Last year, the MHS football team competed against Kahuku in the O’ahu Interscholastic Association (OIA) Championship, losing 35-31. This year, MHS played against Kahuku at the OIA Championship on Nov. 3, claiming the title with a final score of 27-7.

    “In the beginning I felt like it was going to be close but, knowing our team and how much we wanted it throughout the season and how hard we worked through the season, I knew we were going to pull away and play our game and just kill it,” said slotback and wide receiver Senior Reichel Vegas.

    The football team dedicates hours of their afterschool time to practicing for games. This season, they focused more on the mental aspects of the team as well communication between different positions. “(We did) a lot of mental preparation as in film, communication with our coaches, communication within our little groups — all our special groups as in skills, quarterbacks, all of that. When it came to practice, we worked on the little things instead of the big picture since the little things is what we needed to work on in order to hold us together,” said Vegas.

    Having lost to Kahuku in the same game last year, the MHS football team was anxious to prove that they could beat Kahuku. MHS was able to pull ahead early on in the game, maintaining their lead and winning by 20 points. “It felt good because we got our revenge,”said receiver and punter Senior Cy Kuboyama-Hayashi. Going into the game, they were confident in their ability to work together as a team and win the OIA title. “I was not nervous at all,”said quarterback Senior Dillon Gabriel. Kuboyama-Hayashi added, “We knew we had them — we knew we could do it this year.”

    With the OIA title in hand, the football team still has a couple of weeks until their season is over. They will continue to train as they look forward to the State Championship game towards the end of the month. “We are preparing the same way we did all this season: staying focused and doing our jobs,” said Gabriel. Kuboyama-Hayashi added, “There’s better things to worry about now.”

    MHS will be playing against James Campbell High School in the States Semi-Finals at 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 16 at the Aloha Stadium to determine who will move onto the State Championship game on Nov. 24.