Posted on: Wednesday, April 6, 2005

ILH reviving JV football

By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Interscholastic League of Honolulu plans to have a junior varsity football season this fall for the first time since 1998.

Kamehameha, Saint Louis and Punahou are expected to field JV teams and play one another twice for a four-game schedule, provided each team has enough available players when practice starts in August.

The ILH, which began in 1909, is Hawai'i's oldest league and one of the oldest in the Western United States. But since 1999, it also had been the only one of Hawai'i's five high school leagues without JV football.

The ILH canceled its 1999 JV season because only Kamehameha and Saint Louis had enough players, and league rules require at least three teams to have an official season.

The ILH hasn't had JV football since, but at an athletic directors meeting Monday night, Kamehameha, Saint Louis and Punahou declared their plans to field JV teams.

"It's a start," said Punahou coach Kale Ane, who also serves as an associate athletic director. "We've been trying to have a JV team for a number of years, but we had a problem getting enough kids at certain positions. We didn't feel we had enough linemen to (field teams at) three levels.

"Now we're at the point where we think we have enough linemen to try to have a JV team. But the key word is 'try.' "

Last season, Kamehameha had 107 players on its varsity roster; Saint Louis had 87 and Punahou 86. During fall practice, then-Kamehameha coach Kanani Souza said he had 34 sophomores on the squad, but only two were projected to start or receive significant playing time.

Saint Louis coach Delbert Tengan said yesterday he had 28 sophomores last season, with "only a handful" seeing a lot of game action. And Ane said only four of his 20 sophomores last season received significant playing time.

"I think all three teams kind of had a lot of kids in that category, and (having JV programs) would benefit them," Ane said. "A lot of sophomores will get more competition and playing time, and the transition from JV to varsity is a lot smoother than from intermediate to varsity."

Ane and ILH officials cautioned that things could change between now and fall practice.

"We've already had two significant knee injuries," Ane said. "We plan to move our intermediate (coaching) staff up to JV and find an intermediate staff, and there has to be a lot of communication between all three levels. But we're excited to see how it works."

Tengan said he's also cautiously optimistic.

"We tried to keep the JV league as much as possible (back in 1999)," he said. "It's something we've pushed for. But the only drawback is that we'll play only four games. It's hard to tell kids to train three months for a four-game season, so our league has gotta address that. But just to be back is a good thing."

Ane and Tengan said they would have liked to play nonleague games against JV teams from the O'ahu Interscholastic Association, but the OIA teams already have their schedules in place. Ane said there's a possibility another round could be added to make it a six-game schedule, but Tengan said that would also add another bye week, when they already are looking at two bye weeks each.

Whatever the schedule looks like, ILH executive director Don Botelho said Monday night the JV league's revival is a good sign.

"We need to have it," said Botelho, who was an ILH varsity coach for 38 seasons. "Hopefully, the rest of the league will move in that direction, too. I think everybody can benefit from having a JV program."

Besides the varsity sophomores who sat on the bench, Tengan said other sophomores decided not to play because they believed they weren't ready to compete at the varsity level.

"Any time a kid wants to play football and is willing to practice every day, we want to keep them in the program," Tengan said. "But by not having a JV team, some kids make decisions on their own not to play on the varsity, so they go on to other sports or other activities and we end up never getting them back. That's where it hurt us."

To help with the problem of playing time, Kamehameha and Saint Louis played a "nonleague" game last season using only non-starters.

"The main reason was to get some playing time for those kids who weren't getting game experience," Tengan said. "(The return of JV) is another avenue to give kids an opportunity to play."

Damien, Iolani and Pac-Five are the other ILH varsity teams.

In other ILH football news, Word of Life has announced plans to field an intermediate team for the first time, with long-term plans to field JV and varsity teams.

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2456.