April 24, 2026

Lahainaluna football team readies for raucous atmosphere at 1st game since wildfires

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No one with the Lahainaluna High School football program — not its coaches, nor its players or supporters — knows exactly what to expect at War Memorial Stadium on Saturday night.

Other than the fact that it will be something they’ve never experienced before.

In the immediate aftermath of the devastation of old Lahaina town to wildfires on Aug. 8, football was far from the minds of West Maui community members. Friends and family were scattered and homes left in ruin.


What You Need To Know

    • The Lahainaluna High School football team makes its 2023 season debut on Saturday night against Baldwin at War Memorial Stadium in Wailuku, Maui, in the first game for the Lunas since their Lahaina community was devastated by wildfires on Aug. 8
    • The roughly 5,000 tickets for the game sold almost immediately during the week and thousands more are expected to descend on the stadium anyway in what has become a highly anticipated event on the Valley Isle
    • The Lunas, who have won 39 straight Maui Interscholastic League games going back to 2016, have practiced the last three weeks in Kihei, where players have attended Kulanihako‘i High until Lahainaluna is ready to reopen in mid-October
  • More than half of the Lunas players and coaches lost homes in the wildfires

But as the weeks passed and people started to pick up the pieces of their lives, there grew a sense that the Lunas — athletic pride and joy of their community who have dominated the gridiron on the island for years — could have a role in establishing a return to normalcy.

FULL STORY

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