Lahainaluna High School football players stretch on the Sue Cooley Stadium field during practice Tuesday, the second day of the resumption of athletics across the Maui Interscholastic League following a seven-week pause. The Maui News / ROBERT COLLIAS photos

LAHAINA — It may have come a year or two later than they would have preferred, but the Division I debut of the Lahainaluna High School football team has arrived.

The Lunas welcomed about 50 players to practice Tuesday at Sue Cooley Stadium, the second day of the resumption of practice across the Maui Interscholastic League.

“It is just great to see the kids out on the field,” Lahainaluna co-head coach Dean Rickard said. “And I think the excitement, you can see more on the kids’ faces than the coaches’ faces. For us, we treated it as just a long layoff, but I think the kids are more excited to be out and I think it showed yesterday — the enthusiasm, the willingness to get right back into the groove of things.

“And pleasantly surprised with the current conditioning of our kids. Some of them have been doing things on their own and it showed yesterday.”

There was a seven-week pause in high school sports activity due to the state Department of Education decree that came down Aug. 4 that all players, coaches and volunteers must be vaccinated for COVID-19 or have an approved exemption for religious or medical reasons.

Koliniasi Latu, a Lunas senior lineman and team captain, jogs after a team talk with co-head coach Dean Rickard (right) on Tuesday.

“We’re far, far from being ready, as I assume most of the other teams are,” Rickard said. “We’re still four weeks out and we’ve got a lot to work on before our first game on October 22nd.”

The Lunas have won the last four Division II state crowns and also own an MIL football record 25-game winning streak in league games, dating back to the final week of the 2016 season.

Now, they are officially a Division I team.

“It’s been long overdue, I think, not only for us as a coaching staff, but I think for our community and especially for the players,” Rickard said. “Because they have been wanting to show that they belong in Division I and they could compete in Division I. Not only here in the MIL because we’ve already been doing it and I think we’re the only league playing cross divisions and the caliber is comparable with the rest of the state. So, it’s only a natural progress.

“I think being in the MIL and having that depth of talent and competitiveness with not only the Division I teams, but also the Division II schools here on Maui … it just prepares both sides, whether it’s D-I or D-II.”

Lahainaluna High School football players practice Tuesday at Sue Cooley Stadium.

Rickard added, “Our wish has come true — I think it’s exciting for not only our community. … We’ve finally been granted the move after the 2019 season. Unfortunately with the team we had coming back for the 2020 season, it would have been nice to see what that team could have accomplished, but with the pandemic it didn’t pan out. But now these kids are excited to show what they can do and I think we can remain competitive at the Division I level.”

Senior Koliniasi Latu, a 5-foot-9, 275-pound center/nose guard, is excited to be back on the practice field.

“Very excited, glad that we overcame the big struggle we had with our season almost getting canceled, whatever was going on with that,” Latu said. “I’m happy that we’re back and practicing. I’m happy that we get to play games (in) my last year and just excited to be back.”

Latu, a team captain, led the Lunas in stretching and warmup drills at the beginning of practice Tuesday.

“It is a special feeling,” Latu said. “My freshman year, always seeing my upperclassmen leading us was … it felt just inspiring. I’ve always wanted to be like them and I’m glad to get the opportunity to feel what they felt.”

Senior right offensive tackle Dylan Kawaiaea, who is 6-1, 240 pounds, could also hardly conceal the smile on his face on the second day back.

“It’s really good to be back on the field again, really missed these guys, and really missed playing football,” he said. “All of us, all the boys, we’ve been training and getting our vaccinations ready to go. I’m feeling that we’re going to have a good season.”

On Monday, the Lunas had eight seniors and seven juniors at practice, while there are 20 sophomores and 15 freshmen. Rickard expects those numbers to rise — especially in the upperclassmen ranks — by players who are working on exemptions or are waiting to be fully vaccinated.

Kawaiaea said his small class is ready to lead the group.

“For us little bit of seniors, there’s a choke lot of responsibilities right now,” he said. “I think we’ve got this season good and us seniors, we’ll get these guys ready to go.”

Rickard feels that the prospect of junior varsity play happening in the MIL this season is fading fast. His team is extremely unlikely to do so.

“We’re looking at potentially 57 or 60 players, but at the same time we’ve already kind of come to the conclusion that we’re probably not going to be fielding a JV team this year,” Rickard said. “One of the reasons being that we’ve got a lot of underclassmen that are eligible, whereas a lot of our seniors and juniors, we’re very small in that area.

“So, we’re going to bring up those JV kids and probably join the rest of the league and just concentrating with a varsity team and utilizing those JV kids as best as possible.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.