Comments on: A mixed bag for neighbor island schools to open the prep football season

By: gerry

gerry — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 01:55:14 +0000

Good Job Molokai! Keep your head up. You guys are already winners.

By: Wainakea

Wainakea — Wed, 07 Aug 2019 22:37:55 +0000

8-man was already kind of going no where.
Seabury Hall dropped it this year so the MIL is down to 3 teams. Molokai will probably move up if Hana won’t be able to field a team.
There is only one Oahu public school without a football team (Olomua), two if you count Anuenue.
CLA, Parker, and Makua Lani aren’t gonna be able to field teams even in 8-man, and won’t be able to field a PAC team either due to the physical distances between them.
8-man wasn’t gaining respect among the students, and I believe this is partly why Pahoa made the decision to move up. Pahoa and Ka’u have the numbers to play against HPA. Kohala is really the only school stuck in this, but they seem to have been able to temporarily avoid the numbers problem.

By: BigIslandKurt

BigIslandKurt — Wed, 07 Aug 2019 01:21:42 +0000

The biggest mistake was to scrap the 8 man game on the Big Island. Whoever was responsible for this will go down with much egg on their collective faces. If anything, we should have put in efforts to expand 8 man throughout the state! Smaller schools could have all eventually joined the league in hopes that it would lead to a state playoff or championship one day. Why a mistake? There is a very real reason why most of these teams went to 8 man — being it is almost impossible to filed the numbers needed for a viable team. In 11 man, many of these small schools will struggle to fill a roster. They will have enough (barely) for the 1’s…with players playing both ways. When it comes to the 2’s, there will be serious drop off. Injuries will happen and blowouts will be the norm. It already happened with Molokai and Kohala. the HHSAA should have invested in 8 man, not destroy it.