Talk to coaches Amosa Amosa of Campbell and Rich Miano of Kaiser about tonight’s season-opening matchup of their high school alma maters and of course the R-word is in play. The one we’re talking about now is "respect." We’ll get to that other one — "recruiting" — soon.
There’s plenty of mutual admiration to go around between the former University of Hawaii teammates. There’s enough happy talk to — at least on the surface — overshadow a 34-6 trouncing of Kaiser (which finished 7-3) by Campbell (6-4) in Miano’s first game as a high school coach last year, and the fact that two potential Sabers starters have found their way the 32 miles from Ewa Beach to Hawaii Kai and are now Cougars.
Before his solid career on the offensive line at UH, Amosa was a freshman in 1984 who switched to defense briefly because of injuries and illnesses. That’s when he got a good look at the work ethic of Miano, a former walk-on safety who developed into an 11-year NFL player.
"I used to love watching that guy work, such a workhorse," Amosa said. "That’s how he had a long career in the pros, he made the most of his talent. Now he’s bringing his credibility as a college coach to the high school ranks."
Miano remembers Amosa vaguely as a teammate, but more as one of the state’s best high school football coaches over the past 20 years. Amosa was a frequent visitor to the UH football offices for skull sessions with Warrior coaches during the June Jones-Greg McMackin, four-wide offense era, when Miano was the defensive backs coach.
"He’d come to the office next to mine and talk to (offensive coordinator) Ron Lee about the run and shoot," Miano said. "He’s a great role model and has built a strong foundation at Campbell. The kids play hard for him because he’s such a good person. People like him and he’s a perfect fit for that school."
Miano may be the same for Kaiser, where he starred like Amosa did at Campbell. Miano’s homecoming brought energy and passion … and a lot of players from other districts. He said there are "quite a few" district exceptions on his 55-player varsity roster.
"Especially in this day of social media, the kids sell the program," Miano said. "You don’t have to recruit. If they think you’ve got something good, they come to you. What we have here sells itself, including academics. If they’re coming here because we’ve got a great strength coach in Chad Ikei, or maybe because of Rich Miano or our staff, we’re not going to say no, they can’t. I don’t know who they are when they get here; how can I be recruiting them?"
If Kaiser bringing in talent from outside its borders bothers Amosa, even if it is from his district, he’s not saying it publicly.
"My perspective is all the kids have parents and if they’re not getting what they want they’re free to take them wherever they want," he said. "Lots of other coaches are talking about recruiting. But for me, I’m not concerned with that. I just want to focus on our kids, our program.
"We are just approaching this as we always approach the next game on our schedule, as the toughest game on our schedule."
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783 or on Twitter as @dave_reardon.
