Kohala stars sweep BIIF basketball honors after dominant season

Layden Kauka’s senior season did more than pile up points. It showed how much power can concentrate in one North Hawaiʻi program when elite scoring, deep supporting pieces and steady coaching all peak at once.

The BIIF boys basketball all-league honors reflected that balance of star power and depth. Kauka, of Kohala, was named Division II Player of the Year, while Kamehameha’s Kawohi Huihui took the Division I honor. Kohala coach Kihei Kapeliela was named Division II Coach of the Year after guiding the Cowboys to a 22-2 overall record and a 12-0 BIIF mark, another reminder that the island’s strongest program was built on more than one standout season.

Kauka was the center of it. He averaged 27.5 points per game in BIIF play and scored 30 or more points in five straight league games in January, including 42 against Hawaii Preparatory Academy on Jan. 20 and 41 against Honokaʻa. In the island championship win over Pāhoa, he added 31 points, six rebounds, seven assists and three steals. By the end of the run, he had produced one of the most productive individual seasons in recent Big Island basketball history, then carried that form into the postseason as Kohala kept winning.

The Cowboys finished 25-4 after beating Seabury Hall 49-35 on Feb. 13 to win the HHSAA Division II boys basketball state championship. Kauka was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after averaging 27.3 points per game in the three-game state tournament. He finished his Kohala career with 1,750 points, was named the 2025-26 MaxPreps Hawaii Player of the Year and became the first Division II player to win the Star-Advertiser’s Fab-15 Player of the Year award. West Hawaiʻi Today also reported that he won ScoringLive’s DII Player of the Year for the third time.

Kapeliela’s departure after six seasons closes one of the most successful coaching eras in Hawaiʻi Island basketball. He took over in 2019 and led all four of Kohala’s state championship teams, in 2020, 2023, 2024 and 2026. The final roster still showed how the pipeline has widened around the Cowboys, with Estavon Morales averaging 7.6 points per game, James Wong averaging 12 in BIIF play and Pāhoa sophomore Kyran Canete emerging as a major threat after averaging nearly 27 points per game and scoring 40 against Honokaʻa in the BIIF semifinals. Kukia Tagabi of Honokaʻa, who averaged 22.4 points per game, also made the Division II team. The awards made one thing clear: on a season when Kohala swept the top of the board, the center of Big Island basketball remained firmly in Kapaʻau.