While all three teams in the Maui Interscholastic League eight-player football division hope to play games this fall, nothing is yet set.

Molokai High School currently has a roster of 33 players, Lanai has just “10 or 12” and Hana has had a single-day practice high of six players.

The Farmers and Pine Lads are hopeful to play a two-game home-and-home set of games, while Hana appears to be practicing for future seasons.

“There’s a tentative schedule kind of out there, but all of the dates are kind of loosey-goosey right now,” Molokai coach Mike Kahale said Tuesday. “It’s not that everybody was ready to go on (Sept.) 27th — there were those kids who got their paperwork in, vax cards copied and turned in and others who were requesting exemptions — and that’s kind of been a challenge.

“It’s not like you turn it in and it comes the next day for us in the canoe complex. Some have been three or four days and some have been going over a week and we just don’t know.”

Kahale said that the 33 he has on his roster “is actually a little bit more than I thought” he would have after the state Department of Education decree that all players, coaches and volunteers would have to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 or have an approved medical or religious exemption.

“We were at 47 or 48 right before the shutdown and we’re down like 25 percent now, so that’s better than we thought,” he said.

The Farmers have their eyes set on joining the traditional 11-player game in the MIL in the near future, and the uncertainty of the 2021 eight-player season may make that glance into a glare.

Molokai is hopeful of finding an 11-player team to hold a game with this season. They played two 11-player non-league games in 2019, both shutout losses on the road, to Kamehameha Maui and Nanakuli.

“I talked to the Kohala coach today because Kohala — you know the Big Island teams Pahoa and Ka’u, the former eight-man teams that have stepped up to 11-man — just trying to check with him, see what his numbers are,” Kahale said. “They are low, too. He said that them and Honokaa have the smallest numbers, but Ka’u and Pahoa seem to have 30-plus.”

The Big Island Interscholastic Federation has a schedule that has several byes in the plan that is slated to start with games this weekend, but Kahale said BIIF teams are hesitant to schedule a game on their bye weekend because of the possibility of postponements due to COVID-19 concerns.

“Right now our schedule is just two (games with Lanai), home and away,” Kahale said. “We’re going to have our own intersquad green-and-white, which we try to hype up, make it feel like a real game, but it’s not quite a game. … Right now, we’re hoping to shoot for a game on (Oct.) 30th with Lanai — I don’t know if it’s home or away. I think that’s the goal.”

Kahale said his quarterback will be Angelo Duvauchelle.

“He played as a freshman for us, but hasn’t played the last couple years and is now out as a senior,” Kahale said. “He looks OK, there’s some promising things there.”

Jaydon Kaupu is another senior the Farmers will count on at wide receiver and cornerback. Sean Khol Solatorio-Kamai will lead both offensive and defensive lines.

The Pine Lads are hopeful to reach 20 players, a minimum number of eligible players they have set to safely play a game.

“We had about 20 kids before the mandate, but now we’re to about 10 or 12, maybe,” Lanai coach Sid Alejado said. “We’re kind of, you know, not sure if there’s going to be enough for a team. It’s sad, but it is what it is. That’s where we’re at right now.”

Alejado just reached fully vaccinated status on Wednesday and he said there is a chance that more players will turn out.

“We are trying, we were supposed to set our limits this past Friday and we extended it to this Friday to see if we can get more, but it doesn’t seem like we have more kids that are vaccinated or who have taken their first shot,” Alejado said. “I don’t really have a feel for if the kids are going to do it or not.

“We’re hoping more kids come out, but it’s their choice. So, we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Alejado said this season may just turn out to be practice for next year.

“I’m pretty confident we will be back next year, we have a lot of freshmen and upcoming kids, we’re going to be really young,” Alejado said. “We’re going to lose a lot of seniors this year, so it’ll be a lot of fun again starting all over.”

The Pine Lads currently have seven seniors on the practice field, all approved to play, so they have not given up the ship just yet on the 2021 season.

“We’re really trying, doing everything we can,” Alejado said. “But right now we only have 10 that I know of that are fully vaccinated.”

Hana appears to be in practice mode only at this point.

“As of right now, we’re kind of just getting guys to come in voluntarily, you know, just to keep working out, doing the weights,” Hana coach Duane Kaupe said. “Go out and do some flag football stuff. Basically we’re just doing the workouts, whoever is coming.

“So far, it’s been real low — six at the most so far. The last week it’s been real low and I was, like, ‘Oh man.’ … Right now, we’re working out for next year. It’s tough. We’re just trying to get the word out, get the acclimation done and maybe have one or two scrimmages.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com