LIHUE — The Kauai High School football team made history of sorts Tuesday afternoon when the Red Raiders hosted the Fighters from Kwansei Gakuin in Osaka, Japan to a controlled scrimmage at the school’s athletic field.
“This is the first time we’re doing this on our own field,” said Kauai High School coach Jason Apilado. “This is historic, playing a game on our field. It’s just preseason, but I’m nervous, and excited at the same time. For us, this is just our second outing on the field, and we’ll be back at Vidinha Stadium Saturday against Maui. Tonight, we’re going to mix in some of our junior varsity players.”
Apilado said the Fighters were on the final leg of their trip to Hawaii where they played against Kekaulike, Saturday on Maui. Kwansei took that contest, 37-21.
Nursing injuries from that encounter, and playing in a 50-yard format, Kwansei took the field first, scoring a touchdown on a keeper play from inside the 10-yard line.
The Red Raiders answered, but came up short until the Fighters’ second series when a Kauai defender recovered a fumble inside the 20-yard line to set up the Raiders first score that came when Malu Ralston pulled in a pass from one of two quarterbacks that were in action.
Kauai broke the 7-7 stalemate with two more scores and a missed point-after boot for the 20-7 reading before the JV Raiders had their turn against Kwansei.
“We’re a strong team,” said Keita Mimamida, a Kwansei player, who was sidelined following the Maui match. “We have two tournaments, the spring and winter tournaments. Kwansei is No. 1 after getting the championship in the spring tournament. We are a tight team.”
During the day, the football players hosted their Japanese counterparts on campus to experience a day in the life of an American student.
“This was very interesting,” said Sora Natuyama, one of the Kwansei students. “We have the same things to learn, but this is a different style, or approach, of teaching.”
Marissa Purcel, Kauai assistant athletic director, and coach for the cross country team, said she had a couple of the females in her weight training class.
“They’re a fun group,” Purcell said. “They went through the program, and in the end wanted to compete with each other. It got pretty exciting.”
Art Umezu, serving as interpreter and liason, said the tradition of having Japanese high schools play football on Kauai started back when Akio Kubota was the Kauai High School coach.
“I think they were here when Charlene Quinones was the AD,” said William “Bill” Arakaki, the Kauai Area Complex superintendent who joined the throng of spectators that lined the end zone portion of the field.
Following the scrimmage, Apilado said the players’ families each brought potluck for a get-together with the Japanese visitors, who are scheduled to leave this morning for a stop in Honolulu before winging back to Japan.
“One day, we might get across the big pond,” Apilado said. “I was part of the group that brought the Kauai Yankees to play in Japan. That was a good experience because I found out that it’s not cheap to get there. We’re going to have to work toward maybe getting to play in Japan.”
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
