Surfriders To Meet Defending Champs On Red Raider Turf

Wednesday - August 23, 2006
By Jack Danilewicz
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The Lady Hawaii Raiders took first place honors with a perfect 6-0 record in the final game at the Midsummer Nights’ Madness Pacific Coast basketball championship held July 21-24 in Oakland, Calif. (from left) Coach Glenn Takara, Dayna Jandoc, Alana Matayoshi, Chanel Hirata, Jamie Smith, Chelsea Unemori, Alison Nojima, Kylie Ahlo, Kaz Masutani, Sarah Turgeon, Raechele Takara and coach Ivan Suzuki. Photo from Lynne Unemori.
The Lady Hawaii Raiders took first place honors with a
perfect 6-0 record in the final game at the Midsummer
Nights’ Madness Pacific Coast basketball championship
held July 21-24 in Oakland, Calif. (from left) Coach Glenn
Takara, Dayna Jandoc, Alana Matayoshi, Chanel Hirata,
Jamie Smith, Chelsea Unemori, Alison Nojima, Kylie Ahlo,
Kaz Masutani, Sarah Turgeon, Raechele Takara and coach
Ivan Suzuki. Photo from Lynne Unemori.

While Gary Rosolowich is the first to admit there’s a danger in over-selling one game alone among the others on his team’s schedule this fall, the Kailua football coach doesn’t mind getting first crack at defending state champion Kahuku, either.

If anything, the Surfriders figure to have an extra spring in their step this week as they prepare for Saturday night’s trip to Kahuku.

“Every Kailua kid has a special emotional feeling for that game,” Rosolowich said. “But it’s still the opener. It’s a long season ahead.”

The Red Raiders, who have won four of the last six Division I state championships and 10 Oahu Interscholastic Association titles in the last 13 years, are used to being the highlight of opposing team’s schedules. Adding intrigue to the match-up is the fact that former Surfrider coach Darren Johnson is now the Red Raiders’ offensive coordinator on the staff of first-year Kahuku Head Varsity coach Reggie Torres. While beating Kahuku requires nothing less than a stellar all-around effort, Rosolowich likes the idea of facing the Red Raiders in Week One of the prep football season. Kickoff for Saturday’s game at Kahuku is set for 7 p.m. Oceanic-16 will televise the game live.


“It’s probably better to face them sooner than later,” said Rosolowich, whose team finished 3-3 in the OIA’s East Red conference last year. “They’re so talented you probably have a better chance of catching them on an off day early in the season than near the end.”

Kailua’s role in the East Red Division in the early part of the 2006 season may very well be that of the league’s “mystery team” - at least in terms of personnel. Rosolowich expects as many as 12 members of the Surfriders’ talented sophomore class to see significant playing time this fall, with six projected to be in the starting lineup Saturday night.

“They’ll make their share of sophomore-type mistakes, and they’ll be challenged a bit by bigger, faster and stronger people, but they’ll also progress rapidly,” Rosolowich said. “We’re expecting a learning curve to have to take place, but we’re not worried about it. They’ve already shown an ability to learn quickly. Hopefully, the guys will step up and we’ll be able to weather that storm (of being youthful). We had a fantastic summer in terms of progression, although this week has been tough because we’ve been hit by the injury bug.”

With that in mind, Rosolowich noted that two players have been lost to season-ending injuries, but several of the injured who were to be held out of last Saturday’s pre-season game with Leilehua as a precautionary measure, could be back in time for Saturday’s game with Kahuku.

With all public schools on the same academic schedule this year, two-a-days were eliminated from the fall camp routine, which could be viewed as a disadvantage for the Surfriders, who will likely be one of the league’s youngest teams.

“How much better would we be with 10 more practices?” Rosolowich asked on the subject of the loss of two-a-days.“There’s no substitute for putting on the pads, but it’s the same way for us all. We’re farther behind than we would like to be.”

On the offensive side of the ball, Rosolowich sees a Surfrider team that will be “more diversified in our talent” in 2006.


“We have several people that we expect to provide a lot of offense, and that has given us a range of things we can do instead of just relying on one ‘go-to’ person,” he said. “Offensively, we should be in pretty good shape.”

In Kahuku, Kailua will face one of the more physical teams in the state. Among the Surfriders’ defensive priorities on Saturday night will be to limit the number of big plays from the Red Raiders’ repertoire.

“I don’t necessarily think you have to control the ball against them because that would require some dominance on your part, but you have to make them work for every yard and make them take longer to score because they’re going to score points,” Rosolowich said.

“Our defense still has some question marks, but the kids seem to be well-disciplined, and they’re working hard.”

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