bandits1 – The OIA has every right to get defensive and protect their league especially when the ILH tries to throw their weight around in attempts to gain advantages over the OIA. For example the ILH strong armed their 2nd team into the tourney last year. When Miliani won in 2014 and Kahuku won in 2015 the ILH had created the storyline that the OIA has caught up to the ILH and the competition is equal. They used that storyline as an agenda to get their 2nd team in the tourney. Yet in 2016 when STL won the title Ron Lee himself said “the competition in the OIA is weaker and we knew it would come back to bite them (Kahuku)…we dont have a soft schedule we play Punahou and Kam so we were prepared for them”

So I already proved statistically that the OIA is weaker (excluding Kahuku), Many in the state including STL brass say the OIA is weaker.

I will only agree with you that the “OIA” (and not Kahuku) has more titles when its stated as a fact and fact only. But when the ILH uses that fact to fuel their own agendas like trying to get their 2nd team into the tourney, or a reason to merge leagues…based on the idea that the OIA has caught up to the ILH, then that is where I draw the line, the OIA has not caughten up to the ILH, Kahuku is the only one pulling all the weight for the OIA. Once every 10yrs you will get a Leiehua or Mililani team that will be able to beat the ILH. The two leagues are not equal and the OIA will never have the advantages of the ILH, despite how many titles Kahuku might win for the OIA.

I think this is just a terminology squabble. Saying the OIA is the “weaker” league isn’t entirely accurate since the OIA owns more state championships than the ILH does. A more fair statement would be the OIA is very much top-heavy. They have far fewer state tournament-quality teams, which is to be expected since it has WAY more members. To be fair, though, Kam hasn’t really been that good either since they won in all in ’09.

But in pretty much every season, IMO, the top 3 OIA teams could go toe-to-toe with the 3 ILH D1 teams. Kapolei taking out Punahou in the opening round last season made that a reality. The ILH finally got their wish for two entries into the state tourney and it didn’t matter one bit.

Bottom line is OIA fans have nothing really to be defensive about since we’ve won a majority of the state championships.

Kahuku is a lock.

Mililani has potential, but their scrimmage against Waianae wasn’t that great. They left their 1st team O in the whole way and could not score against Waianae’s 2nd / 3rd D who was playing their base defense. Gabriel is good but no receivers to throw too. Their defense is susceptible to the run.

As for Kapolei they always got the hype cause Hernandez produces College prospects, but I don’t think they match last seasons success. They’ll be in closer games this year due lack offense.

Waianae and Farrington has a lot of young talent on both sides of the ball. And are traditionally slow starters in the beginning of the season.

I don’t think there are any sleeper teams in Campbell, Moanalua or Castle.

So I think it’s rather wide open after Kahuku.

Removing STL from the 3 team ILH means that STLs presence made up 33% of the leagues participants. Removing Kahuku from the 15 team OIA means Kahukus presence only makes up 7.5% participation. So a majority of the titles won by the “OIA” was attributed to only 7.5% of its members (Kahuku), while in the ILH, although STL has most of the titles its sole presence makes up 33% of its members.

So in essence, if we want to acknowledge STL as the lone hero in the ILH and say the rest of the ILH is sh!!ty then the percent would be 66% – So not including STL, the ILH is 66% sh!!ty

if we want to acknowledge Kahuku as the lone hero in the OIA and say the rest of the OIA is sh!!ty then the percent would be 92.5% – So not including Kahuku, the OIA is 92.5% sh!!ty

The OIA is statistically weaker because you have to account for the rest of the 14 teams in their league including the bottom feeders Radford/Nanakuli/Kaiser.

For your argument to hold weight we would have to have an even amount of teams. So lets say OIA only has 3 teams (Kahuku,Kapolei,Miliani) against the ILH (PUN/STL/Kam), now we can say that the odds are equal for any one team from each league to have a streak of dominance.

So the Statement “The OIA is the weaker league” is statistically true.

Would Punahou have won more state championships if we took away the top two teams? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps Waianae, Mililani, Leilehua or even Castle in 2002 would’ve had more championships.

But the past is the past. We’ll see what happens this season.

Here is another interesting point. Remember 2004 when Kahuku almost lost to Baldwin in the semifinals? If Baldwin won and advanced to the finals against STL I guarntee you STL wins, but instead Kahuku advanced to the finals and beat STL. How can Kahuku almost lose to Baldwin but then beat STL? …..Defense! While the whole state salivates over these high powered offenses in the ILH and at Mililani, Kahuku has the high powered defense to stop it. Even though Kahukus offense can barely even score 7pts in a game, their defense can hold the opponent to 6pts.

So I have to disagree with you that the OIA top three can hang with STL. Kahuku can, imho. Kapolei might have a talented defense this year to stall a high powered STL offense but the Kapolei offense is trying too hard to be a balanced passing offense that they will not be able to kill enough clock to let their defense rest. Mililani might have a good offense but their defense will not hold against a STL/PUN offense. OIA interplay will make these teams look good but against an STL they would be exposed.

In either case its exciting to watch these games coming up and if anything lets hope for minimal injuries so that all teams can say they are at full power.