By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

While it remains too soon to say who will win in the inaugural HHSAA/First Hawaiian Bank Football Classic, we already know who the MVP is.

That would be Keith Amemiya, executive director of the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association and most valuable promoter.

Or, as Long Beach (Calif.) Poly High coach Raul Lara put it the other day, the "Don King" of prep sports.

Leaving aside the differences in hair and experiences with the law — King was a convicted felon while Amemiya has practiced law — give Amemiya credit for a groundbreaking promotional coup.

Amemiya has taken the once far-fetched idea of matching top local teams against nationally prominent Mainland opponents and run with it to the goalline. A faraway dream that existed as only "what if..." tailgate banter is now just six weeks away from reality.

The Sept. 21 Football Classic will match Kahuku against Long Beach Poly and St. Louis School against De La Salle of Concord, Calif. in a doubleheader of national import at Aloha Stadium.

But while the possibilities it presents in exposure, prestige and money are significant, the longstanding hurdles were daunting. Consider how many years it took just to get the rival OIA and ILH together on a state football title and then double it with geography thrown in for good measure.

For years St. Louis has tried to work out a game with De La Salle and the Crusaders weren't alone. A Who's Who of perennial prep powerhouses, including Jenks of Oklahoma and Evangel Christian of Louisiana, also failed.

Amemiya put it on his to-do list upon taking over the HHSAA four years ago. Somewhere between bringing the OIA and ILH together and adding six state championships to the 15 he was already running, Amemiya managed to pull this one off in two years. Small wonder at least one candidate for the University of Hawai'i athletic director job had approached Amemiya about joining his team if given the UH job.

Initially there was skepticism about an event for which HHSAA would have to come up with $150,000 to fund. No more. Not with more than $100,000 already taken in through sponsorships and participant ticket sales even before the first public ticket offering.

All the profit — and the game could draw upwards of 25,000 — stays home where it will be divided among the 26 football-playing O'ahu schools and the HHSAA to help fund other sports.

Whatever odds Kahuku and St. Louis are staring at come Sept. 21, they can find inspiration in Amemiya having overcome even longer ones just to make this event possible.