Kahuku football head coach Vavae Tata is bringing his team to Las Vegas next season to play Bishop Gorman, USA Today’s No. 1 team from 2015.
He told Hawaii Prep World on Friday that it’s “a great opportunity.”
“We are looking forward to the challenge and are looking forward to preparing for that challenge,” Tata said. “We’re looking at it like another championship game.”
The Red Raiders beat Saint Louis 39-14 in Hawaii’s 2015 state Division I championship game. In Nevada’s D-I title game, Bishop Gorman routed Liberty 62-21.
Bishop Gorman coach Kenny Sanchez talked about how the game became a reality.
“Basically, Coach (Tata) reached out a month ago or so to see if we would be interested in playing a game,” Sanchez said. “It took a couple of weeks to see if we could work it out on the schedule. Kahuku is a real good football team and it was a really good fit (on the schedule).”
The Gaels plan to play their first two games of the 2016 season against Texas powerhouses in the Lone Star State — at Allen (a loser in the 2015 state 6A-1 semifinals) and at Cedar Hill (made 2015 state 6A-2 playoffs). They also have a game against St. Thomas Aquinas, the Florida 7A state champions.
Last fall, during the Gaels’ 12-0 season, they beat four out-of-state teams that had made it to at least their respective state semifinals the year before: at home against Chandler, Ariz. (35-14); at Bingham, Utah (38-20); at Bellevue, Wash. (35-7); and at Servite, Calif. (38-7). They also beat another perennial California power, at Long Beach Poly, 52-13.
“It’s fun for our kids to play, not so much against other states as much as it is against really good competition,” Sanchez said.
The Kahuku at Bishop Gorman game is Sept. 17.
2.3 GPA? That isn’t even a C+ average. Way to set that bar high! If my kid came home with C+’s I would cry and hang out with 88 and his mother who are used to bad grades.
Spartan you are one true idiot buddy!
Academics are just a small portion of the whole high school experience. HS is about enjoying yourself, having fun, and making friends. Most of the crap taught in HS nowadays kids will never use in their life. Everybody knows this! Let the kids play ball, so what if they’re not setting the bar high. If they make the minimum GPA that’s good enough. Who are you to say what an acceptable GPA is? Nowadays no one knows who or what type of creep is teaching your kids in the classroom and what type of hidden issues they have!
What’s the minimum GPA required for other schools across the state?
Spartan and Education First are the same person?
“Most of the crap taught in HS nowadays kids will never use in their life. Everybody knows this! Let the kids play ball, so what if they’re not setting the bar high. If they make the minimum GPA that’s good enough.”
wow. and this is wrong with the educational system right now, ladies and gentlemen.
and me!
Action Jackson February 1, 2016 at 11:23 pm
Spartan you are one true idiot buddy!
Academics are just a small portion of the whole high school experience. HS is about enjoying yourself, having fun, and making friends. Most of the crap taught in HS nowadays kids will never use in their life. Everybody knows this! Let the kids play ball, so what if they’re not setting the bar high. If they make the minimum GPA that’s good enough. Who are you to say what an acceptable GPA is? Nowadays no one knows who or what type of creep is teaching your kids in the classroom and what type of hidden issues they have!
Academics are just a small portion? This is so dumb I actually don’t know how to reply to it. but I will try. Academics is by far the most important portion of schooling.
Why do you think school starts at 8am and ends at 2pm or later? And why are extra-curricular activities after school? And in sports, the students are called student-athletes, not athlete-students.
I bet you are brave enough to write dumb stuff like this because you don’t have to use your real name. If you did, no way you write such foolish garbage.
No wonder why your child has bad grade. “Academics are only a small part!” You are killing me, haha!
Education First, Spartan, Homom and now Old School Cougar is the same person.
Education First, if your so smart why do you need to create additional screen names to agree with yourself?
Right, Hahashandah, because obviously multiple people can’t have a different opinion than you. Grow up.
@ Education First
Don’t kid yourself, there’s only been one bigot here…stop acting like anyone is supporting you. Hahashandah is absolutely right. You all one and the same.
Old School Cougar-
Go to the gymnasium @Kaiser and look on the wall. You’ll see my football name on the plaque for “defensive back” of the year in 1993. Go look for my picture for baseball “player of the year” by the bathrooms you friggin comedian! Old school cougar? Who the heck are you pal? I’m not droppin’ my name right here but I’ll tell you who I played with. Wyatt Mcmillan, Matt Len, David Kuma, Coaches were Seaman, Shikada, Almadova, Sealy, Von Arnswaldt.
Bruddah, Their were 5 championships in the history of Kaiser. !979 prep bowl, 1981 state baseball, 1993 Oia football, 1993 State baseball, and 2015 State D2 basketball. Bruddah, don’t Old school Cougar me you peanut. I was part of 2 of those 5 championships. I took pride getting that 2.3 Gpa buddy. Go make waves somewhere else little man.
@OLd School Cougar. If you truly were a Cougar, tell me where the Girls weight room was located. It had all “free weights” no dumbells. Otherwise you’ve been hiding behind many names you little monkey.
I create multiple usernames to annoy you guys. As I can see, it is working. HAHAH. It also wastes your time. If it didn’t waste your time you wouldn’t address it, haha. And for the record, your scores still as some of the worst in the history of the world. I am surprised you guys can even identify the different letters on the keyboards. Based on your ELA scores my guess is you couldn’t. I guess I am wrong in that case.
And again I challenge the webmaster to show that HOMOM and AOK are me. You will find out that it isn’t.
When it’s me, I will let you know you morons. LOL. #winning #wastingyourtime
” Most of the crap taught in HS nowadays kids will never use in their life. Everybody knows this! Let the kids play ball, so what if they’re not setting the bar high. If they make the minimum GPA that’s good enough.”
“I took pride getting that 2.3 Gpa buddy. ”
dude. are you being for real right now? are you listening to what you’re saying or do you actually not value education at all and really believe “school?? who needs it! shoot for the minimum of 2.3 gpa. that’s good enough. ball is life.”
Go RedRaiders
Mahalo for the multi facet troll that keeps this thread going. Keep it up till the next season when Kahuku run the State again. Then you can flog yourself relentlessly.
this is so entertaining. i never realized just how many haters we have out there. It’s not even football season yet.
Go big Red!!!
Homom, Spartan and Education First are all the same guy. No listen to him. He values being a slave to the system and not having a good time.
WOW… Very sad that an article about a FOOTBALL GAME, quickly turned into bashing a school/program for scheduling said game?!?! I’m not a Kahuku Graduate nor do I live in Hauula, Laie or Kahuku, so I will not pretend to understand the passion of “Red Raider Nation”. I do however, realize and respect the GREATNESS of their program, and come Sept. 17th I WILL be cheering for those boys!! Go get em Kahuku!!
SimpleSimon, the minimum elegibilty GPA for all other schools athletics is 2.0. Kahuku is the only one with a 2.3 and they will be raising it to a 2.5 next year. Coach Vae will be requiring his players to have a minimum of 3.0 to play.
Spartan, Kahuku is raising the bar in small increments but at least they are raising it. I know many kids on the team who had a 3.0 and higher last year. It’s too bad you need to bash a school and the students who are actually improving on their academics. Looking forward to finding out who you/ education first really are. Until then keep hiding behind your keyboard and continue hating on the Red Raider Nation. Bumbai you learn.
“Homom, Spartan and Education First are all the same guy. No listen to him. He values being a slave to the system and not having a good time.”
Action Jackson: grow up. more than one person on this planet can have opinions different than yours. especially when you say really crazy things like “academics are a very small part of high school. you don’t use anything you learn in high school anyway. i’m proud of my 2.3 gpa and whatever state championship team i was a part of while i didnt’ do school work.”
brother, if the highlight of your salad days is high school sports, that’s a little sad.
“Kahuku is the only one with a 2.3 and they will be raising it to a 2.5 next year. Coach Vae will be requiring his players to have a minimum of 3.0 to play.”
you have a source for this or are you making this up?
http://www.civilbeat.com/2014/07/kahuku-high-raises-minimum-gpa-rule-for-athletes/
aitorahi: the article doesn’t say that tata is raising the gpa to a 2.5 minimum and then 3.0 minimum in order to play. It also was written before tata even got to kahuku. But it does confirm that kahuku raised the minimum gpa to 2.3, which nobody disputed.
i don’t really buy the 3.0 minimum gpa rule. that would cripple any football team in the state. including ILH teams (where a 3.0 is actually much harder to achieve than in public school). Kahuku, on its website, even says that only around 30% of its team is scoring a 3.0 or above.
so what is your point homom you hate on kahuku too much. just shut up and worry bout Kaiser’s kaiya athletics and what about you guys raise your shit up lol frikn scrub
MAXPREPS says the game will be on Friday night on September 16th (7pm at Fritata field) instead of Saturday the 17th. Is that the new confirmed date, time, and location?
In our islands our parents try their best to send us to school and for us kids to try to learn their best, at home they try their best to teach us the best they know. My Dad went as far as 7th grade my Mom 11th grade but the education I learn at home I’ll be able to survived any place in the world, my education from school made me able to support my family. I didn’t succeed in sport, I seen something else in life and is was to become a leader or a head of a company, couldn’t get help for education, so I have pay for it on my own and go night classes. These kids trying their best thru sports so they extend their education to be success in life, be great community leaders and a great family leader. Our Heavenly Father continue to bless our Keiki guide them and protect. Amem.