The Honolulu Advertiser asked each coach in today’s championship games to select a player to write about how he sees his team’s chances in the Division I and II title games. The writers are Kahuku running back Malosi Te‘o, Punahou offensive guard Ed Pallett, Iolani defensive lineman Chris St. Sure and Radford receiver Joe Brundidge.

Chris St. Sure is a senior defensive lineman who watched from the stands last year because of a medical condition as Iolani lost in the Division II championship. The 5-foot-8, 180-pounder is grateful for another opportunity to play for the title.

We have another chance to bring home the state championship, and, for the team, losing seems out of the question.

The road to get here was as memorable as it was difficult. Right from the beginning, every team saw our size as a weakness, but since then we have proven that size is not everything in football.

As a team we make up for it in other areas, such as our conditioning, speed, and our discipline.

Coach Matt Tan, our defensive line coach, always tells the defense to control what we can control. We cannot control how tall or big we are, but we can control where we line up and what our responsibilities are.

The team had high expectations to fill from the beginning because it returned a lot of starters from the team that finished second in the state tournament last year.

At the first team meeting, each player set winning the Division II state championship as the ultimate goal.

I am grateful that coach (Wendell) Look scheduled big, physical teams early on in the season for us to get ready for the road that lay ahead.

Our first major test came against Capital High School in Tacoma, Wash. The team really appreciated the chance to play on the Mainland, a task that no other Iolani football team had ever done.

The outcome did not result in victory, but I admire the way the team never quit and how we carried that attitude throughout the season.

The Damien game was the defining moment up to this point.

The second-round game was at our home field and our coaches stressed that we could not lose or it would force a championship game.

The game was physical, to stay the least, as Damien tried to run it down our throats.

For most of the evening it was successful but when it all mattered, on a two-point conversion to give them the lead with little time remaining, Damien failed to convert. I will always remember that play and how we came through under enormous amounts of pressure.

To win the championship, Iolani needs a total team effort because our greatest asset is each other.

Iolani School preaches the "One Team" philosophy and that every single player on the team is important.

This season we have truly become a unit and put aside our individual goals in order to become a championship team.

Against a great Radford team, we may not be perfect, but nothing is going to stop us from trying to be.