A week after New Year’s Day in 2015, the new head football coach at Waipahu heard from an old friend.
It was a dad. Texting about his son. Eric Amorozo texted his son’s former youth football coach, Bryson Carvalho, who had just been hired to guide the varsity program.
It was a pivotal time for Carvalho, who had been an assistant varsity and head JV coach for years. He had moved to the mainland, and didn’t expect to return anytime soon. That changed when he applied for the position and got the thumbs up from administrators.
“My defensive coordinator went to Waianae and I was thinking of calling the defense,” Carvalho said. “But the one thing that made me change my mind was knowing I had a chance to work with Braden on the offensive side.
Braden Amorozo had just completed his freshman season on the JV team. That text from Eric Amorozo was the beginning.
“He said how excited Braden was to play. I remembered him being really smart in sixth grade,” Carvalho recalled.
Braden Amorozo didn’t contain his wits to the gridiron. Now a senior with a 4.0 grade-point average and an infatuation with AP Calculus, Amorozo is the starting quarterback of a program that has risen back to the throne, winning the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II title for the first time since 2011.
“Braden looks like the math team president,” Carvalho said. “He does not look like a quarterback at all, but put on the shoulder pads and the helmet, by God you’ve got a quarterback.”
Work ethic doesn’t differ for Amorozo from the field to the classroom.
“It’s a struggle, but I’m able to maintain that 4.0. I know what I have to do to get my grades. Sometimes, I bomb my tests and it frustrates me at first, but I know I can study harder next time,” he said. “It’s the same thing as sports. AP Calculus offers new dimensions of math that you never knew existed, and engineers need it.”
Carvalho was on the move during the offseason, traveling to the continent for coaching conferences, refining his knowledge of offensive schemes.
“Having the chance to work with Bre, I’ve been having a blast,” he said.
Down 15-0 to Pearl City — the modern-day version of the Super Bowl Baltimore Ravens — in the OIA Division II title game on Thursday, the Marauders could have folded. A defense led by highly coveted college prospect Zion Tupuola-Fetui was throwing a World Series-level shutout on a Waipahu offense that was on the brink of these fine numbers: 400 points scored, a 2,000-yard passer in Amorozo and a 1,000-yard rusher in Alfred Failauga.
Once again, the Marauders proved to be a second-half team. Amorozo demonstrated the ability to snap and clear. Pick-6 in the first half by Pearl City? No problem.
”We knew nothing would be easy, but at one point after the pick-6, I felt that some of my players had doubts and I had a little doubt myself,” Amorozo said. “I shrugged it off and told my coach I was ready.”
The senior slinger found his classmate, Isaac Yamashita, for a game-tying touchdown pass with 3:22 remaining. Amorozo’s younger brother, Brycen, drilled the go-ahead PAT kick. Brycen, a freshman, was in his first varsity game. Waipahu’s 23-22 win marked a new signature moment with Carvalho as head coach.
Amorozo hasn’t been recruited yet, but that big brain has been soaking up concepts and spatial snapshots since he was an 11-year-old QB.
“I remember coaching him at Aloha Stadium, and we’re running basic RPO (run-pass option) with trips. Count the box. If there’s five, we have five linemen and we run. If it’s six in the box, we’ll throw the bubble and score as much as we can,” Carvalho said. “For a sixth-grader to have an option to throw or hand it off, that’s tough, but Bre picked it up.”
Entering this season, Carvalho was specific.
“I gave Braden expectations before the year,” he said. “He wanted an extra copy so he could hang it up in his room. This kid is real special.”
Amorozo’s senior-year numbers pop: 2,197 passing yards, 26 TDs, only six picks. Though RPO gives a QB opportunity to run roughshod, Amorozo prefers to distribute the ball and use the run option as a threat. Four Marauders have hauled in at least 21 passes so far, and the return of Yamashita (shoulder) gives Waipahu another dynamic playmaker.
All season, Carvalho set up a video from last year’s OIA D-II final, when Waialua upset Waipahu 36-35 for the title.
“Coach showed us the video almost every Saturday morning to motivate us, three or four times,” Amorozo said. “He kept telling us it should’ve been our community celebrating. It feels good to finally get it.”
BRADEN AMOROZO
Waipahu football
Senior
Q&A / FAVORITES
>> Athlete: Tom Brady
“He studies the game constantly. I’ve heard stories of him studying film in the middle of the night. That’s the kind of athlete I try to be. I model my game after him. He proves that you don’t have to be the best athlete to be successful at football.”
>> Food (at home): Fried rice
“My mom (Genevieve) and dad (Eric) both make really good fried rice. My dad’s one is usually a lot of meats, like, whatever is in the fridge, usually, bacon, spam, Portuguese sausage, eggs and green onions.”
>> Food (eating out): Rare rib-eye steak
“Usually at Cattle Company in Waimalu.”
>> Hobby outside of sports: Playing ukulele
“I own one and I just play whenever I feel like. In intermediate, I used to take lessons, but when I got to high school I got serious about football. But now I have ukulele class on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. A few of my teammates are in the class, Centennial (Kulikefu) and Alii (Siu-Aelua). We’re pretty good. I think I’m the best out of the group. Alii and Centennial are definitely the best singers among us. We’re building up to perform for the school at end of the year, but it’s tentative.”
>> TV show: “The Walking Dead”
“Me and my dad watched today’s episode and we’re like, it’s going downhill, but we have to keep watching because we’ve been through all the way through this point. It’s our tradition — we watch it every Sunday after we watch football.”
