She never started out in this labor of love with a 10-year plan.
No, when Doris Sullivan got involved with high school athletics, her only goal was to help student-athletes find a compatible college to pursue their dreams.
Along the way, though, she met Darnell Arceneaux, and one of the byproducts of their collaboration was the Pacific Islands Athletic Alliance football combine.
Friday’s event marked the 10th anniversary, and Sullivan, Arceneaux and a top-flight staff that includes former UH players Eddie Klaneski and David Maeva continued the tradition.
"I feel good," Sullivan said, looking fit. "I’ve gone down four dress sizes."
A group of roughly 150 players met on a hot afternoon at Aiea High School field for the series of combine drills, from the bench press to the 40-yard dash to the L-drill, T-drill and vertical leap.
Among them was Saint Louis junior Jeremy Tabuyo, a wide receiver who also is one of the state’s top sprinters in track and field.
Despite a lush, thick field of grass — previous combines were held at the faster synthetic turf at Saint Louis and Aloha Stadium — Tabuyo posted a 4.42 hand-timed mark in his 40. He added a personal best in the vertical jump (35 inches) and bench press (nine times at 185 pounds).
A teammate, defensive lineman Kalei Auelua, bench pressed 225 pounds a total of 20 times to lead his position.
In all, it was a chance to feed on the excitement of new competition, something to break the otherwise monotonous off-season schedule of daily workouts.
In association with PIAA, the combine was followed by the Junior Rank Diamond Flight Camp, which appealed to a number of players who chose to rest up and skip the combine.
"The camp is a new twist. We moved the dates later to get the field use, and everyone’s got their camps this weekend," Sullivan said. "These kids can get invitations to the U.S. Army All-American game or the Junior All-American game. The camp helps them get ready for the other camps and helps them get a better chance to get recruited."
Among them were Punahou’s Steven Lakalaka and DeForest Buckner.
Lakalaka, who has slightly sore hamstrings, didn’t want to overwork himself with both the combine and the camp. He participated in the camp with a renewed focus. It’s been just a few weeks since he gave UCLA an oral commitment to play football.
"Both the academics and athletics are very good. It’s close to home and I talked it over with family and they said UCLA’s the right choice," said Lakalaka, an all-state third-team running back as a junior.
"I’m excited and stoked. I’m taking everything slowly and working hard," the 5-foot-10, 200-pound back said. "I’m trying to persuade my teammates to come to UCLA, too."
One of those teammates is Buckner, a 6-7, 230-pound senior, who has switched back to defensive end from linebacker. Buckner has nine scholarship offers, mostly from Pac-12 schools. Buckner hasn’t been offered yet by Hawaii, he said.
Luke Kaumatule, another 6-7 senior defensive end from Punahou, was there with his younger brother, Canton (6-8, 240).
"It’s a lot of fun," Luke said. "It’s different from football practice, you get to compete with guys from other schools. Every guy here is super good. When I get back to practice, I’ll work with a different type of speed I didn’t have before."
