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Tokuda’s Leilehua Mules: A Team That Wins With Class

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Long before he became the caretaker of Leilehua football, head varsity coach Nolan Tokuda was already aware of the program’s ultimate goal - turning out kids interested in giving back to the community.

That was never more evident than on the morning of Oct. 13, when Tokuda and his staff and the players hosted the Wahiawa Thunderbolts’Pop Warner team for a football clinic.With the Mules still reeling emotionally from a heart-rending 22-21 defeat to Campbell the night before, Tokuda was quick to remind his team of their off-the-field obligations.

“Michelle Jenks (of the Thunderbolts) had helped to set up a clinic at 9:30, and I asked the kids to be in at 9, a half hour early, so we could talk,” he recalled. “I told the kids, ‘I know some of you are still hurting, but if you show it, the kids will feel it, and that’s not what we want.’ They picked themselves up, did what they had to do, and made it a nice event for the kids.”

The Mules did a good job of picking themselves up off the football carpet as well. Heading into their quarterfinal matchup with Baldwin last weekend in the First Hawaiian Bank State Football Tournament, Leilehua has not lost since, winning three straight en route to an OIA championship - the school’s first football title since 1984. Such seasons are cause for reflection as much as celebration. Indeed, for Tokuda, who is in his fourth season as the Mules’ head coach and his ninth overall at the school, there was no direct line to his position. Entering his senior year at Leilehua in the late ‘80s, it was doubtful he would even play football again for the Mules. An injury-riddled junior year had convinced him that he was better off just playing baseball, which had been his first love.

Enter then-Leilehua football assistant Lino Caling, who offered some not-so-gentle-prodding.

“He said, ‘You’re an athlete and athletes belong on my field,’” Tokuda recalled.“He said,‘If you’re tough like you say you are,then you’ll show up (at football practice) on Monday.’ That made me think. I wanted to prove to him that I belonged on that field.”

Once a player again,Tokuda rarely left the field, starting on both sides of the ball at quarterback and corner back in addition to returning punts and kickoffs for the Mules. He eventually earned a baseball scholarship from UH-Hilo, which was coached by Joey Estrella.

“A lot of people (recruiters) were looking at me, but only he offered (a scholarship),“Tokuda said. “They all said I was too small ... He told me,‘I like your heart and your energy.’”

Reunited with Caling after earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Tokuda soon realized he wanted to coach.

“I was all set to coach at Aiea, I was substitute teaching there, but he told me I should coach at Leilehua and that he would teach me. I never got to tell him before he passed, ‘Thank you for believing in me.’ My way of saying thank you is to give back to these kids.”

In a day and age when Utah goes for an onside kick despite possessing a 43-0 lead over college-foe Wyoming, Tokuda’s holistic approach has revealed the Mules as a team that wins with class. Among the items Tokuda received in the mail this season was one from a Waianae alum,who praised the Leilehua program for “the character of its kids” after attending a game days earlier.

For the present, football fever is in full bloom in Wahiawa. But if not for a late-season attitude adjustment, things might have been a little different in Tokuda’s view.Expectations have always been lofty for the program, dating back to the ‘70s when Hugh Yoshida was head coach.

“He brought the pride back to Wahiawa,“Tokuda said.“Because of that success, this is a football town.”

The Mules were the state tournament runner-up in Tokuda’s first year in 2004, before a 4-5 season in 2005 and a 7-4 finish in 2006. At 4-4 in mid-October, Leilehua’s current season seemed at the crossroads. Self-induced pressure had made it hard for the Mules to get out of their own way.

“A lot of times, the kids were pressing,” Tokuda said. “The 2004 team really set the bar high here.The kids expect to win. Instead of thinking so much about winning, we talked to the kids about playing for the guy next to you, spreading the love to each other, and just having fun. There’s a different feel altogether, and that has obviously gotten us to this point.”