Ontai III And His Dad Share A Passion For Football

Wednesday - July 04, 2007
By Jack Danilewicz
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Kapolei’s Cyril Ontai III. Photo from Ontai.
Kapolei’s Cyril Ontai III. Photo from
Ontai.

Like his football idol Ray Lewis, Kapolei’s Cyril Ontai III is always in the attack mode on the playing field.

“He attacks right from the snap of the ball,” Ontai said of Lewis, who plays for the Baltimore Ravens. “He reads the play fast, and he gets there fast.”

That description would neatly summarize Ontai’s game as well. He’s always in close pursuit of the ball. With 5.5 speed in the 40-yard dash, and 194 pounds packed tightly into a 5-foot-1-inch frame, the highly regarded junior-to-be has the skills to take his talents to the college level some day. But that is part of the future, of course. For Ontai, the focus is on Kapolei’s upcoming football season. He switched from safety to weak-side linebacker during the Hurricanes’ recently completed spring season.


Although both he and Kapolei coach Darren Hernandez acknowledge that Ontai will likely be recruited as a defensive back, the shift should allow him to have an even bigger impact for Kapolei this fall. There were no complaints from Ontai, who will be more at the center of action within the Hurricanes’ defense.

“I liked it (switching in the spring) - you’re more free to roam around and look for someone to hit,” said Ontai, who is also a running back for the Hurricanes. “In high school football, unless you’re playing a passing team like Aiea, you get no action at safety. At weak-side linebacker, I get a lot more action. I get to blitz more, and I get a lot more action against the running teams.”

Kapolei is coming off an upand-down 2006 season that ended at 4-6. Along the way, the Hurricanes lost to last-place Radford, but handed Oahu Interscholastic Association Red West regular-season champion Waianae its only defeat.

“I know we’re going to have a great season,” Ontai said of the upcoming season. “We have a lot of young guys, but they’re talented. We’re stacked with guys who are big, fast and strong, and they work well together, and our coaches work really hard to coach us.”

Although one of the team’s acknowledged leaders by example, football was slow to take root for Ontai. “I kind of fell into it,” he said of football. “I played soccer for about five years, and I wanted to be a professional soccer player. Football grew on me. In my first year of playing, when I was 9 years old, I broke my arm pretty quick. In my second year, I played quarterback, and it went well. (From) Then (on) I wanted to play football for the rest of my life. I spend a lot of my time on football. All I train for is football.

“I like the hitting,” he continued. “Football is the most physical sport and the most challenging sport.”

Like most Division II prospects, Ontai’s second home has become the weight room.

“The summer going into high school, I really started focusing on it,” he said of training for football. “I hadn’t lifted weights until the eighth grade. I knew I’d be going up against guys who were going to be stronger and faster than me.”

Ontai has put on 10 pounds of bulk this off-season. He returned recently from football camp at the University of Colorado and will travel to Provo, Utah, next month to take part in BYU’s camp. On the rare occasion Ontai balks at working out, his father, Cyril Ontai II, has enough enthusiasm forthe two of them. The pair share a close relationship.

“He’s the one that started me in football,” Ontai III said of his father.“He pushes me to lift every day, even on the days that I don’t want to. He’s one of our (line-backer) coaches, too, so he’s always keeping his eye on me at practice. I know I have to do good or I’ll get a lecture on the way home,” he added with a laugh.

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