Mustangs To Shore Up Defense In Spring Practice

Del.icio.us

Kalaheo football players (front, from left) Larry Soto, Cody
Von Appen, (back) Bruce Andrews, Shawn Reed, Matt
Gasparine, Kao Malama-Custer and Dillan Hanawahine.
Photo courtesy of Chris Mellor.

Kalaheo head football coach Chris Mellor has never been big on moral victories.

Before his arrival at the school, he had spent 10 years at California’s De La Salle, arguably the nation’s most visible program in the wake of its well-documented 138-game win streak. On-field success was as assured as a California sunrise.

“We’re excited to get back to work - 1-7 isn’t acceptable to us,” said Mellor, whose team began spring practice this week. “We want to focus in on doing a little bit better. In several of the games we lost, we out-gained our opponent, but penalties and mistakes hurt us. I expect us to be more competitive than last year. We’ve improved in every facet.”

Kalaheo’s greater chore may be to develop into a second-half team. They were in most games through halftime last season only to fade over the final 24 minutes, in large part because of low numbers. Kalaheo suited up just 26 players for much of 2006.

“There’s no rest in our league,” he said of the OIA’s East Red Conference.“You have to dig deep and be a warrior. It’s tough physical football.We need iron men who can give more than they think they can. The bottom line: The boys have to prepare themselves to play.”

To that end, he believes the Mustangs are coming off a stellar off-season. The weight training and conditioning program, which began in November only weeks after season’s end, was well-attended. Community support also is noteworthy with $23,000 raised by Mellor to fund the team trip to Saint Mary’s College (CA) in July, where they’ll be in a football camp with seven other schools.

“It will be good for team bonding, and we’ll be able to do a lot of competitive football stuff against good teams,” Mellor said.

Hopes for the upcoming season are bolstered by the return of a veteran cast. “Ninety percent of our team and 90 percent of our starters are back,” he said.

Among the key returnees is quarterback Cody Von Appen, who will be a senior. The son of former UH coach Fred Von Appen and a two-year starter, Cody will direct the veer offense.

“He’s been around the game his whole life - football is second nature to him,” Mellor said. “He’s a coach on the field and a complete person. As a three-year starter, he should be even more comfortable this season. Hopefully, he can close the deal and take us to the next level, which would be a playoff appearance.”

Von Appen will have talented receivers to throw to in seniors Kao Malama-Custer and Bruce Andrews. Mellor calls Andrews, who is a straight-A student,“the fastest kid on our team.

“He and Kao both have 4.5 speed. Bruce is a heavy hitter, and Kao is the strongest kid on the team.“Both will play in the secondary on the defensive side of the ball.

Also back are senior running back(/defensive back) Larry Soto. “He’ll be a major part of our team. A lot of the run game will rest on his shoulders this year.”

While the team rolled up big yardage with their veer offense last fall, Mellor is looking to improve defense. “This year, we want to go in with more of a defensive mind-set,” said the coach, whose team plays a 4-4 base.“It was a weakness last year, so we’ve changed the way we go about practice. We do our defensive sessions first. I’m an offensive guy, but we want to have a ‘defense-first’ mentality.”

Linebackers Dillan Hanawahine and Shawn Reed will anchor the defense.“Both of those guys can be premier linebackers in our league.”

Spring practice began Monday and runs through June 1. They have a two-week period to conduct 10 practices. The Orange and Blue spring game will be at 3:30 p.m.May 30. Kalaheo opens fall camp the first week of August with its pre-season game set Aug. 17 at Nanakuli. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)