HondaReport.com - New era of Anuenue football

Anuenue is playing Division II varsity football for the first time, folks. Just a little hunch, but I believe this program is here to stay. Some schools have a quieter, more introverted vibe. Not Anuenue, where an intelligent warrior mentality prevails.

PALOLO — If they could just clone themselves, the new varsity football team in the valley could be huge one day.

Huge in numbers, that is. When Anuenue volleyball coach Clinton Schultz told me two years ago that the tiny new charter school — Hawaiian immersion, to be exact — was planning to start a JV football program soon, I was both stunned and skeptical. After all, in my 16 years of covering prep football, eight were on the Big Island, where many a small school had reopened and shut down football programs. It was an annual event, really, from Henry Opukahaia to Ka‘u to Kohala to Pahoa.

Sure, Oahu doesn't have that merry-go-round of football programs. The similarities, though, couldn't be ignored. Small school, tiny enrollment, no facilities of its own ... but how could I not root for Na Koa to succeed? If you love football enough, there will be a way.

If you know Clinton, you have an idea of the quiet, but tenacious commitment of the leaders of Anuenue. That's why, seeing the team, now a varsity squad, suit up for photo day on a sunny August afternoon at Palolo Field, made me smile.

Sure, the first graduating class doesn't don caps and gowns until 2008. This team has size and confidence, if not experience. That's why I say, if this team of 22 could be cloned in to a squad of 44, it would probably be a lock as a contender in the OIA White Conference.

Anuenue isn't a school for the average kid. Hawaiian is spoken on campus and on the field. Enrollment is not expected to explode any time soon, so coach Kealoha Wengler's team will rely on conditioning and old-school Ironman football to stay competitive.

Talent is there. Kawika Po‘aha is one of several Na Koa players who were on the Palolo Vikings Pop Warner squad that went to the nationals a couple of years ago. Po‘aha sees the irony of facing many of his Palolo teammates when Anuenue meets Kaimuki, now a member of the OIA White, in the regular-season opener on August 26.

For now, though, just getting through practice with a small corps is a challenge for Wengler and his staff. Special teams is not a priority when you're just hoping to have enough bodies for 11-on-11. Besides, there are no goalposts at ancient Palolo Field.

Palolo's Pop Warner program was relatively healthy in the late 1970s. I remember our Boys Club (it wasn't Boys and Girls Club 'til later) team losing at Palolo 20-0, one of our six losses that year. Palolo's program, however, petered out. Maybe it was costs. Perhaps it was a lack of coaches. But the Vikings came back in recent years, giving rise to more development for kids in the area, a feeder for Kaimuki High School.

Now, however, the program is gone. Once Po‘aha and his teammates won their title, that was a fitting close for the coaching staff, as well. "We didn't have that much guys on the Midgets, even the Pee Wees," he recalled.

But Palolo is still a bastion of football talent, thanks largely to the children of Palolo Housing. Former all-state player and current UH Warrior Daniel Tautofi is among the more prominent valley residents. If you stop by nearby Rainbow Mart, a Korean-owned mom-and-pop, Polynesian foods are available.

Football is part of the flavor of this community, and oddly enough, in a country kind of way. There won't be a lot of folks on the North Shore or Central Maui, even Honolulu, who will pay much attention when Kaimuki and Anuenue meet. For Palolo football diehards, however, it will be a clash of valley titans. The only thing I regret is that the game can't be played in Palolo.