If you know Arnold Martinez, you know he’s pumped up about football and what it has to offer for our isle youth, and the second-year Kaiser coach has something extra to be looking forward to this season.
The Cougars will be playing their home games on newly installed artificial turf. A new state-of-the-art track is also been installed around the field, and the school will also be getting an remodeled locker room.
“To the eyes, it looks like it’s 90 percent done,” said Martinez, a former Moanalua head coach who provided the video posted here. “When you look at it, it looks like we could go on it and play right now. It’s kind of a tease, though, because we won’t be able to go on it until the end of July or the first week of August.”
Four Cougars home (JV and varsity) games are scheuled there for the fall, along with four for Kalani, which does not have a home field.
Here is a breakdown of the field surface of the OIA’s 22 teams:
>> Artificual turf: Castle, Farrington, Kaiser, Leilehua, Mililani, McKinley (practice only), Pearl City, Waipahu (in progress), Roosevelt.
>> Grass: Aiea, Campbell, Kahuku, Kailua, Kapolei, Moanalua, Nanakuli, Radford, Waialua, Waianae, Moanalua.
>> No field at school: Kalaheo, Kalani, Kaimuki.
And for the 7 ILH teams:
>> Artificial turf: ‘Iolani, Kamehameha, Punahou, Saint Louis
>> Grass (practice only): Damien, Pac-Five (at Mid-Pacific), St. Francis (at Manoa Valley District Park)
Why isn’t Kahuku instead getting the new field? Farrington got a complete new stadium. Why not Kahuku? Kaiser barely can get kids to turn out for their football program.
the two county schools with 40+ OIA titles between them no more turf. two rich football traditions. it does not make any sense. they both deserve to have good things the town schools get. i guess they cannot have both, OIA Championships and turf fields.
Kaiser is the home field for 3 teams: Kaiser, Kalani, Kaimuki. Became a safety issue as the field was hard as concrete. Farrington needed a field of their own…
@ Mahatma Gandhi it really would be awesome to see a new field for Kahuku
I think the Keamoeatu’s offered to donate for a field but athletic dept said donate to the entire athletic dept (something to that nature). I also heard something like the football field sits below sea level that’s why when it rains the track floods, so to build a new field they’ll ha e to elevate the grounds to the same level as the upper field. Idk how true those are but there’s a good reason why they don’t have one.
Kapolei not listed. I guess they’re no longer in OIA. lol! They have grass right?
fixed, thanks, Atatiava.
Iolani has a grass field too – nice stadium, nice grass.
I’m afraid to see what is going to happen in a couple of years when the first OIA turf fields that were installed need to be replaced. A lot of them were funded by private funds or grants. Will the DOE have the funds to replace them.
Kahuku ain’t getting a new field because it’s in a flood zone from what was said. Same goes for Waianae, the coral is bad under the field and they would need to dig up and elevate it, which would cost huge money.
Sad that two of the most dominating OIA schools ever, has the crappiest and perhaps dangerous fields.