Every team wants to be where Saint Louis is right now — on top of the Hawaii high school football kingdom.
They all have a shot — some more than others. Last season, Kahuku came 37 seconds away from knocking down the Crusaders, but wound up losing 31-28. That victory gave coach Cal Lee his third state trophy to go along with 14 Prep Bowl championships. The school also has two state titles from when Lee was not the head man.
Armed and loaded, the Red Raiders are gearing up for another shot at the boys from Kalaepohaku — as are seven other wannabes in the Open Division of the newly formed OIA-ILH alliance.
Lee and Saint Louis are back for more, though, and the winningest coach in state history doesn’t go into every campaign saying, “Title or bust.”
“You can’t worry about that legacy stuff, how many championships you win,” he said. “I just can’t be worried about that. My goodness. There are things that are a lot more important.”
Getting your guys to play hard, for instance.
For about 30 minutes after last week’s scrimmage against Moanalua, the Crusaders’ offensive line heard the hard way about what was really important by a handful of assistant coaches. In an explanation to a reporter about that less-than-fun huddle (during which Lee was already in his office preparing to watch film), Lee made it known that the subject was going to be addressed to the whole team and not just the O-line:
“The bottom line is everybody’s got to get better — the whole team, not individually or in groups. We talk about you gotta play four quarters. The game is not won or lost in the half or at the end of the third quarter. The last game last year (the state-title victory), we were down and it didn’t look good. You gotta keep playing until the zeros come up. That game showed it. People were leaving the stands, saying, ‘Game’s over.’ Well, guess what?”
The point, more simply put, is that just because Saint Louis is No. 1 in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s preseason Top 10 and ranked No. 12 in the nation by MaxPreps.com, the players can’t expect to win by just being there. And a smaller point is: If the work is not going to be done in a scrimmage against Moanalua, what makes them think they’ll be able to do it when everything is on the line?
“You can’t think all you have to do is show up,” Lee stressed. “You gotta look forward, not behind. You lose your quarterback, you develop the next guy. This isn’t pros. These guys graduate, they mature in their junior and senior years and then they go. You gotta make sure you work with the new guys coming up and let things fall where they fall. But you gotta get them up to play every game.”
Next up at Quarterback High (Saint Louis is the alma mater of Marcus Mariota, Tua Tagovailoa, Tim Chang and Jason Gesser) is Jayden de Laura, a junior who takes up where Chevan Cordeiro (now at the University of Hawaii) left off.
When quarterbacks coach Vince Passas, who rarely exaggerates, says that de Laura “has all the tools,” it should be enough for any Hawaii fan to realize that the kid has the potential to be just as good or better than those who came before him. And for anyone wondering if de Laura can run as well as pass, let it be known that after the Moanalua scrimmage he was the first one back to the sideline on every sprint.
The Crusaders, as usual, are loaded with talent.
Defensive tackle Faatui Tuitele has 39 D-I college offers. Gino Quinones is another athletic guy in the middle of the line, and Junior Wily leads an impressive group of defensive backs. Linebacker Jordan Botelho is rated in ESPN’s top 300 recruits for the class of 2020, and Ben Scott and Arasi Mose anchor the offensive line.
Tuitele is a proven difference-maker.
“He’s just a great kid to be around,” Lee said. “Personable, good student. Shoot, you wish everybody was like him. Does everything right, humble, works hard. I can’t say enough about him. He’s a good one.”
All eight other OIA-ILH alliance teams will be trying to loosen Saint Louis’ grip on the top hardware in the state tournament’s Open Division. The Crusaders went 10-0 a year ago and own a 15-game winning streak. They open 2018 on Aug. 10 at Aloha Stadium against Waianae, last year’s OIA third-place team. Then it’s an Aug. 17 stadium rematch against California Division 1-A champion Narbonne (Harbor City, Calif.), a team the Crusaders defeated 56-50 in Halawa a year ago. The rest of the way, there is little dip in strength of opponents, if any, with an arduous three-game alliance stretch against OIA runner-up Mililani (Aug. 25), OIA champ Kahuku (Sept. 7) and ILH runner-up Punahou (Sept. 15).
