Coach Dean Rickard (left) addresses the Lahainaluna High School varsity football team.

LAHAINA — In these unprecedented times of pandemic restrictions, the Lahainaluna High School football team faces a monumental challenge of preparing for the 2021 Maui Interscholastic League kick-off in two weeks.

The Lunas will host the Maui High Sabers on Friday, Aug. 20, at Sue D. Cooley Stadium on campus.

With the void of the 2020 season and the severe deduction in practice time due to COVID-19 protocols, all MIL teams face the challenge of preparing the student-athletes for high levels of competition.

There have been no two-a-day practices — and limited practice time — and there will be no preseason camps or games.

The Lunas had traditionally travelled to the Big Island for a weeklong camp with scrimmages and a game at the end of the week.

With hundreds of years of combined experience, the veteran Lahainaluna coaching staff is up for the challenge of preparing the team to safely compete at the high level that has brought home 13 MIL titles and four consecutive Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division II state championships, and the move up to the D-I HHSAA category.

Co-head coaches Bobby Watson and Dean Rickard lead the staff that includes Mike Arakawa, Clifford Corniel, Jeff Kihune, Kekoa Mowat, Joey Tihada, Randy Arakawa, Aloha Kaniho, Nolle Smith, Kenui Watson, and Dal Magno. Lawrence Kauhaahaa is the strength and conditioning coach, and Randy Casco leads the speed and quickness program.

Jon Conrad and Rebecca Cohen are the team trainers.

Coach Rickard reported that the first week of practice will focus on getting the student-athletes acclimated and “doing whatever it takes to get the kids back into playing shape.”

“It is definitely a setback to have no camp or preseason games, but we’ll try to have scrimmages with Baldwin and Maui High. We hope to be able to evaluate and put the pieces of the puzzle together.”

According to Coach Dean, only five players return from the 2019 MIL and state championship team. In total, the Lunas list a varsity roster of 45 players, and 30 student-athletes on the junior varsity team.

“This is a good group of kids, and they’ve been working hard on their own. It will be tough to put the pieces together due to the lack of experience. We’ll all work together to get into the football mentality,” Rickard said.

The Lunas, as always, will rely on their traditionally top-rated defense to win.

Coach Watson and top assistant Mike Arakawa will lead the defensive unit that uses a base 3-5 hybrid scheme that has been the best unit in the MIL for years.

Coach Dean is the offensive coordinator that operates in a basic shotgun, multiple formation attack that utilizes misdirection and speed.

Lahainaluna has traditionally run the ball 70 percent of the time, but has shown in past years an effective play action passing attack.

“We have a definite lack of experience on this year’s team, but most of them have been with the program since the Big Boys days in their intermediate school years, so they’re very familiar with our philosophy and system. We have only nine returning seniors, and only five of them saw limited playing time in 2019. There is a core group of 15 players who have been working diligently in the offseason and in the preseason and throughout the pandemic who have set the example for the younger players,” he said.

“After the long layoff, we need to get back to basics and work on our strength and conditioning to prepare mentally and physically to progress and improve as we move into the season, and hopefully, the postseason,” Coach Dean concluded.