King Kekaulike High School football players stretch before practice Thursday at the school’s stadium. The Maui News / ROBERT COLLIAS photos

PUKALANI — The last time we saw the King Kekaulike High School football team, Na Alii had just finished a breakthrough 2019 season with three wins after entering the year on a 41-game losing streak.

Tysyn Estrella and Jacob Poouahi are on the practice field at King Kekaulike Stadium to help revive that momentum.

Na Alii welcomed 30 players to the artificial turf on Thursday, the fourth day of practice since sports resumed in the Maui Interscholastic League and across the state.

“It feels great, it feels great to be back out here practicing with the boys, wonderful,” said Estrella, a 5-foot-10, 255-pound running back/linebacker who transferred from Lahainaluna in 2020. “Next game’s in a couple of weeks, so I’m feeling pretty good about that.”

Estrella was part of two Division II state championship teams with the Lunas, but he was happy to be wearing his home teal and white practice uniform on Thursday.

Na Alii’s Kimo Moniz-Kekumu participates in a drill.

“It feels different, but football is still football,” Estrella said. “It’s not going to change, the environment is a bit colder up here, but that’s it, that’s about it.”

Estrella knows how important it will be to be a leader for Na Alii. He is one of just nine seniors on the roster — the program will not field a junior varsity team this season.

“Super important, probably the most important job out here,” he said. “It’s the future, they are the future, we’re not going to be here next year. So, it just feels good to show them what we know. Yeah, just train them up.”

Estrella could not contain the smile on his face when asked about playing his senior season at King Kekaulike.

“It feels great to be home,” he said. “I grew up with all of these kids. Jacob, my first year of football I played with him, so it feels wonderful.”

King Kekaulike coach Tyson Valle watches over his players as they stretch.

Poouahi, a 5-10, 180-pound junior quarterback/safety, was also enthusiastic to be back on the field with his former Pop Warner teammate with the Kulamalu Cowboys.

“Honestly, man, it’s just a blessing, it’s just amazing to be out here with the boys, like Tysyn said,” Poouahi said. “I just like being back out here in this environment, just whacking people. It’s like an amazing adrenaline flow.”

Poouahi added, “I haven’t played QB ever since I was little, so it’s all new to me, but I feel like I’m getting the hang of it pretty easily, pretty fast. I feel like being a leader is very important, just like Tysyn said.”

King Kekaulike head coach Tyson Valle said his team is adding players each day as they reach full vaccination status to turn out — he expects to reach about 40 total players.

The season was halted on Aug. 4 by the state Department of Education’s decree that all players, coaches and volunteers must be vaccinated or have an approved exemption for religious or medical reasons.

King Kekaulike senior Tysyn Estrella stretches on Thursday.

Na Alii open their six-game MIL slate on Oct. 23 at War Memorial Stadium against Baldwin.

“We’ve got a few guys in study halls, a few guys who are going to come out later,” Valle said. “We’re looking forward to it, but we’re only going to have the numbers for one team this year.”

There are only five juniors to go along with the nine seniors — the bulk of the roster is underclassmen.

“We’re always the ones that are trying to encourage our young guys to come up to varsity,” Valle said. “Obviously the game is a lot quicker and a lot faster, so if we can get them to adapt to that speed it will set them up better when they’re juniors and seniors.”

Valle liked what he saw on the field on Thursday.

“A lot of our guys, the big kids are from our Big Boys league (team), so they have a lot of experience — they have been playing with each other since the sixth grade,” Valle said. “So they mesh real well with the varsity guys.”

Valle said the upbeat vibe on the field is palpable.

“Oh, we love it, these guys are so excited to be out here,” Valle said. “Some of these guys, they’ve been working out, so they look pretty good. For us as coaches, we’re taking a different approach this year and trying to make this fun and exciting for these guys, give these guys the best season we can because they battled some tough times with COVID.

“So, we want to get these guys acclimated and get them going.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.