Q&A
Wildcats to host Waveriders in Division I debut




The carousel of football transfers was not limited to just Oahu this summer.

A couple of new-look squads in a new-look league will open up the Big Island Interscholastic Federation regular season slate on the west side of Hawaii island this weekend.

Konawaena will make its Division I debut Saturday night, when it hosts geographical rival Kealakehe at Julian Yates Field in the first of two meetings between the teams this season. It is the only BIIF game that will take place over the weekend — although Kamehameha-Hawaii will play No. 9 Hilo in a non-league meeting at Dr. Francis Wong Stadium Friday night — one week before the rest of the league gets underway.

The league saw its three 8-man teams (Kau, Kohala, Pahoa) make the jump to 11-man football. Those three teams will join Hawaii Prep and Kamehameha-Hawaii in D2, while Konawaena and Honokaa made the jump to D1, where they will join defending champion Hilo, Keaau, Kealakehe and Waiakea.

The Wildcats, under fifth-year coach Brad Uemoto, made a trip to Oahu during the final week in July for scrimmages with Kahuku, Leilehua and Waianae, but have yet to play a game this season. Saturday's contest will be the first in the green and white for junior quarterback Kainoa "Boo" Jones, a 5-foot-10, 165-pound transfer from Kealakehe.

Meanwhile, it will be two weeks since the Waveriders (1-0) kicked off the Wyatt Nahale-era with a 13-7 win at Pearl City. Nahale was announced as the program's sixth coach back in March after spending the 2018 season as an assistant at Konawaena. He was the Wildcats' JV coach for the four seasons prior to that.

Among those that joined Nahale in the move up the Kona coast is his son, Sheynen, a 5-foot-10, 165-pound sophomore quarterback. The younger Nahale threw for more than 2,000 yards and 17 TDs as a freshman starter at Konawaena last year. Wide receiver Hunter Wehrsig, who had a team-high 547 receiving yards and six TDs as a junior last season, also transferred to Kealakehe.

We caught up with both coaches a few days before their face-off in Kealakekua.


ScoringLive: Describe your team's current situation in one word and explain.

Wyatt Nahale, Kealakehe coach: "I would have to use the word ‘family,' and the reason why I use the word family is because what I see every day, I see a progress of our players bonding together, working together and creating that chemistry amongst each other on and off the field, which I think is highly important in order for us to be successful, and this goes for both on and off the field."

Brad Uemoto, Konawaena coach: "I would say ‘building.' I think for us, this early in the season we're looking for an identity on both sides of the ball. We have a bunch of new players at new positions, we have a fairly new offensive line and so we're just trying to find an identity all over the place. Defensively, we're looking to see what type of defense we are, what we're going to hang our hat on every week and what we're trying to establish as a defense. Offensively, we're trying to figure out what our balance will be going forward and it's still early so we're definitely still trying to get the pieces together and put the kids in the right positions and sort of build a reputation on both sides of the ball going forward."


What is the identity of this team, or has that been determined yet? If not, how is that process playing out thus far?

Nahale: "I think at this point we're still trying to find our identity. I think there's opportunities for us, but at this point I think as a staff and amongst the players and the program as a whole, we're still trying to piece that together as far as an identity goes being that it's our first year as a staff and I think it comes with time and I think it also comes with game experience."

Uemoto: "I think defensively our strength is definitely our front. We return a ton of talent up front and that's the majority of our returning starters. We are very athletic in the secondary, so we're still trying to find out what kind of coverages we'll be running, what we're settling into, what our base defense will be. We're just such a different team defensively than last season, so we're trying to find our way there. On offense we're pretty much systematic. We'll go spread and tempo and we have a good group of receivers, a very good athletic quarterback, so just building upon our offensive line to see how well we can run the football."


What are your thoughts on the new-look BIIF and scheduling format?

Nahale: "I like it, I like the opportunity for the D1 teams to play two rounds, which allows the BIIF D1 schools to have more games, more opportunities. I like the fact that Honokaa and Konawaena moved up to the D1. Both schools had been D2 for years and I strongly believe that both schools are good enough to compete at the D1 with the best of the best at this level. What it does is force us coaches to coach because we'll meet in the first round and then play a completely different team in the second round. We'll see teams get better and continue to get better and those are the teams that will emerge in the second round."

Uemoto: "I feel that D1 will serve us right in the sense of preparing every week, playing the bigger schools and challenging us week in and week out. I feel like there's no difference in terms of who we play, because we've always played these teams every season, what gets different is facing these teams more than once and having to adjust from the first time around and that's going to be challenging for the coaching staff to create schemes and build upon success and to learn from our struggles. In the end it will be a challenge and i'm looking forward it."


What are your thoughts on this week's opponent and what it presents?

Nahale: "Well, Konawaena is well coached. Coach Brad Uemoto and his staff have been there for years. They have a great group of players, they have a great system that has already spoken for itself and our thoughts going into the game is we want to downplay all the hype that is going on and anticipation of a big game with two schools within district and we want to make sure we are able to stay within our game plan and philosophies. We don't want to get outside of that. We take this game as if we're preparing for any other game and not try to blow it out of proportion and make it anything other than what we normally prepare for."

Uemoto: "For us, we don't focus on our opponent per se, we like to build upon what we're gonna do and what we do best and what we're gonna execute. Obviously this week it's hard to avoid that we're playing Kealakehe and we're moving up to D1 and seeing some old players and old staff members on the other side of the field will obviously bring a little bit more to the game, but like I preached all week to these kids and I'll preach it right before the game, it's playing Konawaena football and taking care of business and no matter who's on the other side of the ball, it's a championship game and we're gonna do our adjustments and do what we do best. Obviously Kealakehe is athletic, they have size year in and year out. We're gonna prepare for them like we've prepared for them in all the meetings prior to this year. It's the first meeting of obviously two, potentially three, and it's like the first round of a prize fight. We're gonna throw jabs and see what we're gonna have to do in the second round all the way to the 10th round."


With all of the familiarity between the coaching staffs and players even, do you anticipate that there will be a lot of in-game adjustments being made Saturday night?

Nahale: "Most definitely. The majority of those players that are on the Konawaena sideline I've coached as JV head coach and some of the players that I have on the Kealakehe sideline, coach Brad has had a hand in them as well, so we're very familiar with each other and game adjustments will definitely be key. Being that we know each other so well, I think the bottom line will be execution and also the team that makes the least amount of mistakes. Ultimately, we want to make sure that we, as much as possible, have our players stick to what our game plan is and not get outside of that. Being that we're a new program and our system is brand new, we don't want to get outside of anything that we do, so we want to make sure that we stay to that, but at the same time, the team that makes the adjustments as the game proceeds will be, in the end, the team that wins. Like anything else you gotta adjust yourself as the game progresses."

Uemoto: "Yes, for sure. I know coach Wyatt and his staff are gonna bring a team that is well prepared. He's coached our JV team and he did an excellent job with them and I know how he prepares for games and we're gonna have to be ready for all of that. The fun part for me as an offensive coordinator is obviously adjusting. We pride ourselves on game-time adjustments and what we're being given and trying to execute and capitalize on things like that. So that's fun for us. I have a good coaching staff and we're excited for the challenge and we're gonna see where this all takes us."


What will be a key matchup within the game?

Nahale: "Honestly, I think a key matchup will be in the trenches. I'm a firm believer of (being strong) up front and I know Konawaena has a very talented defensive front. Our goal is to have an o-line that can battle with them within the trenches. I think that will be the key for this game: the team that battles in the trenches is the team that will win."

Uemoto: "I think it's gonna be our defensive front against their offensive line and if our defensive line can dictate and control the pace of the game and dictate what (the Waveriders) do offensively, we're gonna be in good position. They have a really good running back in Elijah Kahele — we have to contain him — we're very familiar with Sheynen Nahale at quarterback and his ability to throw the football, so we're gonna have to be ready to face a very balanced offense, but we definitely are gonna have to get pressure on Sheynen and we're gonna have to stop the run."


Konawaena defeated Kealekehe by a score of 16-3 in their only meeting last season.

Kickoff between the Waveriders and Wildcats is scheduled for approximately 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Julian Yates Field.

The rematch will take place on Sept. 26 at Kealakehe.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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