WAHIAWA — At Gladys Okamura's Kitchen Delight okazuya, the doors are always open to the Leilehua High School football team.

A longtime supporter of the program, Okamura invited the team back for breakfast after the Mules won Friday's First Hawaiian Bank Division I State Football Championship. She welcomed them at her place when the team won the O'ahu Interscholastic Association title last month, and like most of Wahiawa, people still are excited about how this magical season was capped off.

"It's been a while since we got such high honors," said Okamura, a 1949 Leilehua graduate whose two sons played football there. "Everybody was talking about them the next morning. The customers were all excited."

The excitement and pride from Friday's 20-16 comeback victory over Saint Louis at Aloha Stadium will be around in this town for a while. There are plans for a parade to honor the school's two state championship teams. The Leilehua boys cross country team won the state title in November, and the Leilehua girls won their second OIA title this season.

The local Longs Drugs has a handpainted sign on its front door celebrating the championship team, and "Go Mules" was still painted on car windows yesterday.

"Wahiawa is a town by itself, not a suburb of Honolulu," said Donald Sagara, a certified public accountant in Wahiawa. "It's something we're very proud of, our boys accomplishing this.

"We know some of these kids."

After the team won its first OIA title since 1984 on Nov. 9, the Wahiawa Community and Business Association, Wahiawa Lions Club and Dot's Restaurant hosted the team for a late dinner that night, honoring them and the cross country teams.

But that was just the beginning of things to come for the football team, which ran through the postseason with a quarterback brought up from the junior varsity squad after two quarterbacks got hurt.

Sophomore Andrew Manley never wavered, and neither did a team that prided itself on believing and loving each other, which is all they seemed to be talking about. If they weren't already on board, the community jumped in along the way.

"When you watch the kids and coaches, this is what sports is about," said Owen Masaki, manager of Dot's. "The love of the game, community, good sportsmanship and teamwork. I was really happy for them."

Leilehua won the 1984 O'ahu Prep Bowl, which was the big game before an official state tournament began in 1999. The Mules lost to Kamehameha in the state title game in 2004, and some feel that was a sign of the future.

"We had a feeling they'll stay up there," said Ray Dangaran, a 1990 Leilehua graduate who flew in from Kea'au on the Big Island for Friday's game. "They'll get that chance."

Dangaran, an all-star defensive back for the Mules, played baseball with Leilehua football coach Nolan Tokuda at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo. Tokuda has preached a positive attitude to his team, something Dangaran remembers from their college days.

"He's a gift to Wahiawa," Dangaran said.

Beatrice Lindsey, who was ringing the bell for the Salvation Army red kettle in front of Longs Drugs yesterday, said her grandchildren lost their voices from screaming, but "they enjoyed it."

At nearby Sunny Side, the only thing that disappointed Wahiawa resident Caryn Ono was that the win has been overshadowed by the success of the University of Hawai'i football team.

"We're so proud of them beating Saint Louis," Ono said.

State Sen. Robert Bunda, D-22nd (North Shore, Wahiawa), got a double dose of victory on Friday. He saw his son J.R.'s 'Iolani squad win the state Division II crown before watching his alma mater win.

"There's no doubt the community supports the boys and the school," Bunda said. "We are just awestruck. It is just the best thing to happen to Wahiawa in such a long time."

That night, the team got a police escort and was greeted by residents waving handmade signs, honking car horns, setting off fireworks and celebrating late into the night.

"We were just so elated that everybody was into it," Bunda said of the sign-waving residents.

That feeling isn't lost on fans of a team that needed a tiebreaker to get into the OIA playoffs and finished the year 10-4.

"It's a feeling of pride, when you graduate from the school, when you strive to be on top," Dangaran said.

Reach Stanley Lee at sktlee@honoluluadvertiser.com.