Kauai Football Champion to Play Marmonte League Team in Benefit

A Marmonte League football team will play host to the champion of the Kauai Interscholastic Federation of Hawaii on Nov. 27 in a benefit game for the victims of Hurricane Iniki.

The game is being organized by Dr. Mel Hayashi, a Thousand Oaks orthopedic surgeon and longtime team doctor for Newbury Park High, and Warren Mizutani, executive secretary of the KIF.

“This is something to perk up the kids because of all the traumatic conditions they went through,” Mizutani said. “Having the football season short-circuited by the hurricane, this is something special to help make up for the loss.”

Hayashi, who owns a home on Kauai, said he proposed the idea to Mizutani a few weeks ago.

“I got a phone call from some relatives in Kauai, and they told me how depressed the kids were,” Hayashi said. “They kind of felt a sense of despair.”

Agoura, Newbury Park, Thousand Oaks or Westlake will participate, Hayashi said, depending in part on which teams are no longer in the playoffs. A site for the game has yet to be determined.

The Southern Section executive committee already has approved the game, Hayashi said.