A seasoned coach knows anything is possible.

Even with history and experience on her side, Kamehameha girls paddling coach Rose Lum knows it's an open race at today's First Hawaiian Bank/Hawai'i High School Athletic Association state paddling championships at Ke'ehi Lagoon.

Races start at 10 a.m.

Lum is finishing her 30th year at Kamehameha and former paddlers return to visit — as parents of current paddlers. Her Warriors have won all but one of the six state girls titles. Though Interscholastic League of Honolulu teams have long sponsored paddling, the sport didn't have a state championship until 2002.

ILH teams have won all the boys and girls state paddling titles. Maui Interscholastic League teams have claimed three of the six mixed crew titles.

"If you can minimize your mistakes, you can paddle error-free, you can do well," Lum said. "I'm not one to say we're going to win it because we won the ILH. We have to earn it."

Kamehameha won the ILH boys, girls and mixed crew titles this year, though other schools won races during the regular season. The Kamehameha girls and mixed crews and Mid-Pacific boys are the defending state champions.

Just trying to gauge teams around the state is difficult. Each league uses a different type of canoe and also paddles different distances during the regular season. The ILH raced anywhere from three to five miles, while the O'ahu Interscholastic Association had one-mile races. The MIL had 1/2-mile races, which is the distance for the state regatta. The Big Island Interscholastic Federation had 1/2-mile races for its league championships, but also raced longer distances during the regular season.

Punahou coach Marion Lyman-Mersereau compared it to having a cross country runner who has been running long distances all season to do a sprint at the end of the season to determine a winner.

"In the longer races, you can make a few mistakes," Lyman-Mersereau said. "The distance allows you to make up for it. In the shorter races, your stroke, your start, your timing counts."

Also, crews in the ILH make their turns around two big buoys. Crews at the state regatta will have to turn around a flag.

"It's strategy, preparation and trying to prepare the best you could," Lum said.

Kamehameha boys coach Kalama Heine said his crew is confident. The Warriors won state titles in 2005 and 2006.

"We're well-prepared, we know we're in shape, and we've toned ourselves down to going all out for half a mile, instead of getting out and settling into a nice pace, so we can get 100 percent for everything," Heine said. "Now we're going into where we're doing more of a sprint, so our sprinting, you have to control body movement. The more your body moves, you'll rock the boat."

Today's state regatta returns to Ke'ehi Lagoon, where it's been held every year except for last year in Hilo. Lyman-Mersereau said she enjoys seeing all the crews gather on the beach, and Lum is fond of the camaraderie among all three Kamehameha campuses.

"The camaraderie with the Neighbor Island campuses, for us, it's special," Lum said. "We have Kamehameha campuses from the Big Island and Maui, it's really a neat 'ohana. We get together and host each other. That's really neat."

While the high school season ends today, paddling will keep Lum going. There's coaching at the club level during the summer and then paddling with her crew at the World Sprint Championships in August in California. She's not leaving the prep scene anytime soon.

"I like working with young people," Lum said. "They're teachable, they don't have bad habits and the greatest feeling is seeing a person who never paddled before and watching them develop. They never had knowledge about the ocean and they embrace it at the end."

Note: In its first year of paddling, Makua Lani of the BIIF qualified all three of its crews for the state regatta. Located in Holualoa, the school has 125 students.

Reach Stanley Lee at sktlee@honoluluadvertiser.com.