Kalaepohaku kid

The raw numbers for the first-year starting quarterback at Saint Louis were more than sensational. They were about efficiency, which was no surprise considering Marcus Mariota was a true scholar-athlete.

He finished the 2010 season with 2,597 yards and 32 TDs through the air, completing 165 of 252 attempts with a mere five picks. His passer rating of 189.98 was phenomenal, but factor in 455 rushing yards (8.5 per carry) and seven more TDs, and he was simply impossible to stop.

Mariota never cared about individual numbers. Bringing a state championship trophy back to Kalaepohaku meant everything.

"It’s indescribable. It feels so good. We worked so hard for this," he said moments after the Crusaders (11-1) beat Waianae for the state title. "We had to pay attention and do the small things."

Rewind a bit, and Mariota’s football career was spurred by Pop Warner coaches and teammates at Kahala Field, where he played for the Kalani Falcons.

By middle school, he was finding his way at Saint Louis. By freshman year, he was throwing reps every Sunday in the offseason under the watchful eyes of QB guru Vince Passas at his "Get Better" clinic.

"He was tall and he threw from over the top. Back then, he was about 6-2, 6-3, and the ball was coming out like he’s a 6-5 guy. Now he’s 6-4 and his release (point) is like he’s 6-7," Passas said. "We worked on shortening his release. It’s a game of inches, so the more inches you save, the better chance you have."

They tweaked and tinkered, perfecting that 12 o’clock overhand release, closing the front (left) shoulder and armpit, over and over and over.

"Footwork, yeah, he was amazing. We just worked on sliding in and out, keeping the right shoulder back so he can continuously look downfield versus just scrambling," Passas said.

He put in the work. Mariota was tireless, devoted and never complained about sitting on the bench behind talented, older QBs. It was three years — freshmen are prohibited from playing ILH varsity football — before the patient Mariota started a game.

Head coach Darnell Arceneaux had already guided the program to a state title in his first go-round at his alma mater. He saw a need for some body language adjustment in his QB long before the regular season arrived.

"This was in the offseason, preseason, way before the (regular) season. This was a big learning curve. He’d throw a bad pass and there goes the chin straps. We told him, it can be contagious. Now he’s got composure and understands he’s a leader. He knows the camera will be on him," Arceneaux said. "Those things went away quickly."

With an offer from Oregon sitting on the table, Mariota had a head coach in Arceneaux who wanted to see more vocal leadership from his first-time starter, now a 6-3, 190-pound senior.

"Coach Darnell wanted Marcus to be a guy like him, which we know, that’s never going to happen," Passas said, referring to Arceneaux’s gregarious nature. "But Coach Darnell challenged him. ‘I want you go get in somebody’s face, I want you to yell at him, get all over him. Either that or you’ve got to run 10 gassers after practice.’ So Marcus took the latter and he did the gassers.

Arceneaux, now an assistant coach at Occidental College (Calif.), remembers that day vividly.

"Four or five guys followed him because they thought he was doing some extra work. We had him stop after one or two (gassers). I wanted him to be more assertive and, to his credit, that’s just not the way he was. He was encouraging his teammates, saying, ‘I’ll throw better passes.’ There are different ways for athletes to be pushed and motivated," Arceneaux said. "Sometimes, Vinny would play the good cop and I’d play the bad cop, but Marcus already pushes himself. He looks in the mirror and asks, ‘What can I do to get better?’ "

Mariota simply had his own way of leadership.

"He’s not going to yell at anybody," Passas said. "He’ll talk to ’em and coach ’em up and tell ’em what he saw, or ‘This is what coach wants us to do,’ you know, that kind of deal. But he won’t raise his voice at anyone."

Through it all, he was the unofficial team tutor, often giving up a Sunday at the beach to help teammates with book work. Af the end of his senior year, Mariota was honored by Saint Louis with the Blessed Chaminade Award.