Monday Morning MIL: Little Leaguers advance, football and volleyball underway

Separated by 4,757 miles, the Magno brothers shared a phone call Friday morning to wish each other luck in their games that day.

Twelve-year-old Kolten Magno and the Central East Maui Little League All-Stars beat Hinsdale, Ill., 5-0 in the Little League World Series to improve to 2-0 in Williamsport, Pa., and move to a showdown today against Henderson, Nev., in a game that will be televised on ESPN at 9 a.m. HST.

Seventeen-year-old Kahi Magno and his Lahainaluna High School football team lost to Kapolei 42-12 in their preseason opener at Sue Cooley Stadium.

Big brother was watching little brother’s game on ESPN on Friday morning because school was out for Admission Day. The Magno family lost their home in the Aug. 8, 2023, fire that killed at least 102 people — they lived for several months at the Royal Lahaina Resort and a little more than a month ago they moved into a three-bedroom house owned by their grandmother, an abode that now houses 15 Magnos.

“It’s exciting for him, I’m proud of him, especially coming from a small town, from Lahaina — after all that has happened to us, he’s out there balling in where, Pennsylvania?” Kahi Magno said as he helped put jerseys away in the Lunas’ equipment room Friday following his game. “That’s where all the competition is and he’s ballin’, so I’m just proud of him and glad that he’s representing Lahaina like that.”

Little brother called his bigger brother to talk prior to Central East Maui Little League’s victory on Friday. Kolten Magno, who is currently 4-foot-11, 95 pounds, dreams of following in his brother’s footsteps for the Lunas.

“He called me, he was wishing me luck,” Kahi Magno said of his younger sibling. “He was telling me, ‘ball out,’ just telling me ball out, give it my all. It gives me a lot of motivation knowing that he’s up there balling out. Like, the only thing I can do is ball out, too, just like my little brother.”

Kahi has his own advice for Kolten, each time they talk.

“No matter how small you are, it matters how big your heart is, give it all on the field,” Kahi said. 

After falling behind 35-0 at halftime to the Open Division Hurricanes, the Lunas scored twice in the second half on touchdowns by Michael Rayray, first on a 9-yard run late in the third quarter and then on an 18-yard touchdown catch from quarterback Ty Bronco-Gomes late in the game.

“Shocking,” Kahi Magno said of playing Kapolei, which was led by senior quarterback Lia’Tama Amisone, a 6-2, 190-pounder who finished 12 for 17 passing for 234 yards, all in the first half. The Hurricanes outgained the Lunas 367 yards to 148 for the game.

“We were in shock, I mean we did prepare for this, but they were just a little better,” Kahi Magno said. “It was good for the competition and stuff, that’s how we get better by facing better competition.”

The game was a matchup of the oldest school west of the Rocky Mountains — Lahainaluna was founded in 1831 — against the newest school in the state among those playing regulation 11-player football. Kapolei High School opened in 2000.

Moloka‘i will be the latest school to join the 11-player ranks this season. Kūlanihāko‘i High School in Kīhei, whose campus officially opened for the first full school year in August 2023, is set to compete in eight-player football in the Maui Interscholastic League this fall.

Lahainaluna and Kapolei’s matchup challenged the Lunas, who lost 29 seniors to graduation in May, but have a solid class of 24 this fall. The Lunas play Valley Central High School from San Diego, Calif., on Friday in Lahaina and will open Maui Interscholastic League play on. Aug. 31 when they host Moloka‘i.

“What can you say about Kapolei? They play in the top tier in the state and they certainly are talented, they’re well-disciplined, they’re well-coached,” Lahainaluna head coach Dean Rickard said. “You can just tell there’s a big difference. You know, we’ve got a lot of young, inexperienced players and we’re grateful that they gave us an opportunity. It was a good gauge for us to see where we’re at, see what we need to work on as we move into our MIL season.”

Kapolei improved to 7-0 all-time against non-Oahu opponents in the first game it has ever played in the state off of Oahu. The Hurricanes have played two games in California.

“We had five bye weeks and so we had to get creative,” Kapolei head coach Darren Hernandez said. “The D-I schedules were full, no one wanted to play us, so we had to look elsewhere. Weren’t going to the Mainland this year, so we ended up calling and Lahainaluna was gracious enough to say, ‘Let’s go. Let’s play a game.’ I don’t think they’ve ever played an Open Division team.”

In other MIL preseason football action so far, King Kekaulike is now 1-1 after a 41-17 win over Honoka‘a on Aug. 10 at home and a 14-7 loss to Waimea at Hanapēpē Ballpark on Saturday. Kamehameha Maui fell behind 19-0 at halftime before falling 19-16 to Beaumont, Calif., on Thursday at Radford in a game that ended with a missed field goal attempt by the Warriors on the final play. 

This week, perennial powerhouse Saint Louis visits KSM on Friday; Baldwin hosts Kaua‘i on Saturday at War Memorial Stadium; and Maui High travels to Hawai‘i island to face Kea‘au on Saturday.

GIRLS VOLLEYBALL

MIL Division I play in girls volleyball begins Tuesday with Baldwin hosting Maui High and King Kekaulike hosting Kamehameha Maui.

The season that Baldwin has been building towards for several years has arrived with four seniors — Lilinoe Paschoal, Natronai Anana, Amanda Naipo and Ariana Naipo — returning as first team MIL All-Stars. All four have college scholarship offers and Paschoal has verbally committed to Chaminade University of Honolulu.

The Bears have all seven starters back from last season when they were a state final four team.

“I’m always one that’s superstitious, right, so I’m not going to put out there that we’re going to win the state title, but are we as good as last year when we were basically five points away in each set from the final,” Baldwin coach Al Paschoal said. “So, are we as good as last year? We’re at least as good as last year, but we still have to do some work. We’re fortunate that we’re going to hit the ground running.”  

In D-II MIL play that began last week, Maui Prep swept Kūlanihāko‘i on Tuesday; Seabury Hall swept Haleakalā Waldorf and Hana swept Kihei Charter on Wednesday; and on Friday and Saturday, Hana swept Haleakala Waldorf twice and Molokai did likewise to Kihei Charter.

The MIL made a little noise in D-II volleyball when Maui Prep won their own Pueo Invitational tournament on Saturday at the Bozich Center — the three-day event included Punahou’s I-AA (second) team, Hanalani, Waialua, Lāna‘i, Seabury Hall, Lahainaluna and King Kekaulike. 

Na Pueo beat the Buffanblu 17-25, 25-20, 15-13 in the final. MPA’s Ashley Davis was the tournament MVP and was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Lauren Brown, Avery Kirkham and Kelsey Reul and Seabury Hall’s Milania Padilla.

*This is the first of the Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative’s “Monday Morning MIL” columns that will appear weekly on Monday mornings with updates on local sports in the Maui Interscholastic League and elsewhere around Maui County. Please send column ideas — anything having to do with sports in Maui County — as well as results and photos to rob@hjinow.org.