Recruiting isn’t the way to go. Boys want to go play at Stl and they do attract some of the best talent in the state just because of their success, their is little recruiting involved there. But teams like st Francis, and Punahou, recruiting is arguably present. Yea, `Iolani is small but they aren’t quitters becasue they are well coached. You can’t just go comparing `Iolani to the top dogs of the state, especially Stl and Punahou, just because of their ILH status. `Iolani probably plays the best ball in the state with what they have with no recruiting. Size doesn’t compare to good coaching and hear which those boys definitely have. Don’t get me wrong, teams like Stl, Punahou, Kahuku, Campbell have good coaching, heart, AND size, it definitely shows. `Iolani scrimmaged and did well against much larger teams such as Roosevelt and Wai’anae, with their 4, 200+ lbs kids on their team.

The divisions are set up as they are for a reason, their is no real reason why a team like `Iolani should have to play top dogs in the state weekly just to “challenge themselves”. They will be playing against teams they ,ya be bigger than the, but match up well this year. Don’t count the raiders out this year.

To answer your question, I think they should do some form of “recruiting” IF they want to move up and compete with the top teams.

So just to be clear, you would rather have them recruit the talent that they could in order to compete with the top three ILH schools? Other wise they would have to wait to get home grown studs every now and then, but even that wouldn’t always be enough to compete with schools like St. Francis who really don’t make any effort to hide their larger athletic aspirations and recruiting efforts.

I could probably argue that, overall, St. Francis recruits even more than Punahou. The only difference being that their larger student body increases the number of potential home grown talents like Kanawai Noa and countless QBs. However I don’t see anyone complain about St. Francis yet. Is it only because they recruit outside of the North Shore? Curious as to this double standard between the Punahou/iolani’s and the St. Francis/St. Louis’s.

I understand that you have a reasonable point, and I agree that complaining about moving up divisions isn’t conducive to a strong competitive environment. The problem though is that, how do you suppose they develop their program? Recruit?

I’d argue that Iolani has one of the strongest developmental coaching staffs in the state, but they just don’t have the same level of raw talent as other D1 and Open Division schools. They actually reach their potential. If you actually look at their roster they really have a D2 roster. Their heaviest player is 225 lbs. Half of their starting OL is under 200 lbs. By comparison St. Francis has a legit Open Division sized roster in D1.

Let’s understand that it’s not their fault that they play the best game that they can with the hand that they are dealt.

The point is, if you dominate a division for a long time, develop and challenge your program to move up.

@broken spoke
Agreed, talk is cheap especially when you say something is “guaranteed” and you have no facts to back up your claim.

Talk is cheap but its worth even less when haters comment without ever watching the team they critique. TDA and NS guaranteed they neva play any HS football.

Sorry but how is this game any different than Kahuku’s 52 pt win over Konawaena, Kapolei’s 46 pt win over Castle, or Campbell’s 40 pt win over Hilo? A lot of teams played out of division opponents and had lop-sided scores.

If you read the article and saw the scoring summary, then you would’ve known that Iolani scored the majority of their points in the first quarter then pulled their starters. That’s pretty standard if it’s a blowout. It’s not like they were trying to run up the score.