For a brief moment Tuesday the relief in high school football circles was almost palpable and hope was untethered in the wake of the news that Cal Lee was stepping down as head football coach at powerhouse Saint Louis School.
After an unmatched grip of domination — four consecutive state championships (five overall) and 14 Prep Bowl titles — somebody else would be guiding the Crusaders. After 296 wins and an 88% victory clip, maybe the next Interscholastic League of Honolulu and Hawaii High School Athletic Association championships could grace somebody else’s trophy case.
Then came the kicker: The successor is Ron Lee, Cal’s brother, the architect of the Crusaders’ offense for much of that success.
So, for what seems like the umpteenth year, it will continue to be a Lee & Lee production, with Cal continuing to oversee the defense.
It is an arrangement they are said to have been kicking around since the end of the 2019 season, when Ron said Cal decided to give up the myriad head coaching responsibilities.
“I should probably be the one stepping down, not him,” joked Ron, who, at age 75, is three years older. “But I still love it (coaching). I’m still excited when I get up in the morning planning for the practices and the games. I just really look forward to it. And, here at Saint Louis for the last six years and even before that, a lot of good things have been happening to the kids here. It has been exciting to see them prepare for and take that next journey to college with lessons learned through football.”
For Ron, it means remaining at Kalaepohaku, where he was a 1962 graduate, and overseeing Cal for the first time since 1980 at Kaiser, a year after they teamed up to help guide the Cougars to the Prep Bowl title. They worked together as assistants at the University of Hawaii under June Jones and at Kalani High as volunteers on head coach Greg Taguchi’s staff.
“Maybe we’ll bring back Tommy (the eldest Lee brother and a former college head coach) from Montana, too,” Ron quipped.
“You know, he (Cal) is not an easy guy to work with,” Ron said. “But being family we manage. We’re both very demanding. I think that’s tough for all (our) coaches.”
Even in their time away from the field and out of season they invariably huddled over football, talking the game while working the Outrigger Hotel showroom across the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.
“Time flies,” Ron sighed. “I think back to when we started coaching and we were the young guys and the veterans were Johnny Velasco, Alex Kane, Eddie Hamada, (Larry) Ginoza, guys like that. Now, we’re the grandfathers in this game.”
Now, the talk will center on molding a new group of young players into the next wave of Crusaders teams and all that task will entail.
“The bottom line is I think everybody has a chance (to win) this year,” Ron said. “We lost some tremendous players over the last two years and we’re starting over with a lot of young guys. We’re gonna have to do a good job of coaching all the way down the line. It is not going to be easy.”
You suspect those sentiments, however solicitous, are hardly as encouraging to the rest of the teams as that first, brief thought early Tuesday that the Lees might be finally leaving Saint Louis.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
