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Jacob Yoro would not be the University of Hawaii football team’s co-defensive coordinator if he had not decided to walk.
Yoro was admittedly despondent after a knee injury that abbreviated his senior season at Saint Louis School also would end his college-playing career three years later.
“I was at a lost moment in my life,” said Yoro, who grew up in Mililani. “I didn’t know what direction to take. I literally walked down the street and asked Coach Millwood if I could coach with him.”
James Millwood, who was Mililani High’s head football coach at the time, assigned Yoro to coach the linebackers.
“I knew his family, and I followed his career for a long time,” Millwood said. “When he became available to coach, just knowing his character and the type of person he was, I knew he would be a really good coach. He was a great acquisition to our program. The kids really took to him well. You could see he has the communication and motivational skills to get players to play hard.”
Yoro said coaching allowed him to mentor players while “it was my way of being able to feed the competitive juices. I knew my athletic career was over. It was a time of healing for me. The ones who walk away from the game usually go through some sort of grief and some sort of time when they’re trying to find themselves. I was able to find football (as a coach), and fill the void I was having at the time.”
From there, Yoro coached at his alma mater for four seasons, the last two as Saint Louis’ defensive coordinator, when they reached the state championships both years. He then joined Waipahu’s staff as a part-time coach while working at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.
“I knew there was something more that I had to accomplish in my life,” said Yoro, who opted to walk away from the shipyard to pursue his dream of eventually coaching at the NCAA Division I level. “I decided to leave that job and go to Montana Western and take a shot at this career. I knew it was going to be a long shot going to an NAIA school in the middle of Montana. It was not a road most coaches travel to become a Division I coach.”
At Montana Western, he lived in the basement of the defensive coordinator’s house, sleeping on an air mattress. There were December nights when the mercury turned blue. “It got below zero at times,” Yoro said. “That’s where it all started. I loved every minute of it. I was coaching ball full-time and grinding it through.”
In 2010, he joined Division III Pacific, which had reinstated its football program a year earlier. “It was a great place to learn on the job,” said Yoro, who was Pacific’s defensive coordinator for four seasons before ascending to assistant head coach in 2014. “It was a lab essentially. We continued to do experiments there to see what worked and what didn’t work. Eventually, we won a co-championship in (the Northwest Conference).”
He then coached at Cal Poly for two years before joining the Warriors in 2017.
“When I left (for Montana Western), I sought out this dream,” Yoro said. “I never thought I’d get the opportunity to do what I love back home in front of family. There’s only one (college football team) in the entire state, and the odds of me landing this job, when I first sought it out, were pretty low. I had gotten to the point where I accepted I might never coach in front of my family. That was what I was willing to forgo. It’s been a blessing for me to be back here the last three years and being able to stay here, and continue to do these things, and raise my daughter here. I’m thankful.”
Yoro said he accepts the responsibility of being a locally reared coach.
“Any time you’re representing your home state in the home state, it’s important that you do well, that you recruit well, that you carry yourself well, and represent the state the way it should be represented. Especially for the guys who have mentored me along the way. I carry a piece of them with me, and hope I’m representing them well.”
Yoro said he finds inspiration from his father, who was a standout athlete at Saint Louis. Neal Yoro was the starting center for the 1973 Crusaders, whose starting quarterback was Vinny Passas, widely regarded now as a quarterback guru. Passas is Jacob Yoro’s godfather. A couple of years ago, Neal Yoro began experiencing some health issues. But he still was a regular attendee at UH practices the past few years.
“My dad’s my hero,” Yoro said. “Recently, he’s had some struggles in regards to some of his health concerns. It’s definitely inspiring watching him just battle and fight through. He works as much as he can. He’s at every game. He’s around the grandchildren, and being a great grandfather and great husband. That’s not going unnoticed. I’m 40, and he’s still my role model. I still learn stuff from him daily.”
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