KAPA‘A — The Warriors were in just helmets and t-shirts for Friday’s practice, but they will be fully suited up for today’s first crack at live action as the preseason gets underway for Kapa‘a High School against Kalani, this afternoon
KAPA‘A — The Warriors were in just helmets and t-shirts for Friday’s practice, but they will be fully suited up for today’s first crack at live action as the preseason gets underway for Kapa‘a High School against Kalani, this afternoon on O‘ahu.
While all three schools will be in action today, each giving their first glimpse at what may be expected throughout the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation season, Kapa‘a is the only school that will be playing both junior varsity and varsity games. JV will be at 1 p.m. and varsity will follow at 3:30 p.m., the same schedule that KIF teams will follow for the regular season from Sept. 18 and beyond.
“Actually, when we first scheduled the game, it was to save money,” said Kapa‘a head coach Keli‘i Morgado. “But now it turns out it’s going to be a pretty good test for heat, hydration, substitution, all of that. It’s really hot out there, so that’s going to be a good indication for what we’re going to face this year.”
Coming off last season, when the Warriors put together a 2-4 KIF record, the team was consistently strong defensively, but had difficulty sustaining offensive possessions, something that Morgado is hopeful they will address today.
“Offensively, we’ve been real streaky in practice, so we just want to try to establish some drives,” he said. “We had trouble with that all of last year also, so establish drives and play everyone” are the team’s offensive goals against Kalani.
“Defensively, we want to swarm the ball, we want to gang tackle, have disciplined reads and also play everyone,” he said.
Seeing a different uniform in front of them should allow to the Warriors to escape the comfort zone that months of intra-squad play can create. Their goals will change from just learning schemes and improving position on the depth chart to putting all that information into action and competing.
“They know who they’re facing in practice, so they know if this guy is fast or if that guy is stronger than them,” Morgado said. “So they tend to give in to those expectations they have of their own teammates.”
The head coach noted that the speed of the game will be dialed up today from anything the practice field provides.
“You can never emulate game speed in practice,” he said. “That’s where you make game speed mistakes and the only way to fix those mistakes is to play fast. So hopefully we play fast and I’m sure we’ll make mistakes, but then it will be our job to fix those.”
What was a young team last year is now perhaps the most veteran unit in the KIF, with a number of skill position starters returning as seniors on both sides of the ball, though it will be without Sean Shigematsu, a member of this year’s University of Hawai‘i recruiting class for coach Greg McMackin’s Warriors.
Moving on without his services, Morgado pointed out a few of the experienced upperclassmen who have stepped into leadership roles.
“Offensively, Brentten Rapozo and Tyrus Moises; defensively, Mark Hatchell and Rajan Baliaris,” he said. “And then Weston Moniz is everywhere for us. Those are our guys that have stepped up and they’ve been around for all three years that we’ve been here. They know our expectations and they know our system, so it’s nice to have that many returnees.”
Entering his third season as Kapa‘a head coach, Morgado has noticed a major difference in the way his team is now able to process information and learn schemes, relative to his staff’s first two years with the program.
“In spring, we covered practically our whole offense, which we’ve never even come close to doing,” he said. “We didn’t do that at Kaua‘i until my last year there, so it was nice to get that taken care of in the spring. Summer was then all about fine tuning, so it’s nice. It’s like we got a head start.”
Today’s expected afternoon heat shouldn’t be a shock to the system, as the team has been getting in shape and getting ready for the new schedule. Morgado said he and his staff have addressed conditioning extensively and made sure the kids understand how to stay in top form.
“It’s always a catch-22 because the more you condition, the less time you have on techniques and vice versa,” he said. “So we try to infuse that into the practice routine. It’s been hot, so that’s been good. We’ve just been harping on them about hydration and taking care of their bodies.”
Kapa‘a will be the only KIF team to get two regular season night games, as the Warriors are in action each of the first two weeks — first hosting Kaua‘i, then at Waimea.
They will head out of Lihu‘e this morning, JV leaving about an hour before the varsity squad.
