If there was a secret formula to winning the BIIF championship, Hilo High boys soccer coach George Ichimaru surely would like to know it.
Kalei Tolentino-Perry, Rylen Kaniaupio, Ka‘aina Lewis and Kahale Huddleston can at least provide some clues. Those four long ago helped the Vikings break through on the gridiron, so much so that Kaniaupio and Tolentino-Perry recently hinted that Hilo’s four-time champion football team is starting to take the BIIF Division I title for granted.
That’s not a problem for the quartet on the soccer field. Hilo is still trying to climb Mount Kealakehe — to borrow an old motivational tool used by the football team — but even in losing each of the past four league finals to the Waveriders, Hilo has made progress toward reaching the peak, losing in heartbreaking fashion each of the past two seasons.