From the beaches of Morro Bay to the beaches of Maui, the Morro Bay High School football team will kick off its 2025 season across the Pacific in a one-of-a-kind opportunity for the Pirates.
“I'm really excited, getting back on the field and also going to Hawaii, that's nothing to scoff at,” senior Luca Macari said, smiling.
They’ll start their season playing against King Kekaulike High School in Maui, a return for Head Coach Robert Dougherty and his son and MBHS quarterback, Sands. For 10 years, Dougherty was the head football coach at Maui High School, with Sands having grown up on the island.
“I get to see all my friends, like everyone that I used to know," Sands said. "A lot of them play on the team that we're playing, so I know like a lot of the players.”
“It's kind of, it's neat to go full circle, come back to Maui and see all those guys, see our friends and family," Dougherty added.
In Hawaii, "ohana" means family.
“The ohana feel of it, the family culture, the family atmosphere — it's very vibrant there," Dougherty said of living on the island.
Since Dougherty took over the program in 2022, he’s made the Pirate program into a family.
“They're going to see that, how important family is and how important our football family is,“ he said.
The opportunity to return home is not just for Coach Dougherty and Sands, it’s for the team, which, since December, gas raised $50,000 through car washes and other fundraisers to be able to afford the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“You get to meet a lot of people and see, kind of see how truly how many people really support us," Macari reflected.
The Pirates program will start its season in paradise. Last year, they narrowly lost a CIF championship by one score to Selma. Sands Dougherty was one of the best quarterbacks in the country last year, throwing the 8th most yards and amassing 50 touchdowns. This year, the team will look to say "aloha" to their season with a win.
“We don't want to have to have all these hours and hours of hard work fundraising and car washes all to go to waste and come back on that plane with a loss," Sands said adamantly. "It's a vacation, but really, we're going to win a football game and come back with a W on our record.”
All of the local high school teams are playing scrimmages this week, with the official start of high school football on August 22. That's when KSBY will be debuting the 2025 season of Friday Night Highlights, a weekly broadcast bringing you comprehensive coverage of high school football across the Central Coast.
