Hilo linebacker Ofa Fahiua readies himself before a practice drill. Evan Asato | SL

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Evan Asato | SL

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The way Dave Baldwin sees it, the easy part is out of the way.

A year after building the Hilo football team to its first Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division I title in 10 years, Baldwin is pushing the Vikings harder with the hopes of surpassing their 2013 finish.

After toppling "Mount Kealakehe," as Baldwin referred to the Waveriders' dominance of the league for the better part of the last decade, Hilo is out prove that last year was no fluke, but will have the proverbial target on its back in 2014.

"It's interesting, every year has been different," said Balwin, who enters his third season at Hilo. "This team seems to be different in the way that the bond seems to be really forming now in our summer training as we move into practices. Our progression has been good and we seem to be headed in the right direction to at least be competitive int he upcoming season."

Hilo ran the table in the BIIF last season and won nine straight at one point, including a 21-10 win over Kealakehe in the league championship game. The Vikings hung tough with Campbell in a Division I state-tournament first-round game — holding leads of 7-0 and 17-14 — before ultimately allowing 28 consecutive second-half points by the Sabers in a 41-27 season-ending loss.

"I think the only things these returners, my coaching staff and myself remember is the Campbell game," Baldwin reflected. "It's always the last one that you remember the most and we learned the most from that game and the mistakes we made. The things we did right we're try to build upon again, but I think the whole experience gave us a little more sense of pride and accomplishment from where we were three years ago to where we are now."

The loss left a bitter taste in the mouths of the Vikings, which some say has served as motivation for this year.

"We had a lot of faults and mistakes that were very little, but also cost us the game," senior linebacker Ofa Fahiua said. "I believe if we stayed a little more disciplined, the outcome would have been a little better for us."

Sione Atuekaho, a senior quarterback, also chimed in.

"Campbell is a great team and my team fought hard, but we're hungry now and that gave us the experience of what it takes to be in the state tournament," Atuekaho said. "Right now we're working toward our goal and we're really hungry. We know we have the talent and the mental focus to go out there and do it again."

It won't come easy, however, as Baldwin explained.

"The difficulty now is maintaining that standard that we set and doing everything that we can to fulfill all the things that we learned from last year and put them into application and just become not only better players, but better coaches," Baldwin said. "I hope what we have done increases the expectations and the standards and I hope that this year the competitiveness is as high as it has been the last couple of years and that the hunger doesn't fade."

For now, Baldwin's squad is saying and doing all the right things.

"We're not really a big team, but we have really big hearts,"Fahiua said. "We'd like to accomplish our goals that we set out for each other and we encourage each other to keep pushing forward to get better as a player and as a team."

From the sound of it, Baldwin and the Vikings are up for the challenge that awaits them this season.

"I think it's going to be probably my most challenging coaching year, because this is the first year that Hilo will come back with a target on its back," Baldwin said. "In my opinion it's easier to rebuild a program than it is to maintain it. I think the challenges to maintaining them are greater, the expectations are higher, so your work ethic has to be worthy of that championship expectation."

The fact that no BIIF team has ever won a Division I game in the 15-year history of the state tournament remains a sore spot for Baldwin.

"Hopefully we will continue to progress through hard work over the season and we can put the pieces together to be that first Big Island team to make it past that first round of the state tournament," Baldwin said.

The Vikings open the season with a non-league game against crosstown rival Waiakea on Aug. 16 at Francis Wong Stadium.

2014 Hilo football schedule
All home games played at Wong Stadium
Aug. 16 — at Waiakea (non-league at Wong Stadium)
Aug. 30 — vs. Hawaii Prep
Sept. 5 — vs. Kamehameha-Hawaii
Sept. 12 — at Honokaa
Sept. 20 — at Kealakehe
Sept. 27 — at Keaau
Oct. 4 — vs. Konawaena
Oct. 10 — vs. Waiakea