WAIPAHU – The Baldwin Bears and the Hawaii Prep Ka Makani have been named co-champions of the 2018 Division I The Queen’s Medical Center/HHSAA Boys Soccer State Championship. The decision to award co-champions was decided after multiple rounds of discussions involving HHSAA personnel, both team head coaches and players.
The Division I championship match was initially suspended at 9:23 p.m. due to two visible cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in the area of Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex. NFHS guidelines require that any practices and competitions should be immediately suspended as soon as lighting is seen or thunder is heard. Play should not resume for at least 30 minutes after the last lightning strike or thunderclap.
At the time of the suspension, the teams played to a 0-0 draw with 2:21 left in the first sudden-victory overtime period.
As a result of multiple lightning sightings, the 30-minute wait period was reset multiple times. With an impending storm moving toward the area from Windward Oahu, HHSAA administrators and both head coaches took several options back to the teams, resulting in multiple back-and-forth discussions, and at one juncture a meeting of captains. Both teams agreed to a co-championship and in a gesture of sportsmanship, shook hands and hugged in an empty Waipio soccer stadium.
Baldwin and Hawaii Prep make tournament history as the first neighbor-island teams to win a Division I championship in the 44 years of the tournament. Championship trophies and medals will be shipped to both schools so that medal and trophy presentation can take place in front of their respective home-town supporters.
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