Good Turnout For Kalani With New Football Coach Oshiro
By Jack Danilewicz
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Del.icio.usAs first-year head coach Glenn Oshiro and the Kalani High School football team opened fall camp last week, the so-called “transition period” that comes with a coaching change was already in the rear-view mirror.
“The faculty and (athletic director) Gregory Van Cantfort and the community have been really supportive,” said Oshiro. “We’re happy with the cooperation we’ve been getting. It has made the transition smooth.
“I want to thank my girlfriend for being so understanding and supportive, too,” he added.
The Falcons were to don full pads this week (per Hawaii High School Athletic Association rules) in preparation for their pre-season opener, which will begin at about 6:30 p.m. Aug. 19 against the Kalaheo Mustangs at Kaiser Stadium in Hawaii Kai. Hawaii’s high school football teams were allowed only to wear helmets for the first week of fall camp, so conditioning was the No. 1 priority for the Falcons last week.
Kalani is coming off an 0-7 season in 2005, but that didn’t hurt the Falcons’ turnout as 40 varsity players reported on July 31, which is the first official date that teams could practice. Those were encouraging numbers for a program that has been plagued by low turnouts at various times during its long history. As of late last week, Oshiro was expecting a handful more to join the program. “We’re still waiting for some freshmen to come out at the junior varsity level as well,” he said.
“Right now, we’re pretty much trying to get them into football shape,” said Oshiro, who has also coached at Mid-Pacific, Pac-Five, Iolani, Damien, McKinley and Moanalua since breaking into the ranks in 1980. “As far as schemes go, we’ll start installing those next week. But so far, the attitude has been very good here. We have some kids who were busy in summer school, working to maintain their eligibility, so they’ve made that sacrifice, and now they’re working at conditioning. The conditioning part is never easy, but the kids are really working their butts off to get into shape. It’s an exciting time for them.”
Oshiro, who played for Pac-Five during his own high school days, will install the run-and-shoot offense at Kalani, but he’s keeping his defensive plans to himself at this early stage.
“We don’t want to say anything about that - we’d rather people guess for now,” he laughed.
“Right now, the main thing is just keeping the kids focused on learning everything that we’re trying to teach them. We’re still in the evaluation stage.”
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