Two-time defending Open Division state champion Saint Louis opens the 2018 season ranked No. 12 in the nation in the Max Preps preseason top 25 released Monday.
The Crusaders, who finished No. 15 in the final Max Preps rankings in 2017, have won 15 consecutive games and 20 of the last 21 overall since losing to Kahuku in the 2015 state final.
Saint Louis lost six first-team All-State players from last season, including offensive player of the year Chevan Cordeiro, but returns two first-teamers in offensive lineman Arasi Mose and defensive tackle Faatui Tuitele.
The Crusaders will open their season Aug. 10 at Aloha Stadium against Waianae. The following week, they will host Narbonne (Calif.), ranked No. 24 by Max Preps, at Aloha Stadium in a rematch of Saint Louis’ 56-50 win a year ago.
St. John Bosco (Calif.) was ranked No. 1 in the MaxPreps poll. The Braves will host Mililani in California on Aug. 31.
Last year’s national champion, Mater Dei (Calif.), is No. 2, followed by IMG Academy (Fla.).
More than half of the top 25 are teams from California, Texas, Georgia and Florida.
Former Kahuku quarterback Sol-Jay Maiava transfered to St. John’s in Washington D.C., which is ranked No. 6.
Bishop Gorman (Nev.) is No. 11.
Going to be an interesting season. With the new Open Division setup all teams need to be on their “A” game. There are no “gimme “ games anymore. I would be surprised if a team goes undefeated in the division. Rankings are nice but what counts is what happens at the end. It’ll be a dogfight every week. Who’ll be the last team standing?
Can’t wait until STL plays Bosco, Mater Dei, IMG or Gorman in 2019
And….while ALL other OIA-ILH games are played on OIA home fields…somehow St LuLu managed to get their game vs Big Red at the stadium… lol…
But always good to have Hawaii represented in these arbitrary rankings. The new schedule will test each team every week. I don’t see any team making it through the season unscathed. Best season ever.
Good luck to all. RRFL.
@TooMeke
That Kahuku v STL game you’re talking about is scheduled as a home game for Crusaders. They play their home games in the stadium.
How does Mililani end up with so many home games?
@Yessah – outside of the season opening double-header at the stadium, that is not the original agreement between OIA & ILH… ALL of those games are supposed to be at OIA home fields…regardless of who the “home” team is for that game.
All of Punahou’s games vs OIA teams are at the OIA team’s home fields.
Kam’s only game at stadium vs OIA team is the double-header to open the season at the stadium. They do get to host Farrington at Kam home field.
StL gets 2 OIA games at the stadium.
So Punahou has the ‘worst’ schedule of the 3 ILH OPEN teams and StL has the most favorable.
Hmmmmm……
How the heck did that happen?
I guess winning the state champs 2 years in a row has its privileges.
St Louis is a win at all costs football program. Why even be a high school? They can be like the IMG Academy in Florida. All this national ranking is going to do is make them recruit even more OIA players.
Mahatma you are correct I dont know how the STL coaches sleep at night knowing they have to do unethical things in regards to recruiting and scheduling in order to gain advantages.
Oh Well!
You know what they say about men that drive big trucks!
Here we go. You can tell football season is almost here because all the kahuku red HATERS is out. All the whiners from kahuku is going to keep talking until they win. Not happening this year.
RH4L
Right now, I think that we are living in an age of super teams. We see it in the pros and we’re seeing it in high school. Only select teams are getting the best players in the state, while schools like Aiea, Radford, etc., are finding it harder and harder to compete. The new alignment should help restore competitiveness, but every year, the number-one rating is and will only be reserved for St. Louis, Kahuku, Mililani and Punahou.
Every school has the same opportunities. It’s the school and the AD Department to check to make sure athletes live in their appropriate districts and not using friends or relatives addresses.
Not sure where you folks are getting your information from but St. Louis HASN’T recruited any athletes since 1999, since they’ve been under the microscope. These boys go there on their own choice. Like all private schools, the students transfer to other private schools because of financial, family or personal reasons. ILH schools can’t give “athletic” scholarships, Punahou found a way to get around athletic scholarships, with the “Bridge” program where they RECRUIT these “less fortunate” Polynesian kids STRICKLY for sports and Kamehameha STILL hand pick their students (it has nothing to do with their placement testing, which is a formality)…………..tell me that not recruiting. I’m not a St Louis fan, but to the haters, some research needs to be done before making undocumented false statements.
@Joe Blow
Every REAL Hawaii HS football fan is laughing😂
at you right now saying STL didn’t recruit since 99.
So all these stud athletes just chose to go to STL and their parents just said of course i’ll Pay the $15,000 dollar tuition even though we live in Mayor Wright, Palolo, Halawa or KPT housings?
If you’re a True STL guy you would admit STL recruits like Punahou and now some public schools. Stop hiding under a rock and denying it!
????- St. Louis don’t recruit. Name me one kid on that team that’s recruited. Yet you have kids coming from Utah to kahuku but they not recruited because there family. Lmao! Give me a break. St. Louis don’t have the funds to recruit like before. Even the highly recruited Tui pays his own way. RH4L
Regardless recruiting or not. Stop crying, all you hear is pay the refs, juice, they recruit, penalties this and that lol, just face it when you guys lose. Thats just the way it is, as well in the mainland. Kahuku People thank saint louis for putting you guys on the map. If it wasnt for you guys beating saint louis, kahuku would be another football team un heard of in hawaii. So thank saint louis for that. Also ya you guys recruit kids from Utah and samoa dont hide behind that lol, lastly kahuku has a 25 mile stretch along the north to the east side, ya thats alot of communities regardless if its small. keep trying, Kahuku has a long way to accomplish what saint louis did. cannot even compare lol. Dont get me wrong, kahuku has great athletes and they have a great football program. For one,with the size of the kids is crazy, they are like young men running over the small schools, they should be contenders every year with the size that they have lol. But But when you got arrogant fans from the community , it hurts the kids.
It’s a Big Country, to be ranked 12 is crazy.But gives the teams in Hawaii some excitement..Not sure how they got this high, due to the fact they never played any ranked teams besides Kahuku and Norbone..But they must know something we dont…Good Luck…
@Recruit dis
So you’re telling me the kid who lives in public housing is having his parents pay $15,000 a year So he can attend STL? Just curious cause if that’s true I take back everything I said about STL😂
?????- He sure does. Like I said before STL don’t recruit. They might offer some financial aid for kids who come from public housing but they don’t have the funds to give free tuition. Genius why do you think the school was going to shut down? It’s because NO MORE MONEY. It’s a losing battle argument with sore losers like yourself. Just take the loss and shaddup!