THE HIGH SCHOOLS / STEVE HENSON : Canyon’s Stirring Showing Made It a Long Night for St. Louis

After midnight, we’re gonna let it all hang out.

-- J.J. Cale Some Hawaiian football experts clucked their tongues when they looked at Canyon High’s itinerary this week.

The Cowboys had 22 hours of practice and meetings in the three days before their matchup with matchless St. Louis of Honolulu, winner of 55 consecutive games.

They had a long sightseeing trip scheduled the morning of the game.

They had lights out every night at 10.

Didn’t they realize that their game, the finale of the Shawn Akina Memorial Classic at Aloha Stadium, wouldn’t begin until after 8 p.m.? And that 8 p.m. in Hawaii is 11 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time?

Why, these lolo haoles --stupid mainlanders--will be in dreamland by the second half, they howled.

But the last laugh went to Harry Welch, the Canyon coach who is lolo like a fox.

As the hour grew later, the Cowboys grew greater. By the second half, well after midnight on the mainland, Canyon was thinking shutout, not shut-eye.

A 7-0 halftime lead was extended to 20-0 by the end of the third quarter. The final period was an exclamation point, an affirmation of Welch’s methods and demanding regimen.

The Cowboys, it was clear, had come 2,500 miles to play tight football, not hang loose on the beach.

By the time Canyon finished off St. Louis, 40-0, the only things hanging loose were the tongues of the St. Louis players. Much of the crowd of 15,000 left early to catch some Zs.

And at 1:50 a.m. Pacific time, 15 minutes after the game, the Cowboys gathered for last call.

All the players lined up on the goal line, energetically marched out in their pregame formation and gleefully went through calisthenics, pounding their hip pads, slapping their helmets, rolling all over the artificial turf.

Their parents and coaches looked on in amazement--the Cowboys were saying aloha the only way they knew how.

Football, Kona style: Forty-five minutes before game time Friday night, Konawaena Coach Bob Fitzgerald was relaxing in his office, a sleepy gray hound dog named Jorge lying at his feet.

In the adjacent locker room, his players prepared themselves by listening to the mellow strains of Hawaiian and reggae music.

Meanwhile, Chaminade was on the field, conducting crisp pregame drills with military-like precision.

The methods were as different as the lush Kailua-Kona ranchland is to the concrete- and asphalt-filled Valley.

The outcome was a 6-6 tie and the teams finished with nearly identical total yardage.

Sometimes two vastly different paths lead to the same place. Fitzgerald, an Encino native who has lived on the Kona Coast since 1976, prefers the road less traveled.

“Pretty wild place, huh?” he said with an easy smile. “Nothing but macadamia nuts and cattle.”

Konawaena High draws its 1,400 students from an 80-mile stretch of the Kona Coast. Dennis McConnaughy, Cal State Northridge’s center last season, is a Konawaena graduate. So is Ryan Rapoza, a Ventura College running back the past two seasons who now plays at Cal State Fullerton.

The nicely lit football field is surrounded on three sides by dense tropical foliage, and the air is heavy with the fragrance of flowers.

Concrete stands rise up a hill behind the Konawaena sidelines and the school, built behind walls of lava rock, sits atop the hill. The stands were full for the game against Chaminade, and people sat all along the lava wall as well.

It’s ramshackle and functional, classic and custom, all at once.

Friendly rivalry: Sure, four Valley teams visited Hawaii, but Chaminade’s stay stood in enormous contrast to those of the three teams that played in Aloha Stadium and were confined to the typical tourist trappings of Waikiki Beach.

“I think we experienced the real Hawaii,” said Rich Lawson, Chaminade’s coach.

The Chaminade players also spent time off the field with the Konawaena players, getting together for a rousing luau Saturday night--dancing, music and plenty of food.

The only time Canyon, Crespi and Montclair Prep saw their opponents not wearing helmets was during the postgame handshakes.

That is a shame, because the players on both sides never were able to see the others as more than numbered foes.

Only Chaminade had the foresight to mix friendship with football.

Island pigskin primer: Southern Section rules say that a football team may travel out of state only once every three years, leaving Canyon, Crespi, Montclair Prep and Chaminade with a long wait before their next pleasant Hawaiian holiday.

Other area teams, however, might take their places next year. For them, a handy glossary of Hawaiian terms follows:

U’i (youthful hero): David McDivitt, the Canyon running back who shredded the vaunted St. Louis defense for 207 yards rushing.

Wiki-wiki (hurry up): The offense Chaminade used to drive 53 yards in a minute and a half and score with three seconds to play.

Hanelikanawalukumamawalu (188): The number of rushing yards Kahuku racked up against Crespi. But in the time it took to say the word, Celt quarterback Cody Smith threw three touchdown passes.

Pilikia (trouble): What Montclair Prep found itself in when the Mounties were informed by the Southern Section the day of their game that three two-way starters were ineligible.

Ui (appeal): What the trio of unhorsed Mounties will do the minute they set foot on the mainland.