Kipimana Cup: Kea‘au Cougars VS Kamehameha Warriors

The Kipimana Cup is a goodwill game between private and public schools within a few miles of Kea‘au and is hosted by W.H. Shipman Limited of Kea‘au.

The Kea‘au Cougars will compete against the Kamehameha Warriors on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016, in the 6th Annual Kipimana Cup at Kea‘au High School.

The varsity football game kickoff will begin a half-hour after the end of the junior varsity game—around 7:30 p.m.

There is a small fee for admission to the game.

“We are excited to host the Kipimana Cup at our campus this year,” said Iris McGuire, Kea‘au High School’s athletic director.

The Kipimana Cup is a goodwill game between private and public schools within a few miles of Kea‘au and is hosted by W.H. Shipman Limited of Kea‘au.

Following the game, W.H. Shipman will give $500 to each of the school’s booster clubs and presents the winning team with a trophy.

“Every year it is encouraging to see the attitude of friendship tied to this particular competition,” said Bill Walter, president of W.H. Shipman. “Team leadership has been effective in instilling what we all hoped that attitude would be: we can play hard, we can compete to win a game and we can compete here in Kea`au in a spirit of good will. Similarly, we encourage incoming businesses to recognize this as a special place to do business and to work together to create an environment where our customers want to come to do business.”

In Thursday’s Kipimana Cup competition, Kea‘au High School will show up with two wins and one loss and Kamehameha with four wins and one loss.

Kealakehe beat Kamehameha in their most recent game on Friday. The Honoka‘a Dragons lost to Kea‘au High School last week.

For both teams, tomorrow’s confrontation is a league game.

In previous years, the two teams were in different divisions and did not play against one another. Since the start of the Kipimana Cup six years ago, the Interscholastic Federation League has made that change.

All five of the previous Kipimana Cups have been won by the Kamehameha Warriors. This year that may be different, acknowledged Dan Lyons, head football coach for the Kamehameha Schools Kea‘au campus, now that Coach Abellera is now leading the Kea‘au Cougars.

“We have a new coach and style of football at Kea‘au High School,” said McGuire, referring to Coach Abellera, who was the defense coach for the Warriors before starting he started coaching the Cougars this year.

Lyons explained that the Kipimana Cup is a way of “creating a competition” among the athletes at both schools, “but also an acknowledgement of sportsmanship” between the players and schools.

“I just think it’s a really good thing for the community, building community togetherness with both of us being in Kea‘au,” said Lyons.

The staff came up with the name and idea for Kipimana Cup. Kipimana was historically how Hawaiians referred to Shipman.

Both schools are on land that was previously owned by W.H. Shipman family. In 2001, the Kamehameha School’s Hawai‘i campus opened, enrolling over 1,000 K through 12 students. Kea‘au High School opened in 1998 with an enrollment of 880 students in grades nine through 12.

Currently W.H. Shipman is active in agricultural, industrial/commercial property leasing and development. With 17,000 acres around and in Kea‘au with over a 130 years in the area, Shipman has a long-term vision and plan for planned sustainable development.