Buena Football Team May Play in Hawaii

Buena High football Coach Rick Scott said Tuesday that the Bulldogs may accept an invitation to play in the Ellison Onizuka Memorial game at Konawaena High on the big island of Hawaii this fall.

Buena Principal Mike Shanahan will present the idea to board members of the Ventura Unified School District in a meeting next week.

“We’re exploring the idea very favorably,” Shanahan said Monday. “But we haven’t talked to district management.”

Mac Uhl, who was head coach during an 0-9 season at Buena in 1977, is defensive coordinator at Konawaena. Chaminade tied Konawaena, 6-6, in the Ellison Onizuka Memorial game last season.

Buena also would have to bow out of one of its nonleagues game with Westlake, Thousand Oaks or Newbury Park.

“We look at it as a tremendous experience for our kids,” Scott said.

Ellison Onizuka was one of seven astronauts killed in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.