Last night's Kamehameha-Punahou volleyball showdown was another typical ILH battle, and yet again a few points swinging here and there and we might be talking about different results.

But what really struck me last night — again — was how much enthusiasm there was from the fans.

I estimated the crowd at about 1,000; there might have been more. And it was loud. Kamehameha's pep band was rockin' the beat. The Warriors cheerleaders were into their rhythm. Fans on both sides showed their support with their school-colored T-shirts (some with names and jersey numbers on the back), some with school-colored body and face paint.

Punahou's football team piled into a bus and showed up in full force. UH quarterback Inoke Funaki was in da' house. So were Chris and Beth McLachlin, and Hawai‘i high school legends Kaipo Spencer, Blane Gaison, Pono Ma‘a.

From beginning to end — with more than half the crowd on its feet for "Aloha Ball" — the atmosphere was buzzing like a state championship match.

And keep in mind, this technically was still a regular season match, on a Tuesday night, no less.

Meanwhile, on OC16, two great OIA playoff matches were being shown on live statewide TV.

We may take all this stuff for granted, but I have lived in California and Florida (two states where volleyball is more popular than in most others), and I don't remember anything close to this. You wouldn't see 1,000 people show up for a regular season match on a Tuesday night. You wouldn't see a band and cheerleaders. You wouldn't see live statewide TV coverage.

And you wouldn't see regular season match coverage on the front page of the sports section in the state's biggest paper, either.

Football still is king in Hawai‘i.

But even in a year where it lost much of its star power as far as marquee players or teams, Hawai‘i high school volleyball is showing that it still has some of the best drawing power in the nation.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 1:07 am and is filed under Prep Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.