Looks like Iolani finally heading to D1

[Tmanz]

http://www.hawaiiprepworld.com/football ... on-monday/

Since ILH passed a rule that D1 teams no longer can play D2 teams, Iolani has no choice but go make this move

[huki-lau-lau]

will the iolani coaching staff now be forced to start attending popwarner football games in an attempt to recruit some beefy boys into their roster and then create a "BRIDGE" program for the less financially and educated beefy boys? similar to what punahou / stlouis /kam been doing all along

[bloodred]

I was that Iolani and Kaua'i are the schools who petitioned for DII because the outer islands and the rest of the ILH could not compete with the OIA and ILH powerhouses.

[1808Anonymous]

I am an 'Iolani student, and seeing all these posts are very frustrating. I deliberated for a while on whether or not to post my input on this topic, but I just have a few things to say. Iolani does not recruit. Every person has earned themselves a spot at Iolani because of academics. I saw someone post a comment that we need to maintain a 2.0 GPA. From the time we enter upper school, we must maintain a 3.0 GPA or we are put in a study hall. Student athlete or not, we usually don't get a 2.0. You don't hear about any of our kids being on academic probation because it is nonexistent. The atomosphere is a constant competition to who is smart and who needs to step up and get it together. I would also like to mention that we are one of the only schools left that have all of our classes every day. No block schedules. We have 8 periods a day, atleast 6 of which are core classes. Each class is allowed 45 minutes of homework to assign each night; that is ofcourse if you can understand completely the material being taught. In reality, we spend atleast an hour on homework per subject, per night. We also have honors and AP courses. Our 9th grade biology program has the same text book as the AP Biology program at Punahou. Our 9th grade year, we are encouraged to take the SAT subject test for Biology because we've learned everything we need to know, as freshman. We all have friends from different schools. And you may be surprised how many Iolani and Punahou students are friends because many people on here seem to think we treat eachother horribly and are rivals no matter what. Wrong. We have friends and we talk, so we know exactly what goes on academically at other schools. I have friends at Punahou who are "tutored" becuase they were recruited for the football team. Now I am not saying that all student that are recruited are like that, but many are. Iolani puts academic work first. Always. This is why we go to school. This is why parents pay money; to have their children get a better education to have a better future! Punahou and Iolani are college prepatory schools, and I know Iolani always puts academics first. From freshman year, we are already introduced to the college process. Our entire highschool is centered around college. Senior year is never a slack year. Most Iolani students pile on as many AP classes as they can. Everything we do is academic. I know most of the boys on the football team and I know they didn't just get into Iolani for athletic reasons, they take the same classes as everyone else, they get honor roll, they take honors and AP classes. Saying that we recruit is ridiculous and self contradicting because so many people are saying that we don't have good players. If we recruit but we don't have good players then we obviously aren't recruiting. I think our academic center can be shown by our science and math teams. Pure academics, no recruiting. I'm not saying that other schools aren't academically as rigorous as Iolani because I haven't attended them, but as far as I'm concerned Iolani students move from Iolani to Punahou because it's easier. Someone getting C's and B's at Iolani, cruise all the way at Punahou with straight A's. Im not criticizing punahou, i have respect for the school and I look up to many alumni from there but people portray so much hatred to us because we win DII, but let's be real; practically everyone agrees that Iolani will not have success in DI, and I don't disagree. People are also saying Iolani is physically ready, but what they don't know is how many concussions and injuries us student athletes receive. Not to mention the strain concussions have on our school work. This past year our star running back decided to no longer play football because he received too many injuries and concussions and yet people still insist he was recruited and we recruit. Yet like I said, we still lose and people still think we aren't good. So why is everyone pushing for us to move up? Simply because we win DII? It's pure hatred. Iolani students try to have respect and dignity in everything we do. Our One Team motto is not just in sports, it's incorporated into the classroom atmosphere as well. We always have respect for opponents no matter what school it is and we are always proud to be a raider. If that makes us cocky, then every person who proudly represents their school could be called cocky as well.

[Tmanz]

We all know if Look ever steps down, Rod York would be on speed dial.....That guy would out recruit the Big 3

[kaypryd]

It's a natural progression. If you want to get better as a program you have to play against the best! Good move for Iolani football.

[Getreal$]

I agree especially with Iolani's success at the DII level.

[wrestling808]

I am an 'Iolani student, and seeing all these posts are very frustrating. I deliberated for a while on whether or not to post my input on this topic, but I just have a few things to say. Iolani does not recruit. Every person has earned themselves a spot at Iolani because of academics. I saw someone post a comment that we need to maintain a 2.0 GPA. From the time we enter upper school, we must maintain a 3.0 GPA or we are put in a study hall. Student athlete or not, we usually don't get a 2.0. You don't hear about any of our kids being on academic probation because it is nonexistent. The atomosphere is a constant competition to who is smart and who needs to step up and get it together. I would also like to mention that we are one of the only schools left that have all of our classes every day. No block schedules. We have 8 periods a day, atleast 6 of which are core classes. Each class is allowed 45 minutes of homework to assign each night; that is ofcourse if you can understand completely the material being taught. In reality, we spend atleast an hour on homework per subject, per night. We also have honors and AP courses. Our 9th grade biology program has the same text book as the AP Biology program at Punahou. Our 9th grade year, we are encouraged to take the SAT subject test for Biology because we've learned everything we need to know, as freshman. We all have friends from different schools. And you may be surprised how many Iolani and Punahou students are friends because many people on here seem to think we treat eachother horribly and are rivals no matter what. Wrong. We have friends and we talk, so we know exactly what goes on academically at other schools. I have friends at Punahou who are "tutored" becuase they were recruited for the football team. Now I am not saying that all student that are recruited are like that, but many are. Iolani puts academic work first. Always. This is why we go to school. This is why parents pay money; to have their children get a better education to have a better future! Punahou and Iolani are college prepatory schools, and I know Iolani always puts academics first. From freshman year, we are already introduced to the college process. Our entire highschool is centered around college. Senior year is never a slack year. Most Iolani students pile on as many AP classes as they can. Everything we do is academic. I know most of the boys on the football team and I know they didn't just get into Iolani for athletic reasons, they take the same classes as everyone else, they get honor roll, they take honors and AP classes. Saying that we recruit is ridiculous and self contradicting because so many people are saying that we don't have good players. If we recruit but we don't have good players then we obviously aren't recruiting. I think our academic center can be shown by our science and math teams. Pure academics, no recruiting. I'm not saying that other schools aren't academically as rigorous as Iolani because I haven't attended them, but as far as I'm concerned Iolani students move from Iolani to Punahou because it's easier. Someone getting C's and B's at Iolani, cruise all the way at Punahou with straight A's. Im not criticizing punahou, i have respect for the school and I look up to many alumni from there but people portray so much hatred to us because we win DII, but let's be real; practically everyone agrees that Iolani will not have success in DI, and I don't disagree. People are also saying Iolani is physically ready, but what they don't know is how many concussions and injuries us student athletes receive. Not to mention the strain concussions have on our school work. This past year our star running back decided to no longer play football because he received too many injuries and concussions and yet people still insist he was recruited and we recruit. Yet like I said, we still lose and people still think we aren't good. So why is everyone pushing for us to move up? Simply because we win DII? It's pure hatred. Iolani students try to have respect and dignity in everything we do. Our One Team motto is not just in sports, it's incorporated into the classroom atmosphere as well. We always have respect for opponents no matter what school it is and we are always proud to be a raider. If that makes us cocky, then every person who proudly represents their school could be called cocky as well.

First off, try breaking this block of self pity into paragraphs.

So you're writing this crap to so people here can understand. Your such a weakling. Why would you care about what anyone posts here!

[shooter808]

I have to say that your response to a self identified high school student shows that you're an okole.

[HighFlyer]

shooter808, are you also an Iolani graduate? How can you attack wrestling808 when he speaks the truth? And how can ANYONE defend 1808Anonymous?

And if you think about this, how can anyone say this is a bad decision? Y'all make it sound like Iolani will lose every game against the Big Three 65-0. I doubt that. They got a better chance of winning at least one against them than losing by 50 points or more against all of them every time they play them!

[shooter808]

First off, try breaking this block of self pity into paragraphs.

So you're writing this crap to so people here can understand. Your such a weakling. Why would you care about what anyone posts here!

What part about this post attacking a high school student expressing his opinion is the truth? I'm not even commenting on the D1 & D2 thing.

"try breaking this block of self pity into paragraphs" high school kid, shares his opinion and you tell um it's self pity. You like picking boys?

Or maybe this one. "So you're writing this crap to so people here can understand. Your such a weakling"

I don't need to be an Iolani alum to find it distasteful when grown adults bash the kids that post on this board from time to time.

What? Maybe now your feeling are hurt somehow? You butt buddies with Wrestling808?

I can take it and give it. But I don't bash high school kids.

[HighFlyer]

First off, try breaking this block of self pity into paragraphs.

So you're writing this crap to so people here can understand. Your such a weakling. Why would you care about what anyone posts here!

What part about this post attacking a high school student expressing his opinion is the truth? I'm not even commenting on the D1 & D2 thing.

"try breaking this block of self pity into paragraphs" high school kid, shares his opinion and you tell um it's self pity. You like picking boys?

Or maybe this one. "So you're writing this crap to so people here can understand. Your such a weakling"

I don't need to be an Iolani alum to find it distasteful when grown adults bash the kids that post on this board from time to time.

What? Maybe now your feeling are hurt somehow? You butt buddies with Wrestling808?

I can take it and give it. But I don't bash high school kids.

Look at the Iolani student's post again and tell me it isn't an arrogant post? I don't need to be butt buddies with Wrestling808 to know that he had every right to bash 1808Anonymous. Can't you see that 1808Anonymous gives Iolani a BAD NAME? If he were a St. Louis or Punahou student and posted something arrogant about the school, wouldn't you criticize him for making his school look bad? I know if I were an Iolani student I'd urge 1808Anonymous to be quiet and urge everybody to ignore him. He's as bad as IolaniForLife and worse than Swag43.

[HS Football Fanatic]

will the iolani coaching staff now be forced to start attending popwarner football games in an attempt to recruit some beefy boys into their roster and then create a "BRIDGE" program for the less financially and educated beefy boys? similar to what punahou / stlouis /kam been doing all along

Has Kamehameha been doing that? That's news to me. Kamehameha is a rich school, so I don't think financial aid should be a problem. As for academics, I'm certain that Kamehameha isn't as rigorous as Iolani or Punahou. I would think Kamehameha's problem is finding good players that have Hawaiian blood. All other schools can recruit without having to worry about whether the player has Hawaiian blood.

[HS Football Fanatic]

@1808Anonymous: As an adult, I give you credit for generating your post. You make some good points. There have been responses on this thread, some which defend you, some which attack you. I have a cousin who graduated from Iolani, and he told me how rigorous the school is academically. My own personal take on Iolani is that a lot of guys see that school as academically elitist. That's nothing to be ashamed of, but you have to expect that a lot of guys resent that. Yes, Iolani is academically strong, but you can't expect guys who aren't alumni of that school to sing praises. After all, how does that make those guys feel? I'm not attacking you, obviously. But, I think you need to understand that guys who aren't Iolani alumni each wants to feel good about his alma mater, not Iolani. I'm sure you see that that's natural and understandable. No one wants his alma mater shown-up by another school. Let's say I graduated from, say, Nanakuli. If Nanakuli and Iolani compete for some kind of prize, I'm going to want Nanakuli to win it. If Nanakuli and Iolani are engaged in some kind of athletic contest--particularly for a championship--I'm going to want Nanakuli to win. You could replace Nanakuli in the aforementioned examples with any other school, and you would obviously have a similar scenario. A guy wants to feel good about his alma mater, not some other school.

[politclyincrekt]

@1808Anonymous: The HHSAA divides sports into 2 divisions for a reason and one reason only: to create parity. The HHSAA attempts to foster competition by pitting teams of similar skill against each other. Iolani has proved itself time and time again able to move up into Division I competition and yet has refused to do so. It has nothing to do with academics. Every student athlete in the state must maintain a certain level of academic performance if they want to play. While Iolani may be more academically rigorous than other schools, students at Iolani are under no less pressure than others to perform both on the field and in the classroom.

There isn't a dislike of Iolani because you win. Kahuku, Punahou, St. Louis, and Mililani also win and are consistent (just as Iolani is) yet they are not vilified the way Iolani is. The problem rests in the parity and who they play. It is very clear that Iolani is capable of having success at the Division I level. Iolani deserves to play at the Division I level and, while academics should always come first, the students and athletic staff at the school should recognize that it would benefit the student athletes to compete at the higher level. There should be the drive, as there is in many other programs and many other aspects in life, to compete against the best. Whether its on the football field, in the classroom, or what have you.

If what you are saying is true, why is athletics any different? Iolani strives to be the best (just as every other school does). They have rigorous entry requirements, high standards that must be maintained to remain in the school, so why is the athletic staff content competing at a lower level of competition? Iolani can and should compete against Division I competition. Schools in the OIA do it all the time. Campbell, Moanalua, Kaiser and Kapolei all started in Division II. When given the opportunity, they competed against Division I schools and found success. McKinley, Kaimuki, and Waipahu haven't been the most successful in Division I for various reasons but they still took the opportunity to better themselves.

And finally, these athletes CHOOSE to play football. Like any other sport or activity, if it affects their academics negatively it is their choice to stop. But do not tell us about your running back who had trouble concentrating because of an injury. You will not find any sympathy, at least from me. Not when there are students, and very good football players, all over the country getting CAREER ending injuries when an athletic scholarship is their only ticket into college. Injuries are a part of the game and whether you play Division I or Division II will not change.

Please do not come here and try to defend yourself against arguments that aren't there. And surely do not bash alumni and students at other schools.