The Year of the Buffanblu

Author's Note: It is difficult to discuss High School Football in Hawaii without addressing the financial inequities between public and private schools. Public school athletic programs run on a shoe string budget and the fact that they remain, not simply competitive, but on-par and in many cases superior to private school programs in most sports is a borderline miracle. I believe that improving the quality of the public education system in Hawaii, both in the classroom and in the quality of its extracurricular activities, is the most important social issue facing the islands. That said, I also believe there is a time and a place to discuss this issue and that it should not stop us from recognizing the accomplishments of Hawaii's current crop of High School athletes.

With that in mind, I would like to discuss Punahou's State Football Championship victory over Leilehua without pretense and celebrate it for what it was: a phenomenal football game.

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Football has always been the red-headed step child of Punahou Athletics. The Volleyball, Track & Field and Swim teams win state titles like Michael Phelps wins Olympic medals; the Water Polo team churns out All-Americans like I churn out glib witticisms; the soccer team has won 16 of 35 State Championships; the Baseball team is on a string of four consecutive state championships; the Kayaking Team once won 10 consecutive state championships; and, I'm pretty sure you've heard of that Wie girl (hint: she golfs...). Meanwhile, the Football Team's crowning achievement was a 2005 State Title loss.

That might fly at Iolani (For those of you who don't know, Punahou and Iolani have a bit of a rivalry. Well, technically, Iolani would have to win occasionally for it to be considered a rivalry. Just kidding, Iolani grads. I wouldn't want to upset you and have you mess up my Starbucks order. Kidding, kidding... Starbucks would never hire Iolani grads.), but when a graduate of your school assumes the Nation's highest office and Sports Illustrated ranks your school #1 in the nation for High School athletics, that's not gonna cut it.

As of last Friday, it won't have to.

Punahou played one of the most impressive football games I have ever witnessed and won its first ever State Football title, an accomplishment 35 years in the making.

What a team.

What a game.

What a win.

But Punahou didn't just win. They crushed, obliterated, dominated -- pick a superlative -- Leilehua in every phase of the game. They were better on offense, better on defense, better on special teams, had a better game plan, and made better adjustments. The only thing Punahou failed to win was the coin toss.

Consider this...

Punahou gained 518 yards of offense.

Punahou allowed only 7 points even though they turned the ball over 5 TIMES.

Punahou had, not one, but two recievers gain over 140 yards.

Did I mentioned Punahou gained 518 yards of offense???!?!

Aside from the final drive of the game when they shifted into a prevent defense, Punahou gained nearly four times as many yards as Leilehua (518-148). Prior to that point, Leilehua's longest drive of the night was 48 yards -- 15 of which were due to penalties.

To punctuate all of this, Leilehua Quarterback Andrew Manley's longest completion of the game traveled 11 yards. To put that in perspective, Manley averaged 12.8 yards per completion in his previous game.

(Speaking of the quaterback, I'm not sure what effect this had on the game, but between Andrew Manley and Rico Newman, Leilehua dominated Punahou in the number-of-players-whose-names-sound-like-they-belong-to-a-porn-star category. I will respectfully refrain from making a joke about them being the only two Leilehua players to hook up for a score.)

Finally, my personal favorite stat: Punahou players hurdled more Leilehua defenders (2), than Leilehua players scored touchdowns (1).

Yes, you read that right. Two Punahou players, Robby Toma and Dalton Hilliard, both of whom, perhaps not-so-coincidentally, will line up for UCLA next year, literally jumped over would-be tacklers. Un. Be. Lievable. You don't need to know much about football to understand that it's not a good sign when the opposing team treats you like a Track & Field prop more frequently than you put the ball in the end zone.

It is difficult to overstate what an impressive performance Punahou staged on Friday and, while it would be easy to attribute the victory to Punahou's superior athletic ability, Punahou Head Coach Kale Ane deserves an enormous amount of credit for his defensive gameplan, to which Leilehua failed to adjust at any point during the game. In order to combat Leilehua's wide-open spread passing attack, Ane decided to only rush three lineman, drop seven men into coverage and use All-Everything linebacker recruit Manti Te'o as, what can only be described as, a force of nature.

(It would be appropriate here to mention that I'm not the only one who feels this way. Manti is rated as, in order from least to most ridiculous, the top high school football player in the state, the winner of the Dick Butkus Award for the nation's best linebacker, the #4 recruit in the nation by ESPN, and, the kicker, the High School Athlete of the Year by the Sporting News. So yeah, he's good.)

Sometimes Te'o dropped into coverage.

Sometimes Te'o rushed the passer.

Sometimes Te'o acted like he was dropping into coverage and then rushed the passer.

Sometimes Te'o just ran around field screaming at people, making them wet themselves.

(I can't verify that last part, but that's what it looked like from where I was sitting.)

No matter what Te'o did, he made an impact on every play. It was borderline unfair for him to be on the same field with other high school players. Punahou could have replaced him with a two ton flaming ball of knives and it would have been less effective. (Though arguably more entertaining.)

Yet, despite his utter dominance on the defensive side of the football, Manti's signature moment came on offense, and it only involved a four yard gain. The most spectacular four yard gain I've ever seen.

One play. Four yards gained. Approximately 30 yards covered. And seven broken tackles. That's right, SEVEN broken tackles.

(I didn't believe it when it happened so I counted the broken tackles during the replay at the Stadium. I was so blown away that I posted a Twitter message about it. Actually, I kept a running log of the game via Twitter. You can check out as well as all of my endless stream of quipy, random commentary at Twitter.com/JBorhood. If you're not familiar with Twitter, it's like a blog, only tinier and dorkier. On second thought, if you don't know about Twitter, don't ask. I'm incapable of describing it without sounding like someone who will never again get laid.)

If you only saw that one play, you'd know everything you need to know about the game and the 2008 Punahou Football team. Punahou was big. Punahou was fast. And Punahou was not to be denied.

So, after 35 years, the football team finally joined the President elect, the Athletics Department, and seemingly every other sport at Punahou at the top of the mountain.
I think it's safe to say that 2008 is the year of the Buffanblu.

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A few final musings about the 2008 Punahou Football team...

Punahou has four players -- Manti Te'o, Dalton Hilliard, Cayman Shutter and Robbie Toma, who are no-doubt-about-it Division I skill players. Robbie's a little small and Cayman has a wild streak, but Dalton and Manti are jaw-droppingly amazing. They were men against boys on Friday.

Midway through the second quarter, I texted my friend who's attending UCLA and told him how lucky he is to have the privilege of watching Robby Toma and Dalton Hilliard suit up for the Bruins for the next four years. I'm pretty sure Dalton could rush for more then 39 yards against USC right now.

Cayman Shutter turns the ball over a little too much for my tastes, however, he throws the ball with undeniable accuracy and incredible touch on both short and long passes. He lofted a few balls into the corner of the end zone that I still can't believe were thrown by a High School QB. Furthermore, Cayman Shutter is, without a doubt, the best Quarterback name since Colt Brennan, which begs the question: Are we sure he didn't change his name to Cayman after it became clear that he was a phenomenal Quarterback? If we check his birth certificate, will it say Clarance Eugene Shutter the Third? If we can get a copy of Barack Obama's birth certificate, surely we can get a copy of Mr. Shutter's. Someone make this happen.

Last, but not least, shame on you to all the fans who say that they won't cheer for Manti Te'o because he's decided to go to the Mainland for school. Where Manti wants to and should go to school is up to one person and one person only. (Hint: His name starts with an M and rhymes with Banti.)