by Kaili Himalaya
After years of pushing themselves to be the best they can be, and all the while being the underdogs at the same time, our football boys are finally going to be able to get the taste of playing in Aloha Stadium for the 2016 OIA DII championship game. Waialua’s football team has gone through a series of winning four consecutive football titles from 1952-1955 when it was still known as the Rural O’ahu Interscholastic Association (ROIA).
At that time, the head coach for the Bulldogs was Toshiyuki “Toshi” Nakasone who became a record setting coach at Waialua High and Intermediate School. Throughout his years of coaching at Waialua, it marked one of the most successful periods of football competition in the school’s history. Waialua has gone through
winless seasons, had seasons where they made it far enough to have a chance to go to playoffs, and finally, competing in the DII championship. The Waialua football team has come a long way. From all the time and hard work they put into the season, they couldn’t have done it without Head Coach Lincoln Barit guiding them the whole way.
Barit has been coaching at Waialua since 1980 and took over the program as head coach in 2003. “The teams and players have been getting better through the years, and the Waialua boys are finally realizing they can compete with the bigger schools,” Coach Barit said. As a coach, one of the biggest obstacles they have are grades, Barit stated, “Our motto here is education first, family second, and sports third.”
Success is nothing you can dream about, it’s something you have to work for, and the Waialua boys have been putting in work since July, to accomplish big things for our small town. So for the first time in 24 years, Waialua has made it to the championship game, “We always had a monkey on our back and we finally got that monkey off our back,” Coach Barit said. We’re a small town with big dreams; and by making it to the championship, the boys are finally getting what they deserve.