It’s baaaacck.
Yes, high school football is back. As strange as it may seem, the state of Hawaii kicked off the 2019 football season with Week 1 action that included a number of teams across the state, though not all schools.
While perennial state champion or finalist St. Louis sat out, one of the best headlines from the early Hawaiian action came from the town of Pukalini, where the King Kekaulike (Pukalani, Hawaii) squad snapped a 41-game losing streak by blanking McKinley High School (Honolulu) 30-0 in a game played at Farrington High School’s Skippa Diaz Stadium.
Just how long is a 41-game winless streak in Hawaii? Well, the Na Alli (that’s their mascot) hadn’t captured a victory since September of 2014, per Hawaii high school sports site ScoringLive. The win is reportedly just the fifth the team has earned since 2011.
Kekaulike head coach Tyson Valle attributed his team’s success to an extensive and successful offseason training program.
As for the players, they were beyond thrilled to have finally experienced a victory on the field.
“I can’t even tell you how great it feels,” Na Alii senior quarterback Franco Melgar Matich told ScoringLive. “These guys worked really hard. We’re drilled each and every day. You have to work hard and give it your all.”
