New Waianae football coach Mike Fanoga is bringing his knowledge as a defensive assistant and sometimes coordinator to the Seariders.

The list of coaching stops is a long one for the former UTEP player, including more than 10 colleges.

“I’ve been surrounded by older coaches who have taught me so much,” said Fanoga, who resides in Makakilo with his wife, Soana (maiden name Tupua), who grew up in Hawaii and graduated from Brigham Young-Hawaii.

A year ago, when Fanoga was home during the offseason, he was unofficially helping coach Darren Hernandez at Kapolei and looking for a job.

He’s now got one as the seventh head football coach ever at Waianae.

“This program has always been great,” Fanoga said about Searider Nation. “I used to recruit the area. I hit every school because you never know, you might find a diamond in the rough. There’s always good players coming out of Waianae and the whole state.”

Fanoga is installing what he calls the “Dash” system — discipline, attitude, sacrifice and habits.

Of those, discipline is the most important.

“When we have team meetings, we don’t talk about football,” he said. “We talk about the life surrounding us. Yesterday, I told them football is secondary. What matters is being disciplined when you’re walking on campus, disciplined when you’re taking your hats off, disciplined when you talk to a teacher.”

Kauhi out as Waiakea girls basketball coach

Brandon Kauhi is no longer the girls basketball coach at Waiakea.

Kauhi declined to comment about the school’s decision to release him. He led the Warriors to their first Big Island Interscholastic Federation title since 2008, beating Konawaena once during the regular season — ending the Wildcats’ 124-game win streak in league play — and again in the tournament final.

The Warriors reached the state tournament and lost to Kalani in the quarterfinal round. They finished at No. 6 in the Star-Advertiser Girls Basketball Top 10 and made the state tournament in each of Kauhi’s three seasons.

Damien football set to play Canada team, Lahainaluna

A team from Canada is coming to Hawaii to play against Damien in football this fall, according to Monarchs coach Eddie Klaneski.

Damien, a Division II team, has also scheduled a game against three-time defending Division II state champion Lahainaluna.

The Canada team that will visit is from St. Thomas More Collegiate in Burnaby, B.C. That matchup will be held at Farrington’s Skippa Diaz Stadium on Aug. 31 at 6 p.m.

The Damien vs. Lahainaluna matchup will be the weekend of Aug. 2-3.

Details are still being worked out. It will be the first time the two schools have met on the football field.

“I ran into (Lunas) coach Garret Tihada at an all-star game on Maui and we started talking,” Klaneski said. “I ran it by him and he said they would try to work it out. It turns out they were going to move their game against Kapaa for that weekend to another week anyway, so it became possible to set it up.”