Saturnio Plays The Role Of Teacher-Coach At Waipahu
By Jack Danilewicz
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The Waipahu Football Nation is catching its collective breath this week during an open date on the OIA White Conference schedule, but what’s coming up ensures that Sean Saturnio’s team will stay in workmanlike mode.
The Marauders play Kalaheo Sept. 25, Pearl City Oct. 1, Kaimuki Oct. 8 and Anuenue Oct. 15 to close out the season, which should give them a say about who wins the White - if they don’t win it themselves.
Kalaheo, Pearl City and Kaimuki all entered their games last weekend still undefeated, while Anuenue has an upset of McKinley on its resume. The Tigers handed Waipahu its lone loss Aug. 28, so Anuenue could be a tough out as well in the regular-season finale.
Saturnio took some time away from his schedule to answer some questions for MidWeek‘s West Oahu Islander.
When did you know you wanted to be a coach? In high school, around the same time as my calling to teach. I grew up with some friends who didn’t have the type of support they needed at home, and because of that they didn’t have a rock-solid foundation on which to build their lives. Along the way, some of them lost their lives, while others have lost their freedom. As I witnessed the choices they were making, it made me wonder what might have happened if they had a strong role model in their lives to guide them. I read The Catcher in the Rye in my senior year, and I was really able to relate to Holden Caulfield. He wanted to stand at the end of a rye field and catch all of the wayward kids before they fell off the edge. I don’t feel that was a coincidence - it helped me realize my purpose in life.
Four weeks into the season, what aspect of your play has pleased you the most? Our kids have been showing great spirit. We’ve played hard all four quarters of every game and have kept an even keel whether we were playing ahead or from behind. In addition, we are seeing fewer mistakes, which shows me that we are growing.
How will you approach your bye week? Is it a good time for it? We’ll use it to work more on the cerebral aspect of being a student-athlete. First and foremost, the academic load increases as the season goes on, and the bye week provides more time to work on the “student” part of the student-athlete.
I know the McKinley game was disappointing for all involved. What positives did you take away from that game as a staff? Any setback provides the opportunity to grow. McKinley played well and did a great job of being opportunistic. As a staff, we liked that our players worked hard until the end. That bodes well because it showed their resiliency in times of adversity. Every mistake we made is fixable, but we need to hone our craft to become better in both technique and assignment responsibilities.
What aspect of your play are you working most to improve on at mid-season? Consistency. Across the board, we have moments where we struggle and moments where we look brilliant. We can’t have wild pendulum swings.
Consistent teams are able to weather the ebb and flow of each game and are often the ones that don’t wait for opportunities, but instead create them.
Waipahu is among the programs that have gone between DI and DII. Do you have a preference? Football is football, no matter where you play. We want our players to be cloaked in an attitude of gratitude ... being thankful for what they have and not too concerned with what they don’t have. That being said, the way teams are selected to be categorized as DI and DII is definitely an imperfect science. I, for one, wouldn’t mind seeing us become more in line with the other states that classify teams by enrollment.
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