St. Louis willing to travel to California

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Still looking to fill gaps in its schedule, St. Louis School is willing to travel on short notice to California to play nationally ranked De La Salle (Concord, Calif.) the weekend of Sept. 14-15.

"We're willing to go up," Crusaders' coach Cal Lee said.

The Crusaders don't have a game that weekend and neither does De La Salle, which has the longest winning streak in the country at 113 games.

Lee noticed an opening in De La Salle's schedule after an opponent canceled a game .

But back in March, De La Salle athletic director Terry Eidson told the Contra Costa Times that he would not schedule St. Louis this season because his team's schedule is already tough enough with a Sept. 8 opener against Buchanon (Clovis, Calif.), a Sept. 22 game against Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) and an Oct. 6 meeting against Long Beach (Calif.) Poly.

Buchanon, 12-1 last year including a 35-0 win over Iolani, suffered its only loss to De La Salle and was ranked among the top 50 by RivalsHigh 25. Poly (14-0) was ranked fourth by Rivals and Mater Dei is usually a power in its section.

If the teams meet in September, St. Louis would have already played three games. It will play Kamehameha on Sept. 22, but have a bye the following week.

Because of the new classification system in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, a 10-game schedule was reduced to seven. Some teams have added non-league games before their season openers.

St. Louis will play at Nanakuli on Aug. 17, and San Clemente (Calif.) on Aug. 25 at Aloha Stadium.

An apparent game with Kaua'i Interscholastic Federation champion Waimea has fallen through, according to both schools. The schools couldn't agree on terms for an Aug. 31 meeting at Hanapepe Ball Park.

Lee said he wanted to split gate receipts evenly, while Waimea athletic director James Kitamura offered $1,000, plus housing and a post-game meal.