LIHU‘E — Any extreme emotion, whether it be a high or low, is difficult to move beyond. Following last week’s heartbreaking loss, the Kapa‘a Warriors (5-2, 3-2 KIF) face that challenge as they enter their final regular season contest against
LIHU‘E — Any extreme emotion, whether it be a high or low, is difficult to move beyond.
Following last week’s heartbreaking loss, the Kapa‘a Warriors (5-2, 3-2 KIF) face that challenge as they enter their final regular season contest against the Waimea Menehune (1-5, 0-4), Saturday in Hanapepe.
In a game that brought out both ends of the emotional spectrum from both sidelines, Kaua‘i (6-1, 4-1) edged out Kapa‘a with a 14-13 win this past weekend to grab the outright lead in the KIF. It was the teams’ third meeting of the season.
Following the game, a few Warriors players’ disappointment and, to some degree, anger was visible.
Head coach Keli‘i Morgado felt that the overall state of his team’s mindset following the loss was appropriate, but that a few of his players acted in a fashion that was unacceptable.
“I acknowledged to them that it’s okay to be emotional,” he said prior to Thursday’s practice at Kapa‘a High School. “If you’re hurt by an exciting game that we lost by one point, then that means you worked hard. It should hurt if you put enough into it and we did. I told them I was very proud of them for not quitting. They played until the very last second of the game.
“I wasn’t proud of a few individuals who overreacted at the end of the game,” Morgado said. “I always tell them to win with humility and lose with grace and dignity and a few of us didn’t do that.”
He said that the energy and repercussions of the game likely had a big impact on how emotional his team was following the loss.
“Kapa‘a hasn’t been in a situation like that, in a hectic environment, a close game for all the marbles in probably over 20 years, so they had never been in a situation like that before, so I can’t fault them too much for that,” he said. “But still, we want to represent ourselves, our school and our community better than that.
“But as far as on the field, I thought we played with a lot of heart and we played all the way until the end. We just simply made too many mistakes to win that game.”
The mistakes came from many different areas and occurred throughout the whole game, Morgado said. A few players had been beating themselves up for mistakes on what they considered key plays, but in film sessions this week, Morgado pointed out to his team that there were so many plays that contributed to the final result.
“They can’t be unfair to themselves and blame themselves for that one play,” he said. “We had many, many opportunities to win that game.”
Fixing those mistakes will be the main focus as the team goes into Hanapepe Stadium, still holding on to the hope that it will not be the final game of its 2010 season. A victory over Waimea, followed by a Waimea win over Kaua‘i in the season finale would lead to a tie for first place and a playoff between the Warriors and Raiders for the KIF crown.
“If we want help from Waimea and hope that Waimea can pull off a big win against Kaua‘i, then we have to win this game,” Morgado said. “If we were to lose this game, then it’s a moot point and the season is definitely done. Our destiny is not in our own hands anymore and that’s not ideal, but we still have to take care of our business.”
Though 0-4 in the KIF, the Menehune have proven to be very competitive against both squads. Waimea lost its first matchup with against Kapa‘a by a 7-0 score, a game in which it had numerous long drives but failed on three fourth-down attempts and had two fourth-quarter fumbles.
Waimea also held an 8-7 lead on Kaua‘i in those two teams’ first meeting, only to see the Raiders score late in the fourth quarter on a long Kele Hanohano touchdown run.
Morgado said the Menehune are “probably very, very hungry for a win. They are a dangerous team, so we respect their potential and we have to prepare for that.”
He thinks that Waimea will likely open up their offense a bit, after staying conservative the previous two games.
“We’re expecting them to spread the field against us, go back to their spread option because they are dangerous running that,” he said. “We only saw it one time in the last game.”
Now approaching the end of his third season as Kapa‘a head coach, Morgado said this team’s mentality is different and improved from his first two seasons.
“This team is so different from the last two years in that they compete,” he said. “No matter what happens throughout the course of the game, if we get down or if we’re up, they keep competing at a very high level and that’s something we haven’t done before. Even before my time at Kapa‘a, Kapa‘a was notorious for falling apart emotionally and this group of players has never done that. I’m very proud of their competitive spirit.”
The Warriors will take on the Menehune with JV kicking off at 1:30 p.m., followed by the varsity game at 4:30 p.m.
