our guys and make sure that we prepare them to the best that we can and the best that they can play and a little bit above. I can't be worried about (Saint Louis quarterback) Tua (Tagovailoa), you can't be worried about Punahou now, because you're going to lose focus on what's important and that's your kids."

Senior defensive end Christian Naeole said the expectations surrounding the program have not changed.

"We're just preparing how we've always been preparing and taking it one game at a time," Naeole said. "We've always been giving one hundred percent, working hard, and we felt like we could have been ready to continue playing D1 teams last year, and we don't feel like only playing D1 teams is going to affect us at all. We hope that people don't look down on us because we came from D2 and we hope that people look at us and think that we have a chance, because we're coming to play. We're not going to play as underdogs, we're playing as if we're coming to win."

2015 Iolani Raiders schedule

Aug. 8 — vs. Kamehameha-Maui* (at Aloha Stadium)
Aug. 15 — vs. Kealakehe*
Aug. 22 — vs. Farrington*
Sept. 11 — vs. Punahou
Sept. 18 — vs. Saint Louis (at Aloha Stadium)
Sept. 25 — at Kamehameha
Oct. 2 — at Punahou
Oct. 9 — vs. Saint Louis (at Aloha Stadium)
Oct. 16 — vs. Kamehameha
*denotes non-league game
Home games played at Kozuki Stadium unless otherwise noted

After seeing his sophomore season end with a loss in the semifinal round of the state tournament in 2013, Ide helped Iolani recapture the D2 crown last year. He said there is no lack of motivation for this year's squad.

"I think when coach Look asked us if we wanted to go Division I or not and we all said we wanted to go and we wanted the challenge, I think that's motivation enough," Ide said. "You know you're playing against the bigger guys, the faster guys, so if that doesn't motivate you to get better, then I don't know what will, because if you don't motivate yourself through that, it's going to be rough on the field, so I feel everyone through this Division-I thing, we're pretty motivated to show that we can hang with them."

The Raiders will likely be smaller — in both numbers and size — in every game they play this season, but Hannum said the team is embracing the opportunity.

"We have nothing to prove to the (media) or anybody who is writing about us. We don't have anything to prove to them, (but) we have everything to prove to ourselves to show that we can play with these guys and to show ourselves and really everyone on the team that we can go out and do this," Hannum said. "We have nothing to lose and we're just going to go out and fight every game."

- Kalani Takase





Show your support

Every contribution, no matter the size, will help ScoringLive continue its mission to provide the best and most comprehensive coverage of high school sports in the state of Hawaii and beyond.

Please consider making a contribution today.

ADVERTISEMENT


MORE STORIES

Radford wins on walk-off wild pitch to turn back Kalaheo

Mataio Tauanuu batted 4-for-4 and scored the game-winning run in back-and-forth game for the Rams.

Punahou continues unbeaten streak, hands Kamehameha second straight loss

Third-ranked Warriors suffered consecutive losses in the regular season for the first time since 2017.

No. 4 Iolani rallies to hand No. 1 Kamehameha first ILH loss

Ethan Akagi and CJ Taira scored the winning runs for the Raiders off a wild pitch to hand the top-ranked...

Punahou pulls away from PAC-5 to notch first ILH win

The Buffanblu ended a five-game skid and broke into the win column to keep the Wolfpack winless in the...

Kalani's Nishigaya headlines All-OIA East selections

Forward/midfielder Kaiulani Nishigaya helped lift Falcons to first-ever league title; Kaiser's Noelani...

Trojans' Fuamatu-Maafala leads All-OIA West picks

Mililani's Iai Fuamatu-Maafala named Player of the Year; Campbell's James Curran named coach of the year.