Monday Morning MIL: Kamehameha Maui seeded No. 1 in Division II football; Baldwin seeded No. 5 in Division I

After finishing their 9-1 season with nine straight wins, the Kamehameha Schools Maui football team had four weeks to kill until the state tournament.

So, they decided to follow the lead of college teams who have to wait weeks for the postseason bowl games — they spent time on film study, weight room sessions and occasional walkthroughs on the turf in T-shirts and shorts.

“Normally when you’re around bowl season there is those long lulls,” Warriors head coach Ulima Afoa said Friday. “So, we kind of get away from football for a little bit, take a chance to get healed up.”

The top-seeded Warriors want to be healthy when they get back on the field at Kana‘iaupuni Stadium on Nov. 22 for their semifinal in the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Division II state tournament. At 6 p.m., the defending Division II state champion Warriors will face the winner of Friday’s quarterfinal game between Pac-5 and Kamehameha Hawai‘i.

The Division II state championship game is at 4 p.m. Nov. 28 at Mililani High School on O‘ahu. The Warriors have been in three of the last four D-II state championship games and won their first state crown last season.

This year, Kamehameha Maui was 8-0 in Maui Interscholastic League play, outscoring the other four teams in the league 302-81 — KS Maui’s final game was a 32-16 win over King Kekaulike on Oct. 24.

MIL Division I champion Baldwin High School was seeded No. 5 in its bracket and will start the D-I tournament in the quarterfinals against No. 4 Damien at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Farrington High School on O‘ahu.

Kamehameha Maui will hit the field today to begin their preparation for the home stretch. The college bowl game scenario approach they’ve been taking comes from Afoa’s 19 years of experience at the college football level — he was an assistant coach at the University of Hawai‘i in 1995 and 1996, and San Diego State University from 1982 to 1993 and 1997 to 2001. 

“They’re itching to get back on because it’s not like we just let them go for two weeks,” Afoa said. “They were still there to lift and to run and to do the things needed to stay ready. They just didn’t have the football part of it, which for them, as I watched them go through these two weeks, they were itching to get back.”

The Warriors will have a rested Zedekaiah Campbell at running back to lead the way. Campbell, a senior who was the 2024 scoringlive.com Division II Hawai‘i Offensive Player of the Year, has run for 724 yards on 78 carries (9.3 yards per carry) and 12 touchdowns this season, but has been limited to just five carries for 58 yards over the last three games due to a shoulder injury. He also missed the first two games of the season due to personal reasons.

Campbell is the fourth-leading rusher in Division II in the state and Kamehameha Maui’s all-time leading career rusher with 2,084 yards on the ground. His replacement, sophomore Xander Pagan, is second in the state in the D-II ranks with 828 yards rushing on 67 carries, including nine touchdowns. Nakoa Pau, a junior, has run for 455 yards on 70 carries, including five touchdowns.

Having Campbell as healthy as he has been since midseason will be a plus, but Afoa knows he has two capable replacements to keep legs fresh in the Warriors’ backfield.

“Not having to be in contact for the last two weeks, obviously it’s helped as far as his recovery,” Afoa said of Campbell, who rushed for a school single-season record 991 yards last season. “Because you think about it, he’s got one more game minimum and maximum he’s got two. So, again, you want to be able to finish off your career on a good note.”

Campbell said Sunday afternoon that his shoulder “feels good” and that “we’ll be ready. I want to get going already, but coach has a schedule for us.” 

Campbell is talking with the University of Hawai‘i about continuing his football career, and has offers to play football from Indiana Wesleyan University, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics school in Marion, Indiana; NCAA Division II Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, Calif.; and NCAA Division III Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore.

Campbell is always quick to credit his offensive line, which is also set to be healthy according to Afoa. Pa‘u Spencer, a 6-foot-3, 280-pound senior who has a scholarship offer from UH, is the right tackle; senior Keanu Reyes (6-3, 220) is the right guard; sophomore Jeremiah Kea (5-5, 200) is the center; senior Isaiah Lani (6-3, 235) is the left guard; and junior Kukauakuewa So‘o (6-1, 220) is the left tackle.

Sophomore quarterback Kekoa Keau-Davis has performed better and better as the season has gone on — he has 1,157 yards passing and completed 81 of 137 passes with 17 touchdowns and just four interceptions.

“He’s gotten better with every game experience,” Afoa said. “The thing with Kekoa is that he tries to learn as he goes along. He understands the game.”

Afoa said that when the coaching staff questions what Keau-Davis is seeing on any given play, “whether you like his answer or not, he’ll tell you the truth as far as what he saw, which is good because you don’t want him to tell you what you want to hear.”

Baldwin is back in the state tournament for the first time since 2019. They finished 6-3 overall and 5-3 in MIL play, with two losses to Kamehameha Maui. Baldwin is led by a solid offensive line and senior leaders who led the team back to the state tournament.

Seniors Ethan Bacos, a linebacker; Dylan Wellerstein, a linebacker/tight end; and quarterback Jordan Carbonell have been at the forefront all season. The Bears lost two close games to open MIL play and then rallied to win five of their last six.

Bears head coach Cody Nakamura also said junior offensive lineman Faanu Ma‘o, a 6-2, 315-pounder, has been very vocal in recent weeks.

“He’s fired up for states and he’s trying to get everybody on the same page,” Nakamura said of Ma‘o. “Keep them on track.”

Nakamura is not worried about being the only one of five league champions in the six-team Division I tournament that has to get on a plane for their quarterfinal. 

War Memorial Stadium was not usable this season due to renovations being done on the facility that is usually home for the Bears. Baldwin played four MIL games at King Kekaulike Stadium, two at Sue Cooley Stadium in Lahaina and two at Kana‘iaupuni Stadium. The lone preseason game was at Hilo.

“Well, we’ve been away all year, so they’re used to that portion of it,” Nakamura said. “We were hoping that we were going to be doing this at state. … It’s a preparation thing. And we told them that this is how it’s going to be during the postseason.”

“Monday Morning MIL” columns 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.