A pair of high school football teams on the leeward side of Oahu will be experiencing some “firsts” in 2024.

Waipahu will be making its debut in the Open Division while Pearl City is in Division I for the first time under head coach Robin Kami this season.

Because of the OIA’s divisional alignment rules based on wins and losses, the Marauders make the move up from Division I after winning the league title the past two years and their second state title in 2023.

Waipahu head coach Bryson Carvalho has been the head man for his alma mater since 2015 and has helped the program grow from a Division II team all the way to the Open Division. He said that the move up to the highest tier is all about “raising the bar” and “setting the standard” as they will play teams like Kahuku and Mililani in the regular season.

“The competition is a lot better as far as I’m concerned. It’s the best (league) in the state and they proved it with two OIA schools in the state (championship) last year so that’s kind of our competition and we just got to rise to the occasion.”

The Marauders lose a lot however from their state-championship winning team a year ago. Carvalho estimates 30 players that graduated and another 10 players that transferred out, which included both returning quarterbacks that had starting experience. Sophomore QB David Vidinha was expected to be the junior varsity starter this year, but is now entrusted with the reins of Waipahu’s run-pass option (RPO) offense.

“We’re going to have to rely on the guys that have the experience and find ways to get David comfortable in the system and then we go from there,” said Carvalho.

“We lost our entire receiving class, not only the starters, but even the backups so we lost about eight receivers from a year ago so these guys gotta step up, but at the same time we don’t want to ask of them too much when we got somebody that’s reliable at the running back position.”

That reliability comes in senior RB Faafetai Failauga, who averaged 115.8 yards a game in the Marauders’ four postseason contests last year. He is also the younger brother of former Waipahu RB Alfred Failauga, the all-time rushing leader in the state.

“His whole family played through our program,” Carvalho said of his starting RB. “His brother carries the record and he has a lot of similar traits. We’re going to try and rely on him as much as we can at the same time, in this division we’ve got to be able to spread it out a little bit as well.”

Defensively, the Marauders made a few plays in their most recent scrimmage against Pearl City last Saturday with Randy Miguel, Jason “Jayboy” Ganiron Jr. and Jhayean Baptista each getting an interception in the first half. Ganiron and Baptista even scored on their respective turnovers forced. Coordinator Miah Leota is back to coach the defense after taking over the position after three games last season.

“The defense has really stepped up, props to coach Miah. He always gets the guys ready to play,” said Carvalho. “I hope they continue, but there’s still ways to go regardless of how we looked with (forcing) turnovers. I think there’s still a ways to overall in regards to what division we’re in and the competition we have overall.”

For the Chargers, moving up to Division I took a bit of adjustment period, but they’re ready for the challenge.

“In the beginning we were like kind of shocked, but now we’re kind of excited and it’s a reality that anytime you move up a division in any sport, it’s going to be tough you know,” said coach Kami, who has been the head coach of the program since 2013. “It’s a challenge for us, but I think our players and coaches are looking forward to it.

“This year’s squad, I think we’ll be alright. We just got to make sure we stay together as a team and hopefully they can execute things and we’ll be alright.”

It will be Pearl City’s first time in Division I since being in what was known as the Red Division in 2008. Participation has not fluctuate with the move up with the Chargers boasting around 50 varsity players and 40 players on the JV.”

Kami said he is glad that his team is playing together as a family heading into the season, but the margin of error is much smaller moving up from Division II.

“We have to go back to basics, the blocking, the tackling, the catching, the running, all of that we have to be better at especially now going to D1, we cannot make mistakes.”

The Chargers have a few returnees on both sides of the ball that is entering their third varsity season to help ease the transition. Offensively they return receivers Lennon Elder and Keaton Tomas, who combined for 10 touchdown receptions last season. Linebackers Tiger Ader and Jesse Castro also brings experience on the defensive side of the ball. Kami also thinks returning kicker Kahai Chang has potential to play the position at the next level.

Pearl City struggled early on its scrimmage against Waipahu, but it kept fighting throughout the game and even scored on a fourth-down touchdown pass to Tayvon Ching-Harrell over the middle in the fourth quarter. The Chargers also recorded an interception in the end zone to prevent another Waipahu score on the final play of the scrimmage.

“I like that they didn’t give up,” Kami said. “No matter what was going on, they still kept fighting play-by-play. I told them if we can stick like how we played in the fourth quarter, we’ll be alright.”

The Chargers open up their non-league schedule with a home game against Castle on Saturday while the Marauders host Tafuna of American Samoa on Friday.